Election news... A Soldier's Message From Iraq

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RACastanet
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Joined: Thu Mar 11, 1999 6:01 am
Location: Richmond, VA

Election news... A Soldier's Message From Iraq

Post by RACastanet »

>
>Subject: FW: A Soldier's Message From Iraq
>
>This is such good news! I hope you'll take the time to read it.
>Whatever you might be doing right now that might make you
>think that you don't have time to read this message in its entirety,
>you need to stop it. Take the time to read and reflect on
>what Lt. Colonel Scott Stanger, US Army, has to say about today in
>Iraq. Thanks to Ronda (his wife) for sharing with us
>all. And thanks to Scott and all of the other brave men and women who
>freely give of themselves for others.
>
>An Incredible Day [30 Jan 2005, Iraqi elections day]
>
>Today I got to witness first hand a new democracy take its first
>steps. My day started early...actually my day started about 4
>days ago because we have been going non-stop since then, hence no
>updates lately. I was up at 5am and my head was
>pounding and my sinuses were killing me. I was up and out with my
>team by 5:30am.... I had to get at least one cup of
>coffee in me before I left. The day started slow and we had some
>small arms fire, 8 rockets shot at us, and we found one
>IED. The small arms fire and the rockets missed us. The IED was
>another matter, but we called our bomb guys and they
>took care of it with their bomb robot, which, by the way, is their
>third robot. The first two died in the line of duty. The polls
>opened at 7am and that when things got interesting.
>
>The press showed up in droves. It would have been impossible to swing
>a dead cat and not hit a reporter in our area of
>operation today. I met Campbell Brown from NBC. She was likeable,
>but you could tell she did not want to be in
>Baghdad...she was very jumpy and looked a nervous. I guess we were
>that way when we first got here too but you get used
>to the shooting. Later, when we were dealing with the IED, a guy from
>PBS filmed the whole episode and told me that he
>was shooting a documentary for PBS. He had the camera in my face for
>about a half an hour while we got set to blow the
>IED. It is a little weird trying to get rid of a roadside bomb when
>guy has a camera in your face. I finally got him to leave me
>alone when I told him we were going to blow the bomb in place. Since
>the bomb was on a bridge there was no where to hide
>so I put him behind my armored hummer and he stayed put. We blew the
>IED and the PBS guy left.
>
>We had very tight security on the polling sites and all around our
>area of operation. Iraqi police and Iraqi Army soldiers were
>at every polling site defending them. I have been planning for about
>8 days for this mission and it was the largest we have
>done to date. Infantry, armor, attