Wearing the Black Flag (4)

The story began here, previous chapter here.

We've discussed books quite a bit throughout this rambling narrative - but now the time has come to pause briefly for film study.

Hate to do it, but I'm going to put the test up front. It's just one question though, and if you get it wrong, no problem. Here goes:

The following films from 1946 were nominated for the 'Best Picture' Academy Award:

It's a Wonderful Life (Liberty Films; RKO Radio)
The Best Years of Our Lives (Goldwyn; RKO Radio)
Henry V (J. Arthur Rank-Two Cities Films; United Artists)
The Razor's Edge (Twentieth Century-Fox)
The Yearling (MGM)

Which one won?

(I'll simplify - it wasn't Henry V. Sequels rarely win Oscars...)

(Yes, that last line was a joke.)

One of the obscene amenities available to us G.I.s lounging around over here in Iraq is a huge supply of DVD's available at (ahem) very reasonable prices from local vendors. In addition to just about every hot new movie released in theaters up to yesterday we can obtain disks with multiple older features. Some are conglomerations of Oscar-winners, and the other day for a whopping 2 dollars I picked up one that included Citizen Kane, Gone with the Wind, Casablanca, and a few other gems - including the winner from the list above: The Best Years of Our Lives.

In fact, I bought it because it included that movie. I'd heard about it but never seen it - and I'll be damned if it didn't turn out to be as good as the rest of the films on the disc. Worth the cost by itself, I'm sayin'.

If you haven't seen it and want to read the entire plot, here it is. I would advise against it, however. In fact, I'd urge you to buy it and watch it for yourself - you probably aren't going to find this mostly-forgotten classic at your local rental store.

In the meantime, while I'm going to quote from the above link here, I'm not going to offer anything that will spoil your enjoyment of the movie - so read on without concern.

The film follows the lives of three servicemen returning to the same home town after World War Two, a soldier, an airman, and a sailor (the picture waves and blurs and fades, then)...

The film begins abruptly with a long interior shot of an airport terminal, where returning-from-overseas serviceman Fred Derry (Dana Andrews) lugs his belongings and crosses a map of America on the floor. The war hero inquires at a receptionist's desk about flights to his hometown of Boone City [supposedly patterned after Cincinnati], and is told rather curtly: "Three scheduled daily flights sir, but there's no space available right now...We could probably get you on flight 37 on the 19th." A businessman next to him (with a black porter handling his luggage and heavy bag of golf clubs) requests his airlines ticket which was pre-ordered and arranged by his secretary. The passenger is promptly handed his ticket and told he has sixteen pounds of excess baggage. He reaches for his wallet: "Oh, that's all right, how much is it?" Transportation shortages don't seem to affect everyday civilians as much as returning soldiers.

It is suggested that Fred find a ride on the ATC (Air Transport Command) of the Army Air Forces. In the ramshackle interior of the Army terminal's lounge, many other uniformed veterans have been waiting for the few available flights to their destinations. Fred and two other veterans, Homer Parrish (Harold Russell) and a graying Army Sergeant Al Stephenson (Fredric March), are placed on a long B-17 bomber flight with many intermediary stops for a two-day journey to Boone City. Parrish, a young Naval seaman, reveals that he lost both hands in combat - prosthetic, articulated hooks are replacements - when he signs the passenger list. They are relieved to be returning home after "a couple of centuries."

In the film's first major opening sequence, the three share cramped space on board a soon-to-be retired Air Force bomber in its observation cone, as it flies at low-level across America...

Much-decorated for his war effort, Fred was an Air Force bombadier/captain during the war and spent most of his time in the nose of a bomber: "This used to be my office...I spent a lot of time on my knees up there." The boyish-looking Homer has remarkable dexterity - he lifts an offered cigarette from Fred's pack with the mechanical hooks, strikes a match on a matchbook, and lights all their cigarettes - he quips: "Boy, you ought to see me open a bottle of beer." Homer's memories of his experiences as a sailor and the torpedo explosion that caused him to lose both hands are shared in an upbeat tone - except for some mixed uncertainties and fears about returning home to his next-door girlfriend Wilma

Harold Russell was born in Canada and moved to Massachusetts with his family in 1933. In 1941, he was so profoundly affected by the December 7th attack on Pearl Harbor that he enlisted in the Army on the following day, December 8.

While an Army instructor, and training with the U.S. 13th Airborne Division stateside in 1944, a defective fuse detonated an explosive he was handling while making a training film. As a result, he lost both hands and was given two hooks to serve as hands. After his recovery, and while attending Boston University as a full-time student, an Army film called Diary of a Sergeant about rehabilitating war veterans was made featuring Russell.

When film director William Wyler saw the film on Russell, he cast him in the film The Best Years of Our Lives starring Fredric March and Myrna Loy. Russell played the role of Homer Parrish, a sailor who lost both hands during the War.

For his role as Parrish, Russell won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1947. Earlier in the ceremony, he was awarded an honorary Oscar for "bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans." The special award had been created because the Board of Governors very much wanted to salute Russell, a non-professional actor, but assumed he had little chance for a competitive win. It is the only time the Academy has awarded two Oscars for the same role.

And now back to our feature presentation:

Homer: I didn't see much of the war...I was stationed in a repair shop below decks. Oh, I was in plenty of battles, but I never saw a Jap or heard a shell coming at me. When we were sunk, all I know is there was a lot of fire and explosions. And I was on the topsides and overboard. And I was burned. When I came to, I was on a cruiser. My hands were off. After that, I had it easy...That's what I said. They took care of me fine. They trained me to use these things. I can dial telephones, I can drive a car, I can even put nickels in the jukebox. I'm all right, but...well, you see, I've got a girl.

Fred: She knows what happened to ya, doesn't she?

Homer: Sure, they all know. They don't know what these things look like.

Al: What's your girl's name, Homer?

Homer: Wilma. She and I went to high school together.

Al: I'll bet Wilma's a swell girl.

Homer: She is.

Fred: Then it will be all right, sailor. You wait and see.

Homer: Yeah, wait and see. Wilma's only a kid. She's never seen anything like these hooks.
<...>
Fred: Do you remember what it felt like when we went overseas?

Al: As well as I remember my own name.

Fred: I feel the same way now - only more so.

Al: I know what you mean.

Fred: Just nervous out of the service, I guess.

Al: The thing that scares me most is that everybody is gonna try to rehabilitate me.

Later, after the three have made it home, Fred meets Al's daughter Peggy...

Peggy: What d'ya do before the war, Fred?

Fred: I was a fountain attendant...soda jerk...Surprised?

Peggy: Yes, a little. I betcha you mixed up a fine ice cream soda.

Fred: You're darn right. I was an expert behind that fountain. I used to toss a scoop of ice cream in the air, adjust for wind drift, velocity, altitude. Then wham, in the cone every time. I figured that's where I really learned to drop bombs.

Peggy: What do you think you'll do now?

Fred: I'm not going back to that drugstore. Somehow or other, I can't figure myself getting excited about a root beer float. I don't know just what I will do. I'm gonna take plenty of time looking around.

Lot's of foreshadowing in the first moments of the movie. Foreshadowing, we learn in film study, is where someone says something like that mere moments before they do this...

Fred revisits the drugstore where he was a fountain soda jerk - it looks unfamiliar to him because it was "sold out" to the Midway chain during his absence. He passes dozens of women shopping for perfume and other novelty counter items (rampant, crass advertisements and sale signs hang in the store) as he makes his way to the prescriptions section at the rear of the store. While Mr. Bullard (Erskine Sanford), the former owner and his former employer, explains the sell-out to the big chain, two other drugstore employees make contrasting comments about the typical serviceman's employment prospects in the post-war economy and marketplace:

Man: I'll bet he's back looking for a job.

Woman: And he'll get it too with all those ribbons on his chest.

Man: Well, nobody's job is safe with all these servicemen crowding in.

Mr. Thorpe (Howland Chamberlin), the new store manager whose office is perched above, explains how the chain is under "no legal obligation" to give him his old position back. Without qualifying job skills or experience (other than two years behind a soda fountain and three years targeting bombsites), Fred is not experienced in "procurement - purchasing of supplies, materials" or "personnel work." Quite plainly, Fred replies: "I didn't do any of that. I just dropped bombs...I was only responsible for getting the bombs on the target. I didn't command anybody." It is tragically and bluntly implied that his best years were in the Air Force:

Mr. Thorpe: Unfortunately, we've no opportunities for that with Midway Drugs. However, we might be able to provide an opening for you as an assistant to Mr. Merkle, the floor manager...Incidentally, your work would require part-time duties at the soda fountain.

Fred: At what salary?

Mr. Thorpe: Thirty-two fifty per week.

Fred: Thirty-two fifty. I used to make over four hundred dollars a month in the Air Force.

Mr. Thorpe: The war is over, Derry.

Meanwhile,

Al's prospects at his former place of employment are much more promising. At the Cornbelt Trust Company, Al is told that there is "considerable uncertainty in the business picture. Strikes, taxes still ruin us...Oh, things will readjust themselves in time. We want you back here in the saddle." Mr. Milton offers him advancement as Vice President in charge of a new department (small loans to veterans) at a salary of $12,000 a year:

"You're the man for it...Your war experience will prove invaluable to us here. See, we have many new problems. This GI Bill of Rights, for instance. It involves us in consideration of all kinds of loans to ex-servicemen. We need a man who understands the soldier's problems. And at the same time, who's well grounded in the fundamental principles of sound banking. In other words, you."

At the elegant welcome-home banquet attended by stuffy bankers and their wives, Al is honored by Mr. Milton as "one who has valiantly fought for that freedom" to have a "land of unlimited opportunity for all." Milly has been keeping track of her husband's drink count by making hash marks in the tablecloth with the tines of her fork. Already soused, Al delivers a two-faced, wartime parable to rectify himself in front of his astonished, skeptical audience about how battles and wars are not won by first demanding collateral from Uncle Sam. He asks his associates to show more tolerance and acceptance toward the less privileged veterans returning from the war:

I'm sure you'll all agree with me if I said that now is the time for all of us to stop all this nonsense, face facts, get down to brass tacks, forget about the war and go fishing. But I'm not gonna say it. I'm just going to sum the whole thing up in one word. [Milly coughs loudly to caution him - worrying that he will tell off the boss.] My wife doesn't think I'd better sum it up in that one word. I want to tell you all that the reason for my success as a Sergeant is due primarily to my previous training in the Cornbelt Loan and Trust Company. The knowledge I acquired in the good ol' bank I applied to my problems in the infantry. For instance, one day in Okinawa, a Major comes up to me and he says, 'Stephenson, you see that hill?' 'Yes sir, I see it.' 'All right,' he said. 'You and your platoon will attack said hill and take it.' So I said to the Major, 'but that operation involves considerable risk. We haven't sufficient collateral.' 'I'm aware of that,' said the Major, 'but the fact remains that there's the hill and you are the guys that are going to take it.' So I said to him, 'I'm sorry Major, no collateral, no hill.' So we didn't take the hill and we lost the war.' I think that little story has considerable significance, but I've forgotten what it is. And now in conclusion, I'd like to tell you a humorous anecdote. I know several humorous anecdotes, but I can't think of any way to clean them up, so I'll only say this much. I love the Cornbelt Loan and Trust Company. There are some who say that the old bank is suffering from hardening of the arteries and of the heart. I refuse to listen to such radical talk. I say that our bank is alive, it's generous, it's human, and we're going to have such a line of customers seeking and getting small loans that people will think we're gambling with the depositors' money. And we will be. We will be gambling on the future of this country. I thank you.

And it shouldn't be.

Okay - one final look at our heroes returning to civilian life. (Turn the volume up a bit here...)

At the soda fountain in the drugstore, where Fred has returned to work from Butch's Place, Homer joins him at the counter.
A disgruntled, radical-leaning customer (Ray Teal) asks the good-natured, jovial Homer a "personal question" about his hooks, and then loudly and scornfully criticizes the integrity of the country's leaders who led servicemen into a senseless, worthless war:

Homer: I know what it is. How did I get these hooks and how do they work? That's what everybody says when they start off with 'Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?' Well, I'll tell ya. I got sick and tired of that old pair of hands I had. You know, an awful lot of trouble washing them and manicuring my nails. So I traded them in for a pair of these latest models. They work by radar. Look. (He takes a scoop of his ice cream sundae with a spoon.) Pretty cute, hey?
Customer: You got plenty of guts. It's terrible when you see a guy like you that had to sacrifice himself - and for what?

Homer: And for what? I don't getcha Mister?

Customer: ...We let ourselves get sold down the river. We were pushed into war.

Homer: Sure, by the Japs and the Nazis so we had...

Customer: No, the Germans and the Japs had nothing against us. They just wanted to fight the Limies and the Reds. And they would have whipped 'em too if we didn't get deceived into it by a bunch of radicals in Washington.

Homer: What are you talkin' about?

Customer: We fought the wrong people, that's all. (Pointing at his newspaper, with headlines: "SENATOR WARNS OF NEW WAR")
Just read the facts, my friend. Find out for yourself why you had to lose your hands. And then go out and do something about it.

Overhearing their discussion, Fred intervenes and firmly asks the haranguing customer, who espouses "plain, old-fashioned Americanism," to pay and leave. When Homer and the man continue their disagreement and begin scuffling at the cash register...

Heh - I told you you'd want to get this for yourself
I just wanted to point out once again that there's nothing new under the sun.

Okay - just because I'm a nice guy:

...Fred punches the customer in the mouth - sending him crashing into a glass case.

We'd get "rehabilitated" if we did.

Next: Standing in the Gardens of Stone

Wearing the Black Flag (3)

The story began here. Latest chapter here.

Speaking of the Petraeus report....

It seems that those who routinely feed from the various toilets along the left wing information sewer are currently being instructed how to feel about said upcoming report. (Not think, mind you, but feel. Feel might not be exactly the right word either, but it's closer to it than thinking, which is an altogether different process.) It's a pretty slick trick - once again begging the question "are the people who write this stuff ignorant, or do they just think their readers are?"

The answer, of course, is inconsequential.

Which explains this:

A majority of Americans don't trust the upcoming report by the Army's top commander in Iraq on the progress of the war and even if they did, it wouldn't change their mind, according to a new poll.

Flashback:

A Tactical Operations Center in Iraq is a place where the oldest of military "technology" meets the newest. In some locations it's actually located in a building, in many others it's a tent - a wood floored, air conditioned work space for a lot of folks whose job it is to monitor everything happening in their battlespace 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Communications feeds from a dizzying amount of sources run via wireless and wire into a multitude of computers and viewing systems, and from there through the eyes and into the protein data banks of highly trained and specialized individuals who will further process the data and determine what of all this does the boss need to know?

It's a big tent.

Source one: Man down. Location.

Source two: We are ready to respond.

Source three: Weather is below minimums.

"How bad is it? Will it clear soon?"

In a corner a computer screen displays a satellite view, one tweaked to reveal the spread of dust just above the surface of the earth. It will not improve for hours - but it won't get worse either. How bad is it? Doable - just barely - but bad enough that authorization must come from higher.

Elsewhere: A group of Americans clusters around a fallen member of their team. They've done what they could for him - stabilized him to the best of their training. Started an IV. Moved to a location where a helicopter can land. Now they wait. Minutes pass like hours.

The battle Captain makes the call to higher. Higher consults a staff weather officer. Higher gives okay.

It's now up to the crew. They can declare the situation too risky at their discretion at any time during execution. They make their own final and very brief check with the weather guy. He tells them nothing reassuring - just the facts.

Then they very quickly go. Did you think it would be otherwise? Minutes after they leave the TOC the sound of helicopters pounding the air into submission can be heard. They lift off, lights on, but only for the brief amount of time they are in "friendly" air space.

There is one thing "good" about flying in such conditions - you aren't sharing air space with any other craft. So you don't have to worry about the other guys buzzing in from nowhere and accidentally bumping you to the ground.

Because you'd have to be crazy to be out flying at a time like this.

They pass over the wire about 10 seconds after launch, and the lights wink out. The noise of the rotors fades.

Back in 2004, as U.S. forces preparred to clear Fallujah, the New York Times took great pains to point out that the Real Problem was Ramadi:

RAMADI, Iraq, Oct. 21 - The American military and the interim Iraqi government are quickly losing control of this provincial capital, which is larger and strategically more important than its sister city of Falluja, say local officials, clerics, tribal sheiks and officers with the United States Marines.

Major General Rick Lynch, Commanding General, Multi-National Division Central:

General Odierno has charged Task Force Marne with securing the areas south and east of Baghdad and stopping the flow of weapons and violence through those areas. We're committing troops to these neighborhoods, and with the help of the Iraqi army and the police, demonstrating to the Iraqi people that we're not leaving until they have security and they're capable of maintaining it through their own efforts.

And that's what's happening as we work these surge operations. We get to an area, the locals there, the first question they ask is, "Are you staying?" And once they're convinced we're staying, the question then becomes, "How can we help?" What we see as a result of that commitment is Iraqi citizens are coming forward and they're indeed saying, "What can we do to help?"

Over the last four months, we've seen an interesting shift. Iraqi citizens are coming to us to provide information. These citizens are speaking up about what they've seen, they're talking about what they've heard and about any activity that jeopardizes the rebuilding of their country.

From that, we're now having concerned citizens programs operating in both Sunni and Shi'a areas alike, with local Iraqis manning checkpoints and giving us important information on insurgents and weapons caches, and that's led to a dramatic turnaround in the security situation in some areas; not all the areas, but in some areas.

This upswell of almost 10,000 concerned citizens has enabled our soldiers to go in and restore normalcy as much as possible to these communities. With our help, the Iraqis are starting to realize that they can establish order and accountability in their lives.
<...>
we're continuing to take the fight to the enemy throughout our area. On August the 15th, we've launched -- we launched Operation Marne Husky to disrupt extremists who fled our earlier offensive and moved into the Tigris River Valley south of Baghdad. This is an area that hasn't seen coalition troops in over two years. Think about that. And this is a result of the surge.

We did Marne Torch starting on the 15th of June, shifted to Marne Avalanche on the 15th of July, and now we're doing Marne Husky, so the enemy's got no place to hide and he's continuing to be on the run. The area we're fighting in now was an extremist safe haven, and we indeed have the enemy on the run in those areas.

All those previous operations I talked about -- Marne Torch, Marne Avalanche -- drove these bad guys out of areas like Arab Jabour and Iskandariyah. And now we're pursuing them, not letting them resettle and regroup. Because if they don't have the time to breathe, they don't have time to attack the Iraqi people or our troops. This is tactical momentum and it's in our favor. And we're pressing our advantage around Baghdad, and that's a good position to be in.

And that brings me to another topic: the effect of the troop surge in my area of responsibility. As I said before, we assumed this mission about four-and-a-half months ago. My last brigade combat team closed in as part of the surge into Iraq in early June. Since we arrived, we've been implementing the plan, and what's been accomplished so far has been surprising in its implications.

Residents of former al Qaeda safe havens have flipped to the side with the coalition forces against the enemy. And with the security that's resulted, we've seen the Iraqi people benefit from a window for reconstruction and the growth of local leadership. Overall attacks are down by 26 percent in Multinational Division-Center. Civilian casualties have decreased by 36 percent.

Since the 15th of June, we have killed or captured 16 high-value individuals throughout our battlespace. Removing these leaders not only weakens the enemy network but also keeps pressure on the remaining elements and shows them we will continue to hunt them down if they continue their activities. In addition to that, we have either killed or captured now 1,000 of the enemy insurgents.

In the absence of violence, growth has taken place at the local level. And with the nurturing of the concerned citizens groups, the Iraqi people are helping us consolidate our gains in security by stepping up and taking responsibility for securing their own town.
<...>
Some final thoughts before I take your questions. I'm proud of the contributions our soldiers have made helping Iraqi citizens have a future filled with hope and opportunity and not with oppression and despair. This is not easy and not for certain, but it is possible. And working together, it could all be a reality. Our soldiers continually rise to the occasion, putting their heart and their soul on the line for their brothers in arms and for freedom. Every day, they commit extraordinary acts of valor, and you should be so very proud of them.

Of course, the new Real Problem is the Iraqi Government...

Levin, while saying military progress was being made, said the troop build-up could not be considered a success because its purpose was to make way for political reconciliation, and that hasn't happened.

"The only hope is if they take the responsibility onto themselves and we end the open-ended military commitment," Levin, of Michigan, said Sunday on CNN's "Late Edition."

Reed, a Rhode Island senator who visited Iraq last month, said there's been tactical momentum, but it "has yet to translate itself into real political momentum, which is the key, I think, to progress."

Durbin, an Illinois senator who is traveling this week with Pennsylvania Sen. Casey, told CNN on Wednesday that "naturally" troops are routing out al-Qaida in parts of Iraq, but then explained there's no evidence of the government in the areas.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, told CNN in an interview Thursday that the surge in Iraq "has not accomplished its goal," and the first item on her agenda after the recess will be the war in Iraq.

When the House reconvenes in September, Pelosi says Iraq will be "front and center."

Q And the second one is, there's been some confusion about the whens, hows, wherefores of the Crocker-Petraeus testimony to Congress. Can you say when they're going to testify before Congress and under what conditions?

MR. JOHNDROE: Yes. General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker will testify in open hearings on the Hill. Administration officials are reaching out to Hill leadership today to discuss with them the potential dates for that testimony. Given the tight schedule leading up to September 15th and the congressional recess with Rosh Hashanah coming up, the likely dates for testimony are September 11th and 12th.

The story continues here.

Wearing the Black Flag

Previously:
Fathers Day
Circulation
The Boo Radleys

Wearing the Black Flag

A sight for west coast night owls tonight:

You've heard of a blue moon, but how about a red one?

Early Tuesday - if you've got insomnia or the inclination to be awake about 3:37 a.m. - you should be able to see a coppery red hue on a shaded moon.

One of the greatest lunar eclipses in years will begin just a few hours after midnight, and the West Coast will have one of the best seats in the global house.
<...>
Early Tuesday, the moon will gradually darken as the Earth's shadow falls upon it, but it won't appear completely black, said Andrew Fraknoi, chairman of the astronomy program at Foothill College. Light bent through the Earth's atmosphere will give the orb a dull brown or reddish glow. The exact color is determined by how dirty the atmosphere is - whether volcanoes have recently erupted and how much cloud cover, storm activity and human pollution there is, Fraknoi said.
<...>
"This will be a magical eclipse out your way," said Jim Garvin, chief scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. The view on the East Coast, he said, won't be nearly as spectacular, and only observers to the west of the Rocky Mountains will be treated to the entire event. The show won't be visible at all from Europe, Africa or western Asia.

But oddly enough, I saw a red moon on my last tour here.

The moon was eclipsed over Baghdad in the pre-dawn hours this morning. Just prior to setting the disk was completely in shadow, an awesome sight low above the horizon. We knew it would happen, of course, absolutely inevitable and completely predictable, astronomy having come a long way from the earliest days... here in the cradle of civilization.

That full moon marks the mid-point of Ramadan. For all the talk of violence and pre-election attacks the month has been relatively quiet. Certainly not without incident, but nothing like the worst that so many expected. We're half way through the month, so there's another way to look at the situation: there are still a few weeks to go.

Of course, it wasn't 2004 in the Muslim world. Their years are not our years, and their calendar is a lunar calendar, so the months don't match our months, either. They begin with the first appearance of the new moon in the sky, so once the current full moon wanes and vanishes then returns, a new month will begin in Iraq. That month will be Ramadan, and it will commence at approximately the same time that General Petraeus delivers his report to Washington.

More about that later. For now...

...back to our on-going narrative...

Flashback:

There is a near-permanent quality to the air in Iraq - though perhaps lack of quality is a better description.
Smoke from factories, smoke from battles, smoke from the burning of crops...

Exhaust from vehicles, many new, many more some years from professional repair...

...all mix with the dust and sand lifted up from the ground by the winds, or the passing of those same vehicles, or the tread of a million feet, to form a near-permanent haze that obscures the view of things at distances at which they should be plainly seen. Outlines blur and colors vanish and everything takes the hue of the desert until somewhere in the all-too-near horizon the earth merges with the sky at a point undeterminable to the human eye.

That's on most days...

On others the real dust rolls through, and visibility is limited to hundreds of feet - or even tens. If you've been following the story I've woven throughout this ongoing ramble, you might suspect that it's a story of one of those days.

You would be right.

And one fine night I sat in a passenger terminal and waited for my flight home. Said passenger terminal would have had the average American swearing to never fly again - a tent with a wooden floor and benches - but also with the ever-present big-screen TV along one wall (once again the obscene amenities rear their ugly little heads).

And eventually the official word came down: all flights cancelled. The dust from Syria had spread wide enough and far enough and with enough intensity to lower visibility to the point where routine aircraft operation would be hazardous beyond the point of acceptable risk. I would remain away from my home away from home for at least 24 more hours.

I had a place to sleep, and nothing to do. And I wondered for a moment about the guy who was supposed to go on emergency leave, who had taken my seat on my original ride, and who's flight was cancelled as well. I'd never met him - or her - but I know that there are many reasons for emergency leave to be approved in time of war.

None of them are good.

There is an ever-present quality to the breeze on a hot day in Iraq. If you've ever stepped too close to a large fire, to that point where you feel uncomfortable and instinctively taken that small step back to your comfort zone you know what I'm talking about. It's the sort of heat that produces an immediate sweat, and then evaporates it just as fast.

In Iraq, as opposed to near a fire, that small step back gains you nothing.

And then the sun sets, but the heat persists.

I stepped out into the night. The heat was there waiting, and darkness near complete. No lights illuminated this desert outpost, and silence was broken only by the ever-present hum of generators in the distance, a background noise at any camp and one you scarcely hear until they stop and the roaring silence announces that something's wrong. But that was not tonight's problem. Tonight, above, the dust had blotted out the stars.

And that would only be part of the problem.

I wandered into the TOC, because it was nearby, and because I could, and because I was tired of watching the news and wanted to see what was going on in the war. I hoped the answer was "not much".

I was wrong.

Some time earlier that day, somewhere far to the west, the heat of the sun warmed the desert sands. Spots became like small furnaces, and where the heat was greatest the air began to rise and air pressure began to fall, then air from near locations began to move to those hot spots, and twist and turn and dance along the way, lifting dust and sand as it passed and dragging it along with it as it joined the upward currents, taking some of the ground to become part of the sky.

Had you been standing on the Iraq/Syria border at that moment and glanced upward, you'd have seen the vanguard of an invasion of a sort. Dust and sand lifted by heat and wind, high enough to be driven rapidly eastward by even stronger winds aloft. Viewed from below it would appear as an endless brown cloud blocking out the sun. Viewed via satellite from above it would resemble a smoke cloud, fanning out into a wide plume as it blew down wind from a single point of origin.

A few hours later, had you been an American Gi on the way out the gate you could have glanced upwards and seen the leading edge of the dust cloud that had progressed so many miles from the Syrian desert that day. Gravity was working its magic on the cloud by then, and even though near weightless the particles were falling back towards the ground.

But your focus would be everywhere and elsewhere - you wouldn't have time to let your gaze linger too long. And once the sun had set you probably wouldn't even notice as one by one the stars winked out behind an ever moving curtain of gently falling dust and sand.

The skies were quiet when the call came into the TOC: urgent medevac requested.

The story continues here.

The Boo Radleys (VII)

The story began here, latest entry here.

The future:

The line began to form a sharper, single-file form - they were within steps of passing through the outer blast wall, a series of grey concrete monoliths standing sentry side by side and stretching as far as the eye could see. He glanced upward, half expecting to see the words Arbeit macht frei somewhere above, but saw only a security camera mounted above the gate. Shifting his gaze downward he noted a high resolution display of the video feed from that very camera on a flat-panel screen mounted on the wall. "Smile!" Read the single, large-font word painted in the concrete above it, but few on screen were. He saw himself in the crowd, and behind him a vision he'd have been spared in a less secure world - the retired schoolteacher shivering with excitement - perhaps ecstasy would be the better term.

"Young Tom tells me you live not far from here" she gushed, "so perhaps this is nothing special for you. But for me this is a moment I've dreamt of for years. I've done the virtual tours, of course, but now I know how the Muslims must feel on the culmination of the Hajj!"

He was spared the construction of some mechanical and inoffensive response to this emotional outpouring by a third party - a somewhat younger woman immediately behind the first. "I was just thinking the same thing!" She cried, as though thinking was an act unique among a rare few mortals and cause for an instant bond when two similarly gifted individuals should cross paths.

He successfully blocked out the ensuing chatter amidst the noise of the crowd. The line had temporarily halted for reasons he could not determine, even when he checked the feed on the video screen. Some minor commotion was ongoing just a few feet ahead at the gate, though the noise of the crowd was growing.

Two security guards moved quickly from somewhere behind him towards the gate. As they passed the crowd quieted, which enabled him to hear the too-loud whisper from the retired teacher behind him intended only for the ears of her new found confidant. "I said he's a veteran..."

Literary trivia:

The novel [To Kill a Mockingbird] is semi-autobiographical, and Scout is based on the author herself, Harper Lee.. the character of Dill is purportedly based on the author's childhood friend and neighbor Truman Capote.

"[That] isn't writing at all -- it's typing"

More entertainment news:

Carolyn Cassady knows "On the Road's" back-story more intimately than any living person can claim.

At the time Jack Kerouac wrote his landmark novel, Cassady was married to Neal Cassady, the model for "On the Road's" fictional hero, Dean Moriarty.

That, and she had a romance with Kerouac himself.

"Neal encouraged the affair," recalled Cassady, now 84 and living in England.
<...>
His ex-wife is pleased that producer Francis Ford Coppola and Brazilian director Walter Salles are finally bringing "On the Road" to the screen.

"I'm thrilled Walter Salles isn't an American and that he wants a totally unknown cast, so I don't have to worry about Johnny Depp or Brad Pitt," she said. "Everyone just wants Jack's wild side, his hedonistic side. He was so much more than that. His last five years he was miserable."

Kerouac joined the United States Merchant Marine in 1942 and in 1943 joined the United States Navy, but was discharged during World War II on psychiatric grounds (he was of "indifferent disposition").

He died on October 21, 1969 at St. Anthony's Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, one day after being rushed with severe abdominal pain from his St. Petersburg home by ambulance. His death, at the age of 47, resulted from an internal hemorrhage (bleeding esophageal varices) caused by cirrhosis of the liver, the result of a lifetime of heavy drinking.

Neither will this.

On Saturday, February 3, 1968 Cassady attended a wedding party in San Miguel de Allende. After the party he went walking by railroad track to reach the next town, but passed out in the cold and rainy night wearing nothing but a T-shirt and jeans. In the morning he was found in a coma by the track and brought to the closest hospital, where he died a few hours later of exposure, compounded by years of drug and alcohol abuse. He was five days short of his forty-second birthday.

GI Joe is a real American hero -- and that might be a bit of problem for both Paramount Pictures and Hasbro. <...> But Mr. Goldner said Hasbro is sensitive to the current world climate. "We'll weigh our options. Clearly we do a lot of work on consumer insight."

Flashback, November, 2005:

Outraged by the anti-war bias of the U.S. media, Hollywood star Bruce Willis is planning to produce a new film that tells the story of the bravery of U.S. combat troops in Iraq and their success in liberating the Iraqi people.

"I was over there," Willis recently told MSNBC's Rita Cosby. "I am baffled to understand why the things that I saw happening in Iraq, really good things happening in Iraq, are not being reported on."

Willis' film will be based on the exploits of the highly decorated members of the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry, known as the "Deuce Four," according to the London Times.

Perhaps in favor of Lethal Rush Hour 4, Rise of the Silver Die Hard or whatever the hell that thing was...

But perhaps this will share theaters with Kerouac in 2009:

The Last Full Measure
Thirty-three years after his death, during one of the bloodiest days of the Vietnam War, Air Force Para-rescue Jumper William H. Pitsenbarger is awarded the Medal of Honor after a young Washington bureaucrat and fellow veterans of Operation Abilene get Congress to reconsider the legacy of his sacrifice. From a true story.

[A1C] Pitsenbarger was 21 years old. He had been in Vietnam for eight months.

He had not yet completed his first enlistment in the Air Force. As a PJ, he was both a medic and a survival specialist. He had been through Army jump school at Ft. Benning, Ga., and qualified by the Navy as a scuba diver. He had also been to Air Force "tree jump" school, training that included three parachute jumps into a forest, wearing tree jumping suits.

He planned to leave the Air Force when his hitch was up. He had applied to Arizona State, where he hoped to study to become a nurse.

Search-and-rescue missions did not happen every day, but when they did, the choppers often flew multiple sorties, searching the jungles or shuttling between battle zones, bases, and field hospitals. Pitsenbarger had five oak leaf clusters to his Air Medal, each representing 25 flights over hostile territory, and more clusters were pending.
<...>
The pilot of Pedro 73 was Capt. Hal Salem. The detachment commander, Maj. Maurice Kessler, was flying as copilot. Capt. Dale Potter, regularly the other pilot on the crew, had gone to Saigon to pick up some litters. Beside Pitsenbarger in the rear seats was A1C Gerald Hammond, the crew chief.

It took the two helicopters about half an hour to reach the battle. Charlie Company had marked its location with colored smoke.

All around them was triple-canopy jungle, the tallest trees reaching up 150 feet. However, there was a place where the trees topped out at 100 feet. Beneath that, thick brush grew from the ground to about 30 feet up, but there was a hole in the canopy just large enough for a Stokes litter-essentially a wire basket-to get through.

Bachman maneuvered the first helicopter, Pedro 97, into place. He hovered below treetop level. The opening was so tight that the whirling helicopter blades passed within five feet of the trees.

Pedro 97 lowered its litter, picked up the first casualty, then pulled back to transfer him from the Stokes litter to a folding litter. Pedro 73 moved into the hole and made the next pickup, but it did not go smoothly. The wounded soldier was in a makeshift stretcher, crafted from tree limbs and a poncho, and the ground party had put him, stretcher and all, into the litter. The extraction was precarious because the soldiers had not strapped the wounded man in.

The litter snagged repeatedly on the way up, and the stretcher could not be brought all the way into the helicopter. It was a struggle to get the soldier aboard. The pickup took far too long to complete, with the helicopter hovering there as a provocative target for ground fire.

"We had no direct communications with the people below, except through hand signals," Salem said. "We really couldn't advise them on how to speed up the process or to help them evaluate the extent of the injuries. Hopefully, some of the wounded could be sent up on the forest penetrator, which was much faster but certainly couldn't be used for hoisting the critically wounded."

Bachman's crew took another soldier aboard, and the two helicopters took the wounded to an Army hospital at Binh Ba, eight miles to the south.

When the choppers returned to the jungle site, Pitsenbarger asked the pilot to put him on the ground.

"Once I'm down there I can really help out," he told Salem. "I can show those guys how to rig the Stokes litter and load it right. It will be much faster, and you can put more people in the bird."

Salem thought about it, discussed it with the crew, and decided that Pitsenbarger was right.

"We wished Pits good luck," Salem said. "I maneuvered the helicopter into the pickup hole as Hammond strapped Pits onto the penetrator and disconnected his mike cord. I took my last glimpse of Pits as Hammond swung him out of the cabin.

"Pits had a big grin on his face. He was holding his medical kit, his M-16 rifle, and an armful of splints. I said a silent prayer for him. I have a feeling the rest of the crew said a prayer for him, too. We just never talked about it.

One last bit of entertainment news:

Encouraged by widespread opposition to the conflict in Iraq, Hollywood filmmakers are preparing to unleash an unprecedented wave of war films on moviegoers. In a notable break with the past — when antiwar films were released several years after the conflict in question — a whole new genre has been created even while American troops remain on the front lines of the war on terror.
<...>
Several upcoming films will follow the plight of Iraq war veterans.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. Shame on the man of cultivated taste who permits refinement to develop into fastidiousness that unfits him for doing the rough work of a workaday world. Among the free peoples who govern themselves there is but a small field of usefulness open for the men of cloistered life who shrink from contact with their fellows. Still less room is there for those who deride of slight what is done by those who actually bear the brunt of the day; nor yet for those others who always profess that they would like to take action, if only the conditions of life were not exactly what they actually are. The man who does nothing cuts the same sordid figure in the pages of history, whether he be a cynic, or fop, or voluptuary. There is little use for the being whose tepid soul knows nothing of great and generous emotion, of the high pride, the stern belief, the lofty enthusiasm, of the men who quell the storm and ride the thunder. Well for these men if they succeed; well also, though not so well, if they fail, given only that they have nobly ventured, and have put forth all their heart and strength. It is war-worn Hotspur, spent with hard fighting, he of the many errors and valiant end, over whose memory we love to linger, not over the memory of the young lord who "but for the vile guns would have been a valiant soldier."

-- Roosevelt, The Sorbonne

"...you would most certainly believe this must have happened by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime – Pol Pot or others – that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that is not the case. This was the action of Americans..."

"And there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children..."

