The beginning of "Saving Private Ryan" features a letter from Abraham Lincoln to a mother (at the time) thought to have lost five sons in battle during the Civil War. It was written to Mrs. Lidia Bixby, a widow, and was later published in a Boston newspaper. The letter is simultaneously very (by modern sensibilities perhaps too) formal, and poignant.
Executive Mansion, Washington, Nov. 21, 1864.
Dear Madam,
I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.
I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.
I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.
Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,
A. Lincoln
There is a beauty in the words, a visceral (however detached the reader may be) horror in the content. It has contains a terrible beauty that, in its small way, encapsulates a part of war.
Read the wiki. I dare anyone to read the sentences that follow the letter's text and not laugh. Horrible, yes. Funny (if only because of the shock), also yes.
Aside from the latest post, which is really about something that happened back in November, I've not posted in some time. Sorry. My job is certainly less interesting now (well it is for me, and I imagine it would also be for you), so less to post about. That said, I'm happy, enjoying my life, and generally enjoying the states. I've changed jobs, even units this week. I've given up my platoon, and am taking over as the executive officer in a different troop (Troop:Company::Cavalry:InfantryTroop:Cavalry::Company:Infantry - bet you never thought that construction would be useful again. And I thought I would get it right.). This means, of course, that I have moved out of 5-20 IN, into 1-14 Cav, the Cavalry Squadron in my Brigade. (See wiki for a pretty chart that will make much more sense). That said, I am now in a Cavalry unit. It's not too different from my previous unit, but there are differences, some of which I may blog about. The short bit; I get to buy a sweet hat.
To hails and farewells. A very belated welcome back to Audrey. She's back now, which is awesome, reunited with Rip, and now with a dog... adorable, hyperactive Zephyr. Also, a good luck, do good things, to both Elizabeth and Danielle. They're both deploying this month. Again, good luck, fun stories and a boring deployment to you both.
And finally, I entreat you all to comment. I know some of you are still reading this, and many new folk keep showing up. This month alone, I have visitors from all over the US and from Pakistan and Thailand. Those ones are new for me, so if I know you, say hi. If I don't know you, say hi and how you found your way here to my 40 acres.
At the beginning of November of last year all of our equipment arrived at the Port of Olympia by ship from Kuwait. Our Strykers, 18-ton armored vehicles, and the shipping containers that held all of our personal and military equipment, were unloaded over a couple of days. As soon as news of this got out, a series of demonstrations protesting the Army’s use of the port began. The protests were fairly large and usually entailed the protesters attempting to block the movement of military equipment out of the port, forming barricades using people and trash, once even blocking a portion of the I-5 Freeway. The Olympia Police used riot police, pepper spray and mass arrests to keep the port open.
I was only in Iraq for a very brief period, essentially a long summer, before I redeployed with my unit. There was some very intense fighting in Baqubah, a city about 30 miles north of Baghdad, especially before I arrived, but I didn’t experience any truly traumatic events that often cause soldiers to have problems readjusting to life at home. I led a platoon through a wide variety of missions, securing vital routes, raiding suspected insurgents, systematically clearing large parts of the city and conducting humanitarian aid missions. We spent most of our time moving on foot through the city, spending nights in Iraqi houses, periodically returning to a Forward Operating Base to rest and resupply. In the city we were constantly on guard, scanning everything around us for threats.
I returned to Fort Lewis, just south of Seattle, in October and quickly resumed my old life. One night the week our equipment arrived in Olympia, much of my Battalion moved by busses down to the port drive our Strykers the 15 miles to Fort Lewis. The atmosphere was chaotic, the entrance to the port blocked by more than 200 protesters, held at bay by a very significant Police presence. We prepared our vehicles to move, but had to wait several hours for the Police disperse the crowd. More than sixty people were arrested that night. By one in the morning we finally pushed out the gate with a heavy Police escort. It is a strange thing to see an 18-ton armored combat vehicle being escorted by a Police cruiser.
I was toward the front of a large convoy of Strykers, standing in the commanders hatch of my Stryker, the same place I had stood for countless movements in Iraq, wearing much of the same protective equipment, working with the same vehicle crew I had for months in combat. As we pushed through Olympia, protesters moved along our route in small groups looking for a gap in the police protection, trying to split and block the convoy. I naturally and continuously scanned the buildings, streets and roofs as we moved through the city. Obviously I knew that the protesters posed me no physical threat – I wasn’t even scanning for them. It had become ingrained. I was driving in a Stryker through an urban environment, strikingly similar to Baqubah, and the only natural response was to do what I had done for months – constantly look for the threat.
Once we reached the freeway the feeling of familiarity, of hyper-awareness, faded. I haven’t had any similar experiences since, and I doubt I will. I wasn’t scared or uncomfortable at the time, or now looking back on it. It simply was.
So many of you know that I really don't like country music much at all, with very few exceptions. This, however, is a fairly cool song. Video is pretty cool too.
So, Mother Jones, an interesting news magazine has, as it's cover story this month, an article entitled, "U.S. Out How?" using a play on the anti-war movement's phrase "US Out Now!" Interesting article, though it seems a little light on substance, relying mostly on sound bites from people to whom they sent a survey, and on half-baked statistics. Still and interesting article, but, as I plan to illustrate, they really didn't try to dig any deeper than what they had lying around.
To me, this seems to be attempting to point out some of the incongruity, the strange "comforts" that differentiate this war from previous ones. I can't impugn their intent because I don't know exactly what it is. However, I can impugn their use of their data, which is massively flawed. The numbers used in reference to facilities seem accurate enough. The number of night vision devices seems very low - it would give one set of NVD for every five or so US soldiers, one in six if you include marines. Plus "night-vision equipment," to me, should also include night sights for weapons and perhaps even vehicle-mounted sights. My company alone probably had 20-50 pieces of "night-vision equipment" in addition to the set of individual NVD that each person was issued. So that number seems rather low to me. The body armor number makes much more sense, and I wouldn't be surprised if the NVD number was much closer to it in reality.
