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Greetings! You are reading an article from The Mudville Gazette. To reach the front page, with all the latest news and views, click the logo above or "main" below. Thanks for stopping by! April 12, 2009 Easter '06By GreyhawkPreviously: Ancient History "All we do is drive up and down the highways, waiting to be attacked." He was one of forty or so who had helped consume the largest Easter dinner Mrs G has ever made. The daughters had helped in preparation but wouldn't be involved in delivery. That's where I came in - helping transport every serving container we owned from our kitchen into the car, down the autobahn and to the facility where the spillover troops - those whose wounds were minor enough not to require in-patient care at Landstuhl but significant enough to merit evac from Iraq or Afghanistan waited in limbo. Their next destination might be the States, or back to their units "on the front". The majority wanted option two. In the meantime they waited, housed in a dorm in the middle of Germany, visiting the docs but mostly doing very little and probably dwelling much on where they'd been a few days earlier and where they might be tomorrow. For breakfast, lunch, and dinner, the DFAC - a fine facility to be sure. But that particular Sunday Mrs G burst into the dayroom, her husband in tow (in civilian clothes) and a home-made dinner for forty in hand. Most were surprised. Few were there long enough to experience multiple visits from MaryAnn or her partner in crime. And this was just a waypoint, after all - a place where they expected to be forgotten. Instead they were being thanked, but their universal question was inevitably why? Few Soldiers (or sailors or Airmen or Marines) - surrounded most of the time by thousands who are doing exactly what they are doing - are aware they are doing something that sets them apart. Something worthy of thanks in word or deed. Having done my bit for them that day I took repayment - intel on how things were going over there. In getting honest answers it helped that I was between tours myself, had been there before and already knew I was heading back. And these guys could be counted on for the worst possible view - they were, after all, the walking wounded from America's war. Many were relatively undamaged but had been in vehicles with others less fortunate, their seat on the right rather than the left making the difference between home cooked Easter meal and dinner from a tube - or even a last supper. So there they were in limbo with little to do but ponder their existence after dealing with the frustration of administrative details and the limits of medical science and families on the homefront convinced they must be far worse off then their brief communications would claim. And it was 2006. Success in Tal Afar was in the past, unknown to most, and declared unrepeatable by most others. The Samarra mosque bombing was headline material for stories that couldn't fail to mention "civil war" and the American victims caught in the middle. The Anbar Awakening was a few months away, the surge a year out. The war in Iraq was lost. A mistake from the start. The war in Afghanistan was forgotten. Who could possibly paint a grimmer picture than the individuals in the middle of all that? (American "journalists" and their readers or viewers who'd never been in country, of course - but this is a rhetorical question.) And it wasn't a pretty picture - but the worst I heard was the quote that prefaces this account. "All we do is drive up and down the highways, waiting to be attacked." A situation can be bad, but that assessment was grim because it indicated that as bad as it was we weren't really going to be doing anything about it. That was one guy, and I didn't drill for details. I don't doubt for a minute that driving up and down the highway was all he did in Iraq - waiting to be attacked was his choice of additional detail. That was his perception, and it mattered. Whether that was his platoon's mission or his company's or his brigade's I didn't bother asking. And I didn't need to ask why that's what he did - they were keeping the roads open for convoys. Why? So the FOB could be supplied. Why? Because there were soldiers there. What were they doing there? They were keeping the road open... And the circle goes on and on, and I knew it and didn't have to ask. The answer was in his eyes and tone of voice when he replied. And he was tired (though not hungry) and didn't know where he would be in a week - home in the States or running route clearance in Iraq, waiting for another flash boom that would mean he wouldn't make it to the DFAC that night, would miss out on enjoying the food that couldn't have been delivered without him... And after a while the crowd dwindled and the wife and I cleaned up the dishes and packed them away and went home to an Easter dinner of our own. And that was Easter, 2006. Things are better over there now, of course. Which means that the guys who went back and made that happen are less on the minds of their countrymen than ever before. Funny how that happens. "Dinner's ready", the wife just called from our kitchen in America on Easter in 2009. So Happy Easter from our house to yours. More to follow... Posted by Greyhawk / April 12, 2009 11:14 AM | Permalink 3 Comments |
March 19, 2010Dawn Patrol 03/19/2003 [Greyhawk]
"Welcome to the Dawn Patrol, our daily roundup of information on the War on Terror and other topics - from the MilBlogs and various sources around the world." Mudville was founded in March, 2003. Our efforts to bring the thoughts, words, and deeds of milbloggers to a wider world evolved to become The Dawn Patrol in March, 2005. With today's entry we're going to reset the clock - but not re-write the history - and recreate the world as it was - on a day the world changed...
Updating... more to follow.... MILBOGSAndrew Olmsted, 19 Mar 2003, Stateside: It would appear that the liberation of Iraq has begun. Greyhawk, 18 Mar 2003, Germany: A united world could have, just maybe, brought down Saddam without firing a shot. We will never know. 19 Mar: We'll never know what a united world could have achieved... the UN could not agree on anything, the situation degenerated, and here we are. Status quo was not working. The French were too desperate for oil and trade at any cost. Well-intentioned Americans were led into the streets by Communists (and others) with an agenda. The media distorted the split. Many in America and abroad thought they could manipulate the situation to their personal gain. They miscalculated. The fire is lit. Pontifx ex Machina, 18 Mar, undisclosed location: Rolling out the gate, the guard gets a quick "hook-em, horns" sign as we weave through the barricades. Then we're off, cruising through the desert in a battered-up SUV. On the eve of war, only one thing passes through our minds: is there going to be any appropriate music on the radio? Lt Smash, 19 Mar, undisclosed location: Read the President's speech today. The clock is ticking. Chief Wiggles, 22 Mar, Kuwait: The war started Wednesday morning for us right after the president gave a speech to the American people that lasted about 4 minutes. We were all very anxious for this whole thing to be either over or get it on its way. Will, 22 Mar, en route: I am going to Baghdad to personally shoot that paper hanging son of a bitch! Lt Smash 20 Mar, undisclosed location: Sgt Stryker, 20 Mar, Stateside: Iraq to File U.N. Complaint About Attack Primary Main Objective, 30 Mar, undisclosed location I Dare Kofi to Come Get Me.
BruceR, Flit, 19 Mar, Canada: AND SO IT BEGINS. Godspeed, Yanks. Come home safe and soon. Andrew Olmsted, 20 Mar 2003, Stateside: The most important thing to remember over the next few days is this: the first reports are almost always inaccurate. First reports are generally submitted in the heat of battle before any real analysis can take place. Therefore, they're highly subjective, based on limited information, and rarely hit the mark. So as the first reports of 'surgical strikes' on Iraqi forces come in, it's best to take those reports with a grain of salt... Iraqi BlogsSalam Pax, Baghdad: The bombing aould come and go in waves, nothing too heavy and not yet comparable to what was going on in 91. all radio and TV stations are still on and while the air raid began the Iraqi TV was showing patriotic songs and didn't even bother to inform viewers that we are under attack. at the moment they are re-airing yesterday's interview with the minister of interior affairs. THe sounds of the anti-aircarft artillery is still louder than the booms and bangs which means that they are still far from where we live, but the images we saw on Al Arabia news channel showed a building burning near one of my aunts house... American BlogsGlenn Reynolds has a ton of links. Newpapers
Updating... more to follow.... |
The Mudville Gazette is the on-line voice of an American warrior and his wife who stands by him. They prefer to see peaceful change render force of arms unnecessary. Until that day they stand fast with those who struggle for freedom, strike for reason, and pray for a better tomorrow.
![]() I like having visitors to my house. I hope you are entertained. I fight for your right to free speech, and am thrilled when you exercise said rights here. Comments and e-mails are welcome, but all such communication is to be assumed to be 1)the original work of any who initiate said communication and 2)the property of the Mudville Gazette, with free use granted thereto for publication in electronic or written form. If you do NOT wish to have your message posted, write "CONFIDENTIAL" in the subject line of your email. Original content copyright © 2003 - 2009 by Greyhawk. Fair, not-for-profit use of said material by others is encouraged, as long as acknowledgement and credit is given, to include the url of the original source post. Other arrangements can be made as needed. Contact: greyhawk at mudvillegazette dot com ![]() |
Easter '09
Captain Phillips freed from the pirates.
3 of 4 pirates killed, 1 pirate captured.
BZ to the US Navy
Happy Easter back to you and your family. You rock!
Thanks for that trip down memory lane. When I think back and compare the spring of 2006 with the spring of 2007 in my mind there were a lot of similarities: High numbers of patients, people were tired, etc. But there was one big difference: In 2007 - in spite of all the difficulties - we had hope. It was tangible; you could feel it. It made you suck it up and go on.
Happy Easter, Greyhawks.