John Murtha, an influential Pennsylvania lawmaker and outspoken critic of the war in Iraq, said today Marines had “killed innocent civilians in cold blood”...

..."so we’ve got to get the job done there, and that requires us to have enough troops that we are not just air raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous problems there [Afghanistan]," Obama said.

"No. I think they’re a bunch of idiots. I also think they’re morally retarded. Because they sign a contract that says they will kill whoever you tell me to kill. And that is morally retarded."

"The list of serial killers and mass murderers borne from the military is astounding."

The future:

He glanced backwards. Of course they were talking about him. And now both were looking at him, the older with a hint of embarrassment while the younger face betrayed a rapidfire change of emotions, from fear to disgust and back again.

"Young Tom told me." The older explained. He was vaguely aware of a bit of yelling from the front of the line, and used it as an excuse to return his gaze forward. The line began moving again. He held fast to a belief that once through the gates the two behind him would go on about their merry way, and he'd never see them again.

The crowd remained reverently quiet approaching the gate, so he heard their continued conversation even though held in hushed tones.

"You know, it's likely he signed the New Oath of Allegiance."

"Well of course..."

"There's a copy of the original document inside."

"Did you get his name? Maybe we could get a picture of him contemplating the oath."

"You could do a story documenting his entire visit. I think it would be a marvelous focus."

"Do you think he'd mind? I mean, I could still get some great quotes from you - but this could be a real human interest angle..."

"Did you know he's brought the children as part of his obligatory community service."

"That's wonderful - I could write a feature on what he learns by seeing things through their tear-filled eyes!"

While this was going on he'd reached the gate, taken care to document his admission, and passed through the turnstiles. Taking one child by each hand, he moved quickly into the now expanding crowd.

Next: Wearing the Black Flag

The Boo Radleys (VI)

The story began here, latest entry here.

Sorry for the delay – got a little busy with this whole war thing for a while.

Now, where were we?

The Literatti are atwitter...:

Uncut edition of Kerouac's 'On The Road' issued 50 years later

Now, 50 years on, the tale of disaffected youth struggling to find a place in post-war America is to be re-released in its original form, unedited, cruder and more erotic, and with the real names of Kerouac's traveling companions restored.

Beat generation figures such as poet Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady and writer William S. Burroughs appear in the novel under their real names instead of their familiar pseudonyms of Carlo Marx, Dean Moriarty and Old Bull Lee.

Other details, such as episodes detailing characters' homosexuality or attraction to underage girls are also back in.

Let the man of learning, the man of lettered leisure, beware of that queer and cheap temptation to pose to himself and to others as a cynic, as the man who has outgrown emotions and beliefs, the man to whom good and evil are as one. The poorest way to face life is to face it with a sneer.

-- Theodore Roosevelt, Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, France April 23, 1910

The future:

As they made their way back from the restrooms the line began to move slowly forward. In one of his more observant moments he noticed the expressions on faces remained unchanged from the dull disinterest displayed prior to this small display of progress. He scanned about 20 faces after making that observation to ensure he hadn't simply drawn a conclusion based on what he expected to be the case, but (while acknowledging that his sample was finite) he determined that with unanimity the individuals in line appeared to be about as excited as a group inbound to a license branch, or perhaps even traffic court.

Make that one exception...

"Ohhh wonderful, you've returned just in time" She said with a smile and a small wave, "we're on our way at last."

"Well then," he replied, "thank you for watching the boy."

"Not a problem at all." She replied, waving him off. "Boys need watching. That's been true for years. This one had allowed his shirt to come un-tucked a bit there in the back. I had him correct the infraction."

"She combed my hair, too" the boy whispered, in a tone that left no doubt whether the action met his approval. His hand, consciously or not, began pulling at his shirt, drawing it upward but not completely out of his pants.

"Well then, hopefully we'll pass the scrutiny of the guards." The old man tried to deliver his thought without sarcasm, and offered a conspiratorial wink.

"I should hope so." She replied. "'A Free Society has no place for those who can't follow even the simplest of rules'" She added, reverting to political cliche - albeit a current one.

Surprise! More developments in the Beauchamp story.

The Boo Radleys V.

The story began here, latest entry here.

There is a near-permanent quality to the air in Iraq - though perhaps lack of quality is a better description.

Smoke from factories, smoke from battles, smoke from the burning of crops...

Exhaust from vehicles, many new, many more some years from professional repair...

...all mix with the dust and sand lifted up from the ground by the winds, or the passing of those same vehicles, or the tread of a million feet, to form a near-permanent haze that obscures the view of things at distances at which they should be plainly seen. Outlines blur and colors vanish and everything takes the hue of the desert until somewhere in the all-too-near horizon the earth merges with the sky at a point undeterminable to the human eye. (Michael Totten's latest includes a picture that captures that here.)

That's on most days...

On others the real dust rolls through, and visibility is limited to hundreds of feet - or even tens. If you've been following the story I've woven throughout this ongoing ramble, you might suspect that it's a story of one of those days. You would be right.

We'll get back to it, soon enough. But first...

...an earlier entry from Michael Totten:

A large man wearing shorts and no shirt opened the door. An old man in a dishdasha stood behind him. They weren’t armed and didn’t seem threatening.

“Salam aleikum,” said the shirtless man.

“Can we come in?” said the soldier who knocked.

Shirtless beckoned us in, and so we went in.

Soldiers dispersed throughout the house and rounded everyone – four men, three women, and two children – into one room. Everyone, soldiers and Iraqis alike, were mellow and cool. No one seemed to be angry at anyone. Shirtless seemed to be the head of the household, so the soldiers spoke mainly to him instead of to the young man they had captured outside.

“You’re right, he was bad,” Shirtless said.

“The curfew is for your safety,” said a soldier through the interpreter. “We’re hot, too, okay? Finding an air conditioner isn’t a good enough reason to go outside after dark.”

“Sorry,” Shirtless aid. “Please forgive us. Anything you want, we are with you.”

“Want to walk past your favorite house?” Lieutenant Lord said to Sergeant Lizanne.

“Let’s do it,” said Sergeant Lizanne.

“What’s your favorite house?” I said.

“It’s a house we walked past one night,” said Sergeant Lizanne. “Some guys on the roof locked and loaded on us.”
<...>
“What will you do when you get to the house?” I asked Lieutenant Lord.

“We’ll do a soft-knock,” he said. “We’re not going to be dicks about it.”

Flashback:

And when it does, it gets hot.

There is an ever-present quality to the breeze on a hot day in Iraq. If you've ever stepped too close to a large fire, to that point where you feel uncomfortable and instinctively taken that small step back to your comfort zone you know what I'm talking about. It's the sort of heat that produces an immediate sweat, then evaporates it just as fast.

In Iraq, as opposed to near a fire, that small step back gains you nothing.

And then the sun sets, but the heat persists.

And one fine night I sat in a passenger terminal and waited for my flight home. Said passenger terminal would have had the average American swearing to never fly again - a tent with a wooden floor and benches - but also with the ever-present big-screen TV along one wall (once again the obscene amenities rear their ugly little heads).

And eventually the official word came down: all flights cancelled. The dust from Syria had spread wide enough and far enough and with enough intensity to lower visibility to the point where routine aircraft operation would be hazardous beyond the point of acceptable risk. I would remain away from my home away from home for at least 24 more hours.

I had a place to sleep, and nothing to do. And I wondered for a moment about the guy who was supposed to go on emergency leave, who had taken my seat on my original ride, and who's flight was cancelled as well. There are many reasons for emergency leave to be approved in time of war. None of them are good.

I stepped out into the night. The heat was there, and darkness near complete. No lights illuminated this desert outpost, and silence was broken only by the ever-present hum of generators in the distance, a background noise at any camp and one you scarcely hear until they stop and the roaring silence announces that something's wrong.. But that was not tonight's problem. Tonight, above, the dust had blotted out the stars.

And that would only be part of the problem.

I wandered into the TOC, because it was nearby, and because I could, and because I was tired of watching the news and wanted to see what was going on in the war. I hoped the answer was "not much". I was wrong.

As you may recall, In Iraq, a group of young men armor up and arm themselves and prepare to go outside the wire. As much as any one of them might want to relieve himself of obligation to his fellows, none will. Each knows they might not come back. Because this is part of a flashback, I can tell you now that one of them won't.

He was in fact wounded. He was, in fact, in need of urgent medevac - meaning by helicopter.

And you may recall: all flights cancelled...

There were two options - and a couple variations - available. One, hope ground evac would be fast enough (not likely - or the helo request wouldn't have been made) or two - launch the medevac bird and risk a crew and an aircraft to (maybe) save his life.

"Whoever does not have the stomach for this fight, let him depart."
-- Bill S., Henry IV

This is Bill, a real Hippie:

If Haight-Ashbury is the centre of the American hippie world, then Yorkville is Canada's hippie heartland. Full of coffeehouses, boutiques, longhairs, draft dodgers, and freaks, Yorkville is a tourist attraction — one where the tourists prefer to watch the excitement from the safety of their cars. A 19-year-old draft dodger named William Gibson conducts CBC Television on a tour of the village, where Beatle-haired kids, drugs and free love are rampant.

It had much more to do with my wanting to be with hippy girls and have lots of hashish than it did with my sympathy for the plight of the North Vietnamese people under US imperialism. Much more, much more to do with hippy girls and hashish.

Consequently, when I got to Toronto, much to my chagrin, I really, really couldn't handle hanging out with the American draft dodgers. There was too much clinical depression. Too much suicide. Too much hardcore substance abuse. They were a traumatized lot, those boys. And I just felt frivolous.

Any non-veteran readers might be surprised to learn that those who fought in Vietnam were probably glad not to have the company of the sorts of folks described above. And now, 40 years later, I'm quite glad to have some of Gibson's work to read in Iraq.

And I can think of at least one "writer" today who could have done us all a favor and sat this war out - and perhaps launched his career in fiction a few years later.

More back to school stories:

Juvenile detainees gain second chance through Dar Al-Hikmah

BAGHDAD — A juvenile detainee education facility opened at Camp Victory, Iraq, Tuesday.
Dar Al-Hikmah, or “The Wisdom House,” is designed to give juvenile detainees an education, which would benefit their eventual release and reintegration into society.

“Al-Qaeda and other extremists are using juveniles against us,” said U.S. Army 1st Lt. Rob Glenn, the Dar Al-Hikmah education program manager. “As a consequence, we’re detaining many juveniles.”

“In order to prevent another generation of insurgents and those who would do harm (against) the future of Iraq or Coalition forces, we’re educating them,” he added.

Dar Al-Hikmah, or “The Wisdom House,” provides basic education instruction for approximately 600 detainees ages 11-17. The education center features classroom spaces, a library, a medical treatment facility and four soccer/athletic fields.

“Time on a detainee should not be wasted,” said Glenn. “It should be turned into an opportunity for that juvenile so when he leaves, he’s ready to enter the new world of Iraq as a wiser and more educated person and hopefully build his own family and future.”
<...>
Currently, approximately 800 detainees are juveniles captured during operations in Iraq.

“That’s 800 lives we have an opportunity to impact,” said Glenn. “We ensure when the detainees are released that they pick up a book instead of an AK-47.”

Extremists destroy one school, rig a second

Baghdad Soldiers, responding to a tip, were investigating two schools that were rigged to explode in a rural area in northern Baghdad when one exploded Aug. 16.

Soldiers with 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, were investigating a tip gathered by Iraqi Army forces operating in the Al Awad area of northern Baghdad and conducting a deliberate clearing operation of one school when a second school nearby exploded.

The unit then started receiving small arms fire from insurgents in a tree line across the road from the school. The Soldiers then called in attack aviation to clear the tree line and the small arms fire ceased.

The Soldiers then proceeded to clear the school damaged by the explosion. There they found containers filled with high explosives planted in several areas around the school, some of which had not exploded. The school was assessed to be a complete loss.

The second school which the soldiers originally were trying to clear was also rigged with multiple containers of high explosives, but none of them exploded. All of the unexploded containers were removed and destroyed by an explosive ordnance disposal team.

Al Qaeda extremists operating in the area are responsible for the emplacement of the explosives, according to Lt. Col. Peter Andrysiak, deputy commander of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division. He said extremists are attempting to disrupt Coalition efforts to facilitate the restoration of services and stop insurgent activities in the area.

This incident marks the fourth and fifth time insurgents have targeted schools in the northern Baghdad area this year.

Story continues here

News from Capernaum

Physician, heal thyself:

...a series of online audits, conducted by the Army, suggests that official Defense Department websites post far more potentially-harmful than blogs do.