The truely ridiculous number, however, is the Playstation/Nintendo/XBox figure. 48? Seriously? If this is meant to represent the number that US government owns in MWR-type facilities, I might buy it. It still seems low, though. However if it is meant to represent the number of game consoles in use in Iraq (which seems implied), it is off by orders of magnitude. Again, using my personal experience, no. Freakin'. Way. There were more than 48 consoles at FOB Warhorse. Hell, the Warhorse MWR had at least four, and it was a terrible, small MWR. My platoon (a very small platoon) had at least another eight. I really doubt that I've seen all the consoles in all of Iraq, but I saw at least 48 in person over there.
These are obviously trifling little complaints about an interesting article, but they speak to a lacksidasical way the whole article was put together... it seems to be more quotes and infographics than the type of deep, smart journalism we usually get from Mother Jones.
I have posted all of my Iraq photos on flickr. There 565 of them. Look down and to the left to see some samples. However, they are listed for friends and family only - this means that if you don't have a Flickr membership, you will not be able to see them. (Photos are private for all sorts of reasons.) However, being the clever chap that I am, I have made a work around: If you have a Flickr, friend me and you'll be able to see the photos. If you do not have, nor want to get a flickr account, I've made one for the use of my visitors. Just email me and i'll give you the account info.
I return. I'm back at Fort Lewis, enjoying the rain and cool weather. And trees. And trees.
I can be reached on my cell phone (nine two five) three six oh, six oh five three, or by (domestic!) snail mail at
123 Hudson Ln #206J Olympia, Wa 98513
however, don't try to visit me there - it's not even the right city. Don't ask me how it works - I haven't the slightest. However, anyone wanting to visit will be provided with directions. Thank you all for the support, packages, emails, comments, did I mention packages, etc. They were, and are, much appreciated. Look to Flikr soon for a ridiculous number of photos of my travails.
As I've discussed before, we have a web filtering program here at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait that blocks our access to various sites based on categories.
I don't like, but understand, the use of filtering technology on government computers. I understand that pornography is banned under both General Order #1 and considered unprofessional in a public setting. Similarly, I am only mildly annoyed by the fact that the Army has chosen a system that prevents me from viewing web sites that are “Tasteless” or contain "Adult Materials.” Keep in mind that "Adult Materials" does not mean pornographic, porn get its own category. “Adult”, in this case means, as best as I can tell, “naughty” materials like sex toys and swimsuits (sites featuring these are blocked). I will argue that all of the personnel using these computers are adults (or 17 year-olds enlisted and deployed), as they are all members of the US Military or DOD civilian employees. Perhaps they can handle seeing the Victoria’s Secret catalog.
The system, Fortigaurd, blocks all sorts of categories it feels might be controversial (view them all here). I am used to the Army, in circumstances such as this, thinking that I need to be protected from my own immature, prurient ways. As I said above, I don’t like it, but I can abide it. What I cannot abide is wholesale censorship of legitimate (and legally protected) political viewpoints.
And that is what it does. Fortigaurd blocks the Planned Parenthood site, among others I imagine, under the category, “Abortion.” The site for the organization Veterans Against The Iraq War is blocked under "Advocacy Organizations."
Advocacy.
I won’t address in, this post, DoD’s new blogging policy – that is a different beast entirely, involving Operations Security and classified information. This is about information – incoming information. Advocacy is banned. Perhaps they've never read the Constitution. (It is rather long - like four whole pages, five if you include the amendments.) You would think, though, that someone might have at least gotten around to reading the first part of that last page. Censorship, especially against those whose job it is to “protect freedom,” is the worst of hypocrisy. To prevent servicemembers from getting information that you disagree with it is both shameful and unconscionable.
In my mind, in a free nation, this kind of censorship is tantamount to treason.
It's a good article about a shitty thing that happened in Baqubah, where I left last month. A lot of people were killed, Perhaps people I’ve met. It's surprising that no Americans were killed, especially considering the number that were there (the article doesn't say how many, but COL Sutherland, a Brigade commander was there, so you can assume he had a decent-sized entourage).
I’ve met Alexandra Zavis - she was embedded with my company in Baqubah. Her reporting, that I have read, has always seemed, better than most, to show the scene of what is happening. She understands the situation and the underlying issues that surround Baqubah and Iraq. My problem with this article, and others like it, is this: the quotes and the location are new, but the story doesn’t feel that way. The article feels like a cut and paste job of "Suicide bomber kills [number] at [denomination] [site]," followed by a recap of similar events all over Iraq. I don't blame Ms. Zavis necessarily for the lack of specifics, but instead the media environment that has become so saturated with this kind of story.
I understand that most people reading the article will be largely unfamiliar with Iraqi, let alone Baquban, geography, but a description that's more complex than "a mosque" would be much appreciated. I probably know some, if not many, of the people who were there. I've likely been by that mosque, depending on which one it is. A simple description, like Khatoon or Old Baqubah, or even just east or west would give informed readers a much more useful picture. I know that I tune out some of the specifics of stories about attacks in Baghdad or Mosul - I just don't know the geography well enough to make us of the details - but I imagine the people there would like to know more about the stories as well. Newspaper websites mediate length constraints, and make the addition of graphics and maps much easier to add to stories. Perhaps if stories about Iraq, especially about violence in Iraq, were less generic, people would read more than just the headline.