The audits, performed by the Army Web Risk Assessment Cell between January 2006 and January 2007, found at least 1,813 violations of operational security policy on 878 official military websites. In contrast, the 10-man, Manassas, Virginia, unit discovered 28 breaches, at most, on 594 individual blogs during the same period.
<...>
There are many more Army web sites and web pages available for review on traditional Army web sites than there are BLOGs and BLOG pages, therefore because of volume alone, it must be expected that there will be more violations found on the traditional web sites.

Me: Gosh, I can't decide which snappy one liner to use...

1. A helpful link.

2. This might explain the problem.

3. Oh, by the way - that's just the Army web sites. Who knows what treasures await on the pages of the other three...

4. Heh - I'd better be safe and never quote an offical public web page here.

5. All the above.

(Luke 4:23)

The Boo Radleys (IV)

(This story began here. Previous installment here.)

"Behold with what companions I walked the streets of Babylon, and wallowed in the mire thereof..."

I was ashamed among other youths that my viciousness was less than theirs: I heard them boasting of their exploits...not only for the pleasure of the act but for the pleasure of the boasting....and when I lacked opportunity to equal others in vice, I invented things I had not done, lest I might be held cowardly for being innocent, or contemptible for being chaste.

-- The Confessions of St. Augustine

Greyhawk,

I thought you might be interested in this link.

(Rev.) Paul McNellis, S.J.
Philosophy Dept.
Boston College

{9} What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. {10} Is there anything of which one can say, "Look! This is something new"? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.
-- Ecclesiastes 1:9, 1:10

A comment to a previous installment in this series:

The current issue of The Nation features interviews with fifty Iraqi veterans who describe what they're ordered to do on a daily basis in Iraq and how they feel that there actions constitute terrorism. They describe home invasion raids where they burst into family homes in the middle of the night while the occupants are asleep and drag them out of bed. They hold them terrorized at gunpoint while they turn everything in their house upside-down. Many times the wife is exposed in ways that is humiliating and degrading for her because the weather is very hot with no electricity to run the AC. She ends up standing naked or barely covered in front of her family and the U.S. soldiers.

Then some people are taken away and other innocent people are sometimes shot and killed in the confusion. I've seen footage of some of these home invasion raids and the people are genuinely terrorized. I can't imagine that happening to me, but I'm sure Republicans will think it sounds fun and the people of Iraq should thank the U.S. soldiers for the exciting surprise entertainment in the middle of the night.

If you want to read these accounts buy a copy of the current issue of The Nation.

Posted by X_Tonian at August 16, 2007 12:46 AM

To find veterans willing to speak on the record about their experiences in Iraq, we sent queries to organizations dedicated to US troops and their families, including Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, the antiwar groups Military Families Speak Out, Veterans for Peace and Iraq Veterans Against the War and the prowar group Vets for Freedom. The leaders of IVAW and Paul Rieckhoff, the founder of IAVA, were especially helpful in putting us in touch with Iraq War veterans.

I was right. As I was compiling a second piece on the IVAW members who'd participated (many of whom had appeared on Mudville previously), I received an email from the very same Paul Rieckhoff who the Nation claimed was “especially helpful in putting us in touch with Iraq War veterans".

Greyhawk,

Great blog. I am a regular reader.

I wanted to contact you ASAP to let you know that we agree with you about The Nation piece 100%. It was a total hit job. We do not approve of or support this piece of trash in any way. We responded immediately here.

Of course the Nation buried our letter, and gave the authors a chance to respond before it was posted--a courtesy they didn't give us.

"The Other War: Iraq Veterans Bear Witness," by Chris Hedges and Laila Al-Arian, paints a horribly inaccurate picture of civilian deaths in Iraq and the experiences of many veterans interviewed for this article.

That innocent Iraqi civilians are caught in the conflict's crossfire is a great tragedy, one felt deeply by American service members. Difficult, and sometimes questionable, decisions are made in the fog of war. However, this article does the US military and The Nation's readership a disservice with its sensationalistic and unethical reporting methods.

The Nation violated the trust of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and many of the service members interviewed. Reporters told our members that the focus of this piece was their experience in Iraq generally, not civilian casualties specifically. Many of the veterans involved spent hours talking to Ms. Al-Arian and shared deeply personal recollections on a variety of subjects, only to have their experiences misrepresented and/or isolated. The most graphic recollections were removed from context and used to bolster a preconceived conclusion by the authors about the patterns and frequency of civilian deaths. Critical facts were obscured or omitted entirely. This entire piece is a glaring example of the type of low-quality journalism that has been all too common in the coverage of the war in Iraq since it began.

The reporting tactics employed by Ms. Al-Arian were consistently questionable and even nefarious. One of our members wrote, "I did a two-hour interview with Laila [Al-Arian] and she cherry-picked one tiny anecdote for the piece. I felt used by the whole process." Another interviewee repeatedly asked the interviewer to clarify the definition of Iraqi "civilian." The reporter's refusal to provide that clarification led to a complete misrepresentation of the circumstances they discussed.

In the interviews, veterans described thoughts and responses that were specific to particular circumstances on the battlefield. In the article, those sentiments were portrayed as being the norm. As a result of this selective representation of the facts, egregious practices by service members in Iraq are described in the article as common. For instance, the use of the term "haji" is mentioned in the piece, but the reporters never state that the military banned the use of the term once its use in a derogatory manner became widespread. One of our members explained that to the reporter, but that detail, like so many other relevant ones, did not make it into the published piece.

Our organization was shocked and extremely disappointed by the tactics and low standards demonstrated by The Nation in the writing of this article. The men and women quoted in this article bravely spoke out precisely because they were concerned about the war and its effects on all people in Iraq--military or civilian. Like honorable military service, solid journalism requires an extremely high level of integrity and professionalism. This article is journalism at its worst. The veterans quoted trusted The Nation, and that trust was betrayed. Our members put themselves and their families at tremendous risk by choosing to participate in this article. But that is for each of them to worry about now. And The Nation has a sensational story that is sure to gain significant attention and sell numerous copies.

After this experience, it is unlikely that Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America will choose to work with The Nation in the future. And we strongly recommend that all 1.6 million veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan exercise the same reservation and caution in any dealings with this magazine.

Other quoted veterans were also outraged. Excerpts from their letters to The Nation:

While I haven't always agreed with The Nation, I have long valued its writing, and in fact, was a subscriber while I was serving in Iraq. This makes it all the more disappointing that the lengthy interviews I gave to Laila Al-Arian for your recent article, "The Other War: Iraq Vets Bear Witness" resulted in my quotes being taken way out of context. These mistakes reflect poorly on me personally and lead me to question whether Ms. Al-Arian and co-author Chris Hedges are guilty of poor analysis or of using my quotes to their own ends. I know this comes several weeks after the article was published, however I have been overseas most of this time conducting conflict resolution workshops and so it has been difficult to respond promptly.

One example of my problems with this article are that I am quoted saying, "I mean, you physically could not do an investigation every time a civilian was wounded or killed because it just happens a lot and you'd spend all your time doing that."

Your article's premise that unjustified shootings of civilians were rampant and that these were almost never investigated is not the question I was responding to when I made the above statement. The overwhelming majority of civilians wounded or killed I was referring to were not from shootings, let alone American shootings outside of full-scale fire-fights. They were mostly from IEDs, or shootings by insurgents.
<...>
I commend The Nation for interviewing fifty service members about their experiences in Iraq and for trying to tell stories that other media outlets miss. However, by taking my experiences severely out of context, you have disserved your readers overall as well as me personally.

Jonathan Morgenstein
Captain, United States Marine Corps Reserves
Arlington, VA

I, too, was a contributor to this piece. I respect the position of the other contributors and don't deny that in war bad things do happen. But in an effort to disclose all truths the below should also be known to readers.

I was personally outraged, appalled and horrified while reading this article and not due to the alleged findings...the alleged truths that this article supposedly uncovered. I was in complete disbelief at how inaccurately my statements were portrayed and how conveniently they were selected to support the thesis of the authors. I suspect that I'm not the only veteran of the fifty interviewed who shares these sentiments. I'm sickened and ashamed to be, in any way, associated with this article.

Megan O'Connor

Venice, CA

The Sun Also Rises is considered the first significant novel by Ernest Hemingway. Published in 1926, the plot centers on a group of expatriate Americans in Europe during the 1920s. The book's title, selected by Hemingway (at the recommendation of his publisher) is taken from Ecclesiastes 1:5...

The novel is a powerful insight into the lives and values of the so-called "Lost Generation", chronicling the experiences of Jake Barnes and several acquaintances on their pilgrimage to Pamplona for the annual fiesta and bull fights. Barnes suffered an injury during World War I which makes him unable to consummate a sexual relationship with Brett Ashley, who was widowed when her husband was killed during the war. The story follows Jake and his various companions across France and Spain. Initially, Jake seeks peace away from Brett by taking a fishing trip deep within the Spanish hills with companion Bill Gorton, another veteran of the war. The fiesta in Pamplona is the setting for the eventual meeting of all the characters, who play out their various desires and anxieties, alongside a great deal of drinking.

"You know it makes one feel rather good deciding not to be a bitch."
- Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises

Story continues here

The Boo Radleys (III)

(This story began here. Previous installment here.)

Now, San Fran:

Supervisor Chris Daly wants Congress to stop the Blue Angels’ Fleet Week flyovers and introduced the resolution, citing a fatal accident at an aerial display in South Carolina last year. A hearing Monday let Veterans for Peace and other anti-war groups face off with tourism and commerce supporters. Opponents of the Blue Angels voiced their concern over the trauma the show inflicts on war refugees, the waste of fuel, and noise pollution.

“The Blue Angels are totally unnecessary,” said a resolution supporter. “I believe they are sent here to terrorize this town because we are an anti-war city.”

The measure failed - those key points could have put it over the top.

Not long ago:

It's not bad, but the setting is the "near future" - and that future is now, or close enough to now that it becomes obvious that the future was not quite so bleak as full enjoyment of the story would require.

That of itself provides interest - but of a sort that wasn't the author's intent. I suppose there could be another sub-genre of science fiction: the bleak future that didn't happen. Watch almost any pre-Star Wars sci-fi films of the 70's - Silent Running, Soylent Green, Logan's Run, et al - and you'll see examples of what I mean.

Of course, one can't consign such stories into that category ahead of time, right?

More recently:

Even renowned science fiction author William Gibson has given up guessing what the future looks like - for now at least.

The novelist is famous for inventing the word 'cyberspace' and predicting the implications of the networked world long before it became a reality. But his latest book Spook Country is set in the present (in fact, the near past) rather than the far-flung future.

In an exclusive interview with silicon.com, Gibson said: "The trouble is there are enough crazy factors and wild cards on the table now that I can't convince myself of where a future might be in 10 to 15 years."

Well then, if he's not going to do it, why don't we just envision a future of our own right here. Let's not have it take place in San Fracisco, though, let's make the setting your town.

And with that, we're off to...

The Future:

A squad of four black-garbed security personnel made their way slowly along the line, two on each side, a few meters out and a few apart from one another, weapons at port arms. The outer of each pair kept his head swiveling from the line to the area around it, his weapon pointed away from the crowd and downward but looking anything but harmless. The inner kept his focus on the people in the line. His weapon was pointed somewhere just short of their feet - specifically near the point where the third member of each team was also moving slowly and purposefully along, working in tandem with his opposite across the line to scan each waiting person for ID and weapons, occasionally confiscating a pocket knife or lighter from an embarrassed would-be patron of the building just visible through the blast walls ahead.

It occurred to the old man that Homeland Heroes had gone to the trouble of pairing left- and right-handed shooters for this task, so that each matched pair could simultaneously keep cover on the crowd and it's perimeter. Not a difficult accomplishment, but an indication of the thorough professionalism of the organization. Everything about them was designed to demonstrate exactly that - from the high gloss of their helmets, belts and boots to the starched and wrinkle-free appearance of their combat uniforms. Even the placement of each item around the belts was identical, save for the mirror-image variation between the left and right handed shooters. It took a minute for the old man to consciously note another similarity - each was within a centimeter of height of the others. He smiled a wry smile as he wondered to himself whether under their helmets their faces and hair would be identical, too.

"No, they don't use clones in the Heroes." Said the young child holding his left hand. The old man realized he had voiced his thought out loud, so he elected to finish the conversation. "Well then, he said, "that settles that."

To his right an even younger voice spoke up. "I want to see the clowns!", and the speaker rose to tip-toes, trying without success to see through the crowd in line ahead of her.

That utterance gave the old man pause, but the first speaker responded quickly: "I said clones, stupid - not clowns." This brought a rapid response - a tongue shoved out of the mouth that had voiced the error in the direction of the tormenting elder child. The old man briefly strengthened his grip on each hand, the motion seemed sufficient to halt any escalation of hostilities.

But a voice came from behind them all. "It isn't nice to degrade your fellow human beings." Turning, the man saw a woman of indeterminate age, her hair pulled back tightly under her cap, no hint of a smile in her mouth or her eyes.

"Uhh, thank you..." he replied.

"It takes a village", she responded. He hoped she didn't see his mental reaction reflected on his face - so he simply nodded and turned quickly forward. The young child at his right hand suddenly shifted closer, right up against his leg. She had finally seen the clowns, and they were mere steps away. Her eyes fixated on the approaching scanner, and went wide. "Don't be frightened" he whispered.

But apparently the lady to the rear had heard that, too. (Maybe he should get his hearing checked, he thought.) "They're from the government" she explained, "and they're here to help us." He considered asking her if she ever spoke in anything other than old political clichés, but before he could say anything she had leaned forward with her hands on her knees and starred intently into the young child's face. "They keep us safe from the Fundamentalists." She explained, while nodding most seriously. The girl's wide-eyed gaze was now thoroughly fixed on this new perceived threat. "So, unless you're a fundamentalist, they'll leave you alone."

The old man wasn't ready for that break from cliché. From his experience, the Homeland Heroes in no way limited their attention to fundies - but before he could utter a response the village lady had pressed on. "Are you a fundamentalist?" She asked, leaning in a bit closer, to tower mere centimeters over the girl's head.

"Yes", came the voice from the old man's other side, "she is!" The village lady shot the boy a quick and meaningful stare, he quieted. She returned her gaze to the girl. "You're not, are you?" She was shaking her head from side to side, a motion the girl repeated, almost imperceptibly. But the inquiry wasn't over yet. "Do you accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior?" She asked, cocking her head slightly to one side in expectation of response, and knitting her brows in such a way as to indicate she would see right through any attempt to speak anything other than the truth. The girl tightened her grip on the old man's hand, brought her other hand up near her mouth, and continued her minimal head shaking - all of which earned a prompt "hmmmmm...?" from the woman.

"No" she finally replied from behind her hand, in a voice so tiny the old man could barely hear.

"Well then" came the response as her interrogator straightened, moving her hands from her thighs to her hips, "you have simply nothing to fear." She smiled, and transferred her gaze to the old man. "I'm a school teacher" she offered, as if that explained her completely and totally, "Retired".

He nodded, saying simply "Ahhhh...." while thinking that her smile was the most disturbing thing he'd seen in quite some time.

He hoped he hadn't said that out loud.

"See," said the teacher, indicating with outstretched arms the line to her rear, "the heroes have passed us by already, and we are all safe and sound. In just a few minutes we'll be enjoying the hall."

He realized his palm was now damp with sweat, but whether his or the girl's he couldn't tell. Glancing towards her he saw her looking up at him, her mouth moving, but apparently without sound. He knelt down to where she could whisper in his ear.

"I haff to go to the baffroom," she explained through a cupped hand.

To be fair, the world of Gibson's construct is not the focus of his story, merely a necessary place for his story to unfold. As for our own bleak, near-future world, time will tell.

Yes, I know, that last bit was so cliché.

Story continues here

Talking with Heroes in Iraq

Bob Calvert, host of "Talking with Heroes" began this wonderful program on the internet in December of 2005.

What is Talking with Heroes?

Talking with Heroes is a voice for our military, their families and those who support them. We share first-hand accounts straight from the personal interviews with the men and women serving in our nation’s Armed Forces. These men and women are helping people worldwide, and that includes our own citizens right here at home in the USA.
We broadcast LIVE every Sunday Night on the stardustradio.com internet network at 7pm CST. Our guests include men and women in our military who are willing to share their experiences, as well as leaders from military support and veterans groups, ministries, companies, entertainers and others who help and support our troops and their families back home.
<...>
Since Dec. 2005 Active Duty Military Personnel from all branches of the military have shared their positive stories with our listeners. We will continue to give a forum for those mostly untold stories. Military Support and Veterans Groups, Companies, Organizations and others who support our troops and their families also have an opportunity to share their stories.

In October 2006, and again in Jan 2007, Calvert took the program over to Iraq. All of the interviews are currently archived on the website under the "Past shows/archives" section for all Americans to listen to. ["Talking with Heroes"]

And now Bob Calvert accompied by Jim Martin, CEO of Altitude Sports and Entertainment Cable Company, are heading back:

Soon you will be hearing more stories as Jim and I go back to Iraq again. Keep an eye on this Blog as FBL, the veteran Soldiers' Angel and blogger, posts our messages here for you and all Americans to read while we are gone. When we get back, millions will have an opportunity to hear the audio stories we will have collected.

And we will be depending on each and every one of you to help us get the word out.

A special thanks to Patti and Jeff Bader and Soldiers Angels for being the main sponsor of this upcoming trip to Iraq. And thank you to all those who have been supportive of this project, some for short periods of time and others from the very beginnning back in 2005.

To all of our troops be safe... stay alert..]

You can hear the most recent interview with Soldiers' Angels here

[FbL adds: Bob will be spending most of his trip outside the "Green Zone," joining patrols and meeting with military personnel and Iraqis at/near outposts throughout Iraq. I'm sure he'll have some great stories to share as he travels]

Don't miss this opportunity to watch our heroes talk about the progress being made in Iraq.

Thank you for your support

www.talkingwithheroes.com

The Boo Radleys (II)

The Boo Radleys (II)

(This story began here. Previous installment here.)

A story you probably didn't hear about - from last week:

BAGHDAD — An armed crowd of more than 80 residents of the eastern Baghdad district of Adhamiyah stormed a prominent Sunni mosque in search of those responsible for the deaths of two area children, representatives of the U.S. Army said Monday.

A search of the Abu Hanifa mosque compound by Iraqi security forces after the confrontation yielded more than three dozen detainees and several large weapons caches, according to an Army news release. The mosque has long been suspected of being at the center of the pocket of extremist Sunni resistance housed in Adhamiyah.
<...>
The incident occurred Sunday afternoon after the crowd of angry residents rallied around a local sheik who is the uncle of the two children that were killed, according to U.S. Army spokesmen. No details about the deaths were released.

According to Army officials, the crowd “ousted suspected terrorists” from the mosque, though no gunfire was exchanged. Members of the Iraqi army arrived at the mosque and took 13 detainees into custody, according to the U.S. military.

Iraqi security forces then returned twice more later in the evening and early morning the next day to conduct searches of the mosque grounds.

They discovered weapons caches that included explosive devices, dynamite, mortars, rockets and land mines, according to the U.S. military. During the later searches, 28 additional detainees were taken into custody.

The search of mosques has long been a sensitive issue for coalition forces. Although U.S. military intelligence has indicated that foreign fighters have been housed in the Abu Hanifa mosque and in the surrounding areas, no American soldier has ever set foot inside the mosque as part of a search, according to Purcell.

Coalition forces are required to petition Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for permission to search certain prominent mosques, including Abu Hanifa, Purcell said. That permission is rarely granted, he added.

Flashback:

And then I was bumped.

No return flight - stranded elsewhere. But for a good reason - someone else was going on emergency leave, and mine was the earliest available space. For this reason, when you travel in Iraq you bring stuff with you - and I had.

But I wasn't convinced I'd need it just yet. I've got friends (who are sometimes) in high places, and with a quick phone call I had booked myself passage on a cargo hauler. I would, in fact, get home earlier than originally planned.

I could already see the story having the sort of happy ending I find most satisfactory in fiction. It would go something like this:

"Good bye" he said. "Good bye" they replied, and then he flew away.

Not that great an ending, I suppose, but then, the story wasn't much of a story...

so far.

Now: Go see the movie Stardust this week. It's one you'll probably want to see on a big screen, and it probably won't be on them much longer.
Then tell me if it was any good. I suspect it is. But while Bourne Ultimatum, Rush Hour 3, The Simpsons, and every third-rate film released over the past week or so are all widely available on DVD here, Stardust is not.

DVDs available on movie release weekend are one of the many perks of this very strange war.

So is email. A recent one from the youngest member of clan Greyhawk began like this: "well my first day went WONDERFULLY!!"

This is music to her father's ears. If memory serves, she's attended six schools on two continents, and the last move was particularly cruel, coming one year into her high school career.

She's the one who'll be reading The Awakening, by the way. I'm not too concerned about any negative impact on her - she recognizes crap when she sees it.

Back when she was in middle school she debated morons in comments here. She ran circles around them. It was fun while it lasted but now that she's a bit older there's no longer enough challenge in it.

She would kill me, of course, if I were to reprint that whole email.

But hopefully I can get away with including this line:

... the teacher also told us that the people on the board are so angry about the uniforms not being enforced that they want ALL dress code rules to be super enforced. so ALL students must tuck in ALL shirts. and he made me tuck in my suuuuper long shirt. (which i didnt really do i just kinda folded it.) LAME! i undid it as soon as i left.

Her grandma got a copy though. That was grandma's reward for sending me cookies!

From an email exchange with my other daughter:

According to Amazon, the package I sent you should have arrived. So now I need
1. Reviews of products therein (you can tell me if they suck - I won't cry)
2. Reports on the trip to Bush Gardens

I definitely thought Stardust was worth checking out. It isn't a kids story, as you'll find out in chapter one. (I read the first chapter online after I had already ordered it). And the movie version of it comes out this weekend (but I suggest reading the book first.) The illustrations in the book looked pretty cool too.

Love,
Dad

I finished the Stardust book. I started to read it the night before last and finished the next night. It was pretty neat. Very interesting and bizarre. It reminded me of a mix of a book you made me read as a kid (that was supposedly your fav? cant remember the title for the life of me but there was a talking dog and a guy that made them look thru a hay stack for a needle...something about a booth?) and the last unicorn.

Her grandma used to make me read books, too.

Her grandmother's father was shelled on the battlefields of France on the last day of World War One.

Her future husband was in the Army during World War Two, and so were three (correction) four of her brothers ("Plus a bunch of cousins"). One sat out the end of the war in a German Stalag - then served with another brother through Korea and Vietnam.

And at this point in her life her crazy son has gone off to play in Iraq twice, so far.

Where it ain't all fun and games:

BAGHDAD - A sniper shot and killed a U.S. soldier, then lured his comrades to a booby-trapped house where four more troops were killed in a complex attack believed to have been the work of al-Qaida in Iraq, a U.S. general said Sunday.

U.S. Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, who commands the volatile southern rim of Baghdad and districts to the south, said the use of rigged houses was a new tactic against American forces trying to root out bomb networks in the rural insurgent strongholds.

The soldiers entered the house Saturday in search of the sniper who had killed one of their comrades minutes earlier. One soldier stepped on a pressure-triggered bomb. He and three others were killed and four wounded, Lynch told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
<...>
The deaths raised to 70 the number of Task Force Marne soldiers killed since April 4, about 80 percent from makeshift bombs hidden on roadsides, in houses or planted in the ground, Lynch said.

The figures reflect the increased vulnerability of American forces as they have increasingly targeted known militant safehavens and left the safety of heavily fortified bases to deploy in remote outposts and on foot patrols.

"As we surged, the enemy surged," Lynch said. "We do indeed make safety and security our first priority, but we are not going to stop taking the fight to the enemy."

...and that was my first day of school. i was told by one other teacher to tuck my shirt in but i just pretended to until i was well outta sight and then pulled it back out.

pretty good start for the school year.

Mrs G,

Tell our daughter that dad says he's in Iraq so that NO ONE CAN EVER MAKE HER TUCK HER SHIRT IN IF SHE DOESN"T WANT TO.

The story continues here.

The Boo Radleys

(This story began here. Previous installment here.)

What's that, you ask? Well yes - I did finish the full trilogy. Minutes ago, in fact.

Amazon made it possible. Two things made it inevitable. One, I like to finish things. And two, this was something worth finishing. With books you never know that until you've finished them, of course. Some books are an enjoyable read while moving through them, while in the words, while dwelling in the world shaped by the words - that on completion leave you with a nagging sense (no matter how much you'd prefer it otherwise) that you had just completely wasted your time. Chalk that up to the author's inability to write a finish. Perhaps they grew tired of the creative process and just quit. Or perhaps they loved the process so much they could not - but deadlines required something, complete or not.

On completion of the trilogy I pronounce myself satisfied.

(Somewhere the Freudians are smiling. Sorry guys, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.)

Speaking of books, somewhere in America, the first day of school. Assigned reading:

The Awakening.

Edna Pontellier, the heroine of The Awakening, shocked readers in 1899 and the scandal created by the book haunted Kate Chopin for the rest of her life. The Awakening begins at a crisis point in twenty-eight year-old Edna Pontellier's life. Edna is a passionate and artistic woman who finds few acceptable outlets for her desires in her role as wife and mother of two sons living in conventional Creole society. Unlike the married women around her, whose sensuality seems to flow naturally into maternity, Edna finds herself wanting her own emotional and sexual identity. During one summer while her husband is out of town, her frustrations find an outlet in an affair with a younger man. Energized and filled with a desire to define her own life, she sends her children to the country and removes herself to a small house of her own: "Every step she took toward relieving herself from obligations added to her strength and expansion as an individual. She began to look with her own eyes; to see and apprehend the deeper undercurrents of life. No longer was she content to 'feed upon the opinion' when her own soul had invited her." Her triumph is short-lived, however, destroyed by a society that has no place for a self-determined, unattached woman. Her story is a tragedy and one of many clarion calls in its day to examine the institution of marriage and woman's opportunities in an oppressive world.

When I was in High School we read To Kill a Mockingbird.

"Every step she took toward relieving herself from obligations added to her strength and expansion as an individual."

Another great quote I've found recently:

If anyone ever starts a museum of horrible explanations, the one-liner by Newsweek's Evan Thomas about his magazine's dubious reporting on the Duke non-rape case "The narrative was right but the facts were wrong" is destined to become a popular exhibit...

The old me would have been inclined to agree, but having read the above review of The Awakening I realize now that Thomas is very strong and highly expanded. He's fortunate he doesn't live in Edna Pontellier's times, where he'd have been destroyed by a society that has no place for such a strong, self-determined individual.

Classic Evan Thomas:

Given all that has been reported about the treatment of detainees—including allegations that a female interrogator pretended to wipe her own menstrual blood on one prisoner—the reports of Qur'an desecration seemed shocking but not incredible.

Very strong.

To Kill a Mockingbird (warning, spoilers follow):

Tom Robinson's trial begins, and when the accused man is placed in the local jail, a mob gathers to lynch him. Atticus faces the mob down the night before the trial. Jem, Dill, and Scout, who sneaked out of the house, soon join him and refuse Atticus's advice to leave. Scout recognizes one of the men as Walter Cunningham, father of one of her schoolmates, and her polite questioning about his son shames him into dispersing the mob.

At the trial itself, the children sit in the "colored balcony" with the town's black citizens. Atticus provides clear evidence that the accusers, Mayella Ewell and her father, Bob Ewell, are lying: in fact, it was Mayella who was making sexual advances towards Tom Robinson, and then was caught. The marks on Mayella's face are from wounds that her father inflicted upon discovering her with Tom; he called her a whore and beat her. Everyone pointed out that the right side of Mayella's face was bruised, which would show that the abuser was left-handed. Mr. Bob Ewell himself is left-handed and Tom was handicapped on his left arm. Yet, despite the significant evidence pointing to Tom's innocence, the all-white jury convicts him.

News from Iraq:

Coalition Soldiers rescued a 2-year-old Iraqi boy from a dry well in which he fell Thursday.

Soldiers with Company B, 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division responded to the pleas for assistance from the father of a 2-year-old boy who had fallen into a dry well near the family’s residence.
<...>
“I could see that the baby had fallen some 25 feet and was lying at the bottom of the well,” Powell, a native of Newport Beach, Calif., said. “He appeared to be breathing, but would not answer to our calls.”

BAGHDAD, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Iraqi police said on Sunday they had found 60 decomposed bodies dumped in thick grass in Baquba, north of Baghdad.

There was no indication of how the 60 people had been killed, police said. Baquba is the capital of volatile Diyala province, where thousands of extra U.S. and Iraqi soldiers have been sent to stem growing violence.

Flashback:

In Iraq, a group of young men armor up and arm themselves and prepare to go outside the wire. As much as any one of them might want to relieve himself of obligation to his fellows, none will. Each knows they might not come back. Because this is part of a flashback, I can tell you now that one of them won't.

If they glanced upward on the way out the gate, they might have seen the leading edge of the dust cloud that had progressed so many miles from the Syrian desert that day. Gravity was working its magic on the cloud by then, and even though near weightless the particles were falling back towards the ground.

The story continues here.

Circulation (II)

(The story begins here.)

Know what hot is? Hot is when you blink and your eye lids feel the heat off your eyeballs.

You probably didn't want to know that.

Flashback:

The mission is circulation. Paying visits to troops in a slightly more remote location. Grip and grin. Put faces with names. Get a feel for morale. Identify requirements. Chat with the folks they're working with, make sure all is smooth. Make sure all parties know (this part goes without saying) that there are folks above who give a damn.

I am not an inspector, and this isn't an inspection. There's an old truth I subscribe to: combat ready or inspection ready - choose one. This pisses off the people who choose option "b" - so by merely pointing out I'm aware of it I can confirm that these guys are more the first sort just by their response. And in this case all is well. My guys are taking care of business, and those who are supposed to are taking care of them.

Good - so now let's do lunch. The DFAC is large and clean and well staffed. As with any such facility in Iraq I'm amazed at the speed and efficiency of the operation. A steady flow of troops that total in the thousands per meal pass through, with lines rarely extending more than 10 Joes deep. People bearing trays of food and drink move down cafeteria style lines scattered at various points through the facility, and weave their way among others bearing trays of food and drink to tables. Relax and eat, talk business or pleasure with comrades in arms, then move again through the milling crowd to the exit, disposing of everything on the way out. Try this in a civilian facility and collisions and traffic jams would be the norm - here they are rare.

"We've had plenty of food here, but until recently the options have been limited." I'm told. "But things have gotten better recently."

"Really?" I respond. "We had the same situation for a while last month. Story was, one of our convoys got hit..."

"I heard it was the surge. They weren't ready for the food requirements. A lot of ours was redirected to surge bases..."

I ponder that for a moment. Unfortunately, it sounds plausible. "Possible, I suppose," I respond, "but whatever the problem it looks like they've fixed it. Let's hope it stays that way." Nods all around.

The bottom line - we have food in front of us because people risk their lives to bring it here. People eating in DFACs in Iraq respect that and simultaneously take it for granted - they're risking their lives being there too. Speaking of which...

"How's security? How often are you guys getting hit?" I know the answer to this, of course. And maybe they know that I know.

"A while ago we were taking rounds every day. But it's slowed down - a lot, since about the middle of June."

"Mid June?"

"Yes. I'm not kidding - it was rough before then. It's really not so bad now, we still get hit from time to time, but nothing like before."

"You know mid-June is when we really started the surge-related operations in earnest?" A few raised eyebrows. "You know, it might be that you paid for reduced attacks with a couple weeks of fewer entree options."

Arranged along the walls are big screen televisions. On one side of the DFAC they're tuned to the news, on the other, usually sports. But at this moment, The Daily Show is on. John Stewart has his audience rolling in the aisles with snappy one-liners about Iraq. He's killing 'em.

Had you been standing on the Iraq/Syria border at that moment and glanced upward, you'd have seen the vanguard of an invasion of a sort. Dust and sand lifted by heat and wind, high enough to be driven rapidly eastward by even stronger winds aloft. Viewed from below it would appear as an endless brown cloud blocking out the sun. Viewed via satellite from above it would resemble a smoke cloud, fanning out into a wide plume as it blew down wind from a single point of origin.

It's nothing unusual, in the summer it happens damn near every day.

Now:

The cookies are gone. The night passed into day, and night again. The mission was accomplished. It did not make the news. In fact, there wasn't even an MNF-I press release on it. It's nothing unusual, it happens damn near every day.

But here's an interesting one:

PATROL BASE INCHON, Iraq — Citizens tired of terrorism in their communities brought 185 cans of ammunition to Coalition Forces Aug. 9.

Two men from the town of al Taqa delivered the ammunition to Soldiers of 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) working at Patrol Base Inchon, located along the Euphrates River.

The ammunition was for use in Soviet-made DShKa heavy machine guns, and each ammunition can was estimated to contain 40 rounds, for a total of 7,400 machine-gun rounds.

Don't believe it? Try this:

Last night, the CBS Evening News reported the "US military claims 2,000 al Qaeda operatives have been killed so far this year."

But the surge, added CBS, "deserves only part of the credit." Instead, the tide turned "against al Qaeda when Sunni tribes came over to the American side."

WASHINGTON -- Suicide bombers in Iraq are overwhelmingly foreigners bent on destabilizing the government and undermining American interests there, two independent studies have concluded.

"The war on terrorism -- and certainly the war in Iraq -- has failed in decreasing the number of suicide attacks and has really radicalized the Muslim world to create this concept of martyrs without borders," said Mohammed Hafez, a visiting professor at the University of Missouri in Kansas City and the author of one of the two studies.

More Americans Back Bush On Iraq, Polls Find

Pollster John Zogby, who describes himself as a liberal Democrat, sees the shifting polls as simply a return of a few Republicans that means little for the president's efforts to persuade Americans that Iraq is salvageable.

The story continues here.

Circulation

Flashback:

Climb on. Strap in. Lift off. The thrumming roar of the blades above your head muted by the plugs in your ears, you prepare to see a bit more of Iraq from 200 feet. Lift, tilt, thrust - and seconds later you depart. A small dust cloud stirred by your craft whirls and settles and fades as you gain what little altitude you will. The vertical climb stops, but horizontal distance from point of origin grows. A moment later the wire passes below.

Door gunners scan the ground below. Visibility is fine. The sun shines, but low in the sky. The temperature will get to 120, but has a long way to go. Below, a landscape more desert tan then green (but surprisingly more green than most would think) blurs by and begins to bake. Later, perhaps shortly after noon, dust devils will dance.

You cross a line of towers, steel skeletons designed to hold the wires that move electricity from here to there, from horizon to horizon and beyond. You squint, but can't tell if the wires themselves are there or not.

Far to the west, the heat of the sun begins to warm the desert sands.

Sand.

After years of desert warfare an odd thought occurs to me: no milblogger has taken the name "Sandman". Seems like a natural.

Now:

Care package arrives. Care package is opened. Cookies are found - the home made sort, this particular batch made by my mom. They are now being distributed, by ones and twos, to those who are moments away from being outside the wire.

They have a big mission tonight. "Might even make the papers", one says to me, "though nothing we've done so far has..."

Unfortunately, if so it will be as a story of failure. The mission itself will succeed, of course, perhaps with or perhaps without a bit of the old ultra-violence, but the mere fact that the mission was required will be touted as a failure. I predict this out loud, knowing the listener well enough to know he knew it anyhow, and that such things aren't his motivation.

"Yeah" he agrees, "you're right."

There is something worse I could have pointed out - making the papers is a certainty only if one of our guys gets killed. He knows this, too, but neither of us chooses to express that thought out loud.

"You want a cookie?" I ask.

He takes one for the road.

Flashback:

Morale, Welfare, and Recreation - a corner of camp, a cluster of tents. A weight tent - machines and free, a cardio tent - ellipticals, recumbents, treadmills and stairsteppers (so this is where the stairsteppers all went...) outdoor basketball and "beach" volleyball courts, a small outdoor stage, and two large multi-purpose tents containing internet cafes, phones, and rooms containing big-screen TVs where you can watch movies of your choosing - assuming you're willing to wait for the folks who've chosen before you to finish watching theirs. All part of the luxurious lifestyles of the rich and famous - a few of the obscene amenities available to GIs serving in Iraq.

I wander in to use the internet cafe. On my way I pass shelves of donated books. Most are used, left behind by fellow GIs or generously donated by folks back home. I scan the titles on my way past, and the name Scalzi catches my attention. There are two copies of Ghost Brigades on the shelf - and these are new, direct from the publisher, unbent by human hands.

One goes into my cargo pocket, for later.

On the opposite wall, a television tuned to AFN news. The CNN anchor gives me the latest death toll from Iraq.

Later, in a DFAC, I hear via Fox News from a politician in Washington that the surge has failed.

Flashback:

Iraq continues to scroll below my feet. Towns, open land, houses, cars in driveways, cars on highways, date palms, reeds, canals, and - thankfully - no sign of war. (And believe me when I say I was looking for just that.) Then we cross another wire and are over another base, and then we land, and unstrap, and once again put boots on the ground.

The helos lift and go. A hundred yard walk completes my journey, and I can set my helmet and armor aside for a while. Pulling off the vest, I notice my shirt is damp with sweat, though it didn't seem all that hot outside.

It will dry quickly now, though. Because it's a dry heat.

Somewhere to the west the desert winds begin to blow and stir the dust and sand and lift it so that the ground becomes part of the sky.

The story continues here.

Hell Freezes Over...

...and pigs are flying

Valour-IT News

FBL

Last weekend was the 2007 Soldiers' Angels Conference, and the highlight of the event for Angels was a party at the Brooke Army Medical Center's (BAMC's) Fisher Houses in which 78 Valour-IT laptops were distributed to wounded Soldiers and Marines. This brings Valour-IT's total laptop distributions to over 1200 in two years, and an additional 22 laptops are on standby at BAMC.

Valour-IT was able to distribute the 78 laptops at once thanks to a $150,000 grant [warning, PDF file] from the San Antonio Area Foundation (SAAF), which is by far the largest donation Valour-IT has ever received. The money must be used exclusively in Texas, but that will free up other donations to be applied to locations around the country. SAAF has five million dollars to distribute and this was the first round of grants. Valour-IT received the largest grant of this round (about $80,000 of it remains at this time).

In related news, Circuit City has been working with Valour-IT for some time now, helping us to stretch our donated bucks. They negotiate with their major suppliers to get the best dealer incentives and bulk rates available at any given time and pass that savings directly on to us. This has enabled Valour-IT to distribute relatively high-end laptops to deserving veterans for under $600 each. So, representatives from Circuit City were on-hand at the party to coordinate distribution, and even set up decorations beforehand.

It was quite an impressive sight to see so many laptop boxes stacked up together, and so very gratifying to watch wounded soldiers pulling up in their wheelchairs with smiles on their faces and computer boxes in their laps. At BAMC, Valour-IT is blessed to work hand-in-glove with hospital caseworkers who identify a patient's need for a laptop and refer the info to us. This means that patients are less likely to "fall through the cracks," and are usually quickly identified if they are in need. In fact, the caseworkers themselves distributed the laptops.

Valour-IT is another result of average folks banding together to make a difference, getting beyond petty politics and government bureacracy to get something done and do it right.

Thank you Fuzzybear for heading up this project and making it what it is today. Valour-IT has come a long way in the two short years it's been formed and you are a big part of that success.

Fuzzybear has more here

Meanwhile, in the Belts

YOUSIFIYA, IRAQ — U.S. troops had nicknamed the suspected insurgent "George Clooney" because of his handsome mug, but he wasn't so pretty after members of his own Sunni tribe shot and wounded him, then turned him over to the Americans. U.S. forces say the tribe's act was an example of the payoffs from practicing the counterinsurgency techniques preached by Gen. David H. Petraeus as he enforces President Bush's troop "surge." But unlike the 28,500 newly arrived troops, soldiers here have been at it for nearly a year. <...> "To take guys who just got here and throw them out there and say the surge isn't working, or the surge is working — it's not an educated assessment," said Lt. Col. Michael Infanti, commander of the 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, or 4-31. "It takes time to work into an area." It is a message that U.S. military leaders have been sending since additional troops began arriving in Iraq in February, but it is not a message many politicians in Washington want to hear. They are awaiting a September progress report on the war, which if negative will increase pressure on Bush to begin withdrawing troops. <...>

"Let's face it, 95% of the people in Qaraghul are not terrorists," Capt. Shane Finn said. "Really, what it comes down to is people here are sick and tired of living in terror."

<...>

Soldiers say locals approach them with information and sometimes turn down the financial rewards, from about $30 to as much as $200, that are offered when tips pan out.

The shooting death of the soldier July 17, the killing of an imam who had cooperated with U.S. forces in Qaraghul a few days earlier, and the beheading of a local man who had shown support for the U.S. presence underscore the perils that remain in the region.

So did the arrival at a patrol base of a man who led soldiers to a nearby house, where they found a 17-year-old with welts and lacerations on his ankles and wrists. The teenager said he had been abducted by men in a black sedan who grabbed him as he took a smoke break from tending his family's fields.

He told soldiers he was beaten and then taken to a torture house and suspended by his wrists from the ceiling while his captors punched and slapped him. They berated him for smoking, saying it violated laws imposed by Islamic militant groups active in the area.

The boy eventually was released, but soldiers say the incident is a sign of things to come if troops pull out. "I think the insurgents will come and mess with people who've worked with us," Merlin said.

Stop the Press!

Pentagon press release:

Asked if a U.S. troop reduction in Iraq could come by the year’s end, Gates said it’s too soon to know for sure, or how large that reduction might be.

But it's certainly accurate.

CNN:

BLITZER: But realistically, that 160,000 troops -- it was 130, you raised it by about 30,000 as part of this strategy, 160. When do you think you'll be able to start drawing that number down?

GATES: Well, I think we'll have to wait for the evaluation from Ambassador Crocker and General Petraeus and their recommendation on that score before we're in a position to say.

BLITZER: So you're not working under any assumptions right now? You're just going to hold off making those decisions?

GATES: We're doing contingency planning on a lot of different possibilities. We intend to be in a position to execute whatever decisions the president makes.

MR. RUSSERT: Back in February you were before the Senate Armed Services Committee and Robert Byrd asked you this question: “How much longer do you think we’re going to be in Iraq before we begin to bring our people home?”

And Secretary Gates said, “It seems to me that if the plan to quiet Baghdad is successful and the Iraqis step up, accept their responsibilities, and successfully assume the leadership in trying to establish order and then carry out their political reconciliation process, I would hope that” we’d “be able to begin drawing down our troops later this year.” That would be the end of ‘07. Do you stand by that timetable?

SEC’Y GATES: Well, I think what we have to wait for now is the report from General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker and for the president to make that judgment.

MR. RUSSERT: Is there a possibility we could draw down troops by the end of this year?

SEC’Y GATES: A possibility.

MR. RUSSERT: A good possibility?

SEC’Y GATES: There is a possibility.

MR. RUSSERT: Would you bet on it?

SEC’Y GATES: I think I’d just leave it at that.

Now watch the media work it's magic.

The Washington Times:

Gates Sees Chance For Troop Reduction This Year

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday that U.S. forces could begin withdrawing from Iraq by the end of the year, depending on the results of a September report from the senior military commander in Iraq.

Iraqi Bumbling Kills Hopes For U.S. Pullback, Sez Gates

Prospects for a modest U.S. troop pullback by year's end have been doomed by the Iraqi government's failure to get its political act together, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates strongly hinted yesterday.

Going soft in Ramadi

Stars and Stripes:

The commander of a U.S. Marine Corps unit in Iraq wants to have his Marines begin patrolling without helmets and with less body armor.
<...>
Alexander said a change to a "soft posture" can now be considered because the security situation has improved significantly in recent months.

Security conditions in the western Iraq city of Ramadi have improved so much since coalition forces wrested control from al-Qaida that 80 days have now passed without a single attack, according to Col. John Charlton, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team.
Security has blossomed not only in the city, but in the entire 8,900 square-mile province of Anbar, of which Ramadi is the capitol, Charlton told Pentagon reporters Friday during a remote video briefing from his Ramadi headquarters.

In February, the 6,000 U.S. servicemembers under Charlton's command and the 12,000 Iraqi security forces were braving between 30 and 35 daily attacks from the organization known as al-Qaida in Iraq, which had declared Anbar, particularly Ramadi, as the center of its operations.

Attacks now average one a day of fewer, Charlton said.

Some weeks, there are no attacks throughout the province, Charlton said.

Believe it or not, the soft cap option might not be popular with all Marines. Patrick Lasswell:

This weekend I talked with a Marine friend of mine who recently came back from a tour in Anbar province. His base was attacked (incompetently) twice while he was there, and that used to be the worst place in the whole country. He was disappointed in the level of action he saw and felt that as Marines his unit should have been rotated to the active fighting in Baghdad. When troops come back complaining that there aren't enough fights to go around, you are not losing.

Case closed?

Matt Sanchez:

After a thorough investigation that lasted nearly a week the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division has concluded that the allegations made by Private Thomas Scott Beauchamp, the "Baghdad Diarist", have been "refuted by members of his platoon and proven to be false"

Thoughts and prayers ...

...goes to victims, their families and rescue crews of this disaster.

Thank You Anheuser-Busch

...and not just for the beer.

For those few that have missed the Dawn Patrol, here's my excuse. My kids come home from work the other day and say "How 'bout we go to Bush Gardens (Tampa)"
It's FREE for military

That's right, those that are not familiar with this program it's called “Here’s to the Heroes”
"Here’s to the Heroes" provides a single day’s free admission once a year to any one SeaWorld or Busch Gardens park, Sesame Place, Adventure Island or Water Country USA, for the service member and as many as three of his or her direct dependents. Any active duty, active reserve, ready reserve service member or National Guardsman is entitled to free admission under the program. He or she need only register, either online here or in the entrance plaza of a participating park, and show a Department of Defense photo ID. Also included in the offer are members of foreign military forces serving in the coalitions in Iraq or Afghanistan or attached to American units in the U.S. for training.

"Here’s to the Heroes" is the fourth tribute to military personnel offered by Anheuser-Busch since Yellow Ribbon Summer welcomed service members home from the Gulf War in 1991.

Anheuser-Busch has supported the military for more than 150 years, and in 2005 launched the "Here’s to the Heroes Tour", which allowed everyday Americans to record video messages of support and thanks for the men and women of the U.S. military. The Heroes Tour traveled more than 29,000 miles to towns and events across America from April through December, collecting messages from more than 11,000 Americans. Working with the America Supports You program, the messages were aired on American Forces Radio and Television Service on U.S. military bases in more than 177 countries and on 150 bases in the United States throughout 2005.

I think that's awesome.

Now, free or not, I'm not normally the kind to go on a trip like this on a moments notice. I like to plan, make lists, so thank God (not Gore) for the internet. Google map made getting there easy. But a quick search for hotel and hotel reviews almost ended it. Hotels close by we're expensive ($150 to $220 a night for 5 people) and the inexpensive ones ($60-$80) were not in the best neighborhood, however I always look for a military base nearby and I found MacDill AFB, home base of US Central Command (CENTCOM), just 30 minutes away on the Bay and I must say, it's a beautiful base. It is located on the southern tip of the Interbay Peninsula.

The MacDill Inn was one of THE best hotels I've ever stayed at, and considering this was also TLF (Temporary Living Facilities) just made this even more surprising. It's a block from the bay, although beautiful not my cup of tea for swimming (don't like bay water). But the Gulf is only 25 minutes away. And the kicker is, it's only $36.00 a night for two bedrooms (1 queen and 2 twin beds), a living room with a queen hide-a-bed and a large chair that was a twin hide-a-bed, (sleeps a total of 7), a TV in each room with cable, a full size kitchen AND a washer and dryer. A hotel closer with all these amenities would have been in the $400 range, so 30 minutes doesn't seem so far anymore, beside I do that everyday to get to the mall.

As for Busch Gardens Tampa, it was AWESOME! The rides were spectacular, only one ride was shut down for maintenance, the 4-D movie theater was fun, Animals were exoctic and well cared for, food was great and reasonably priced. The park, itself, was not overly crowded, the lines for rides were 20 minutes long at THE most, plus each ride had lockers (nice), the rest rooms were really pleasantly clean, and the staff were friendly. Even though this is not a water park, plan on getting plenty wet so dress accordingly (No, see thru when wet tops, girls).

Overall, this is was a great family vacation, it would have been 1000 times better if dad could have been there but wait til next year dad and the kids drag you on the Sheikra with it's 90% drop from 200 ft or their personal favorite, the longest and most intense ride

If you can't download the video Dad, kids will be sending their reports soon, with all the details. Wish you could have been there. Love You

Now for everyone else, Anheuser-Busch operates nine U.S. theme parks: Busch Gardens Tampa Bay and Busch Gardens Williamsburg; SeaWorld Orlando, SeaWorld San Diego and SeaWorld San Antonio; Discovery Cove in Orlando; Sesame Place near Philadelphia; Water Country USA in Williamsburg and Adventure Island in Tampa, so if you're military I highly recommend you register and go and those of you that are not, Busch Gardens offers any two days for the price of one and other deals, definitly worth the trip.

So Thank You Anheuser-Busch for your support of our military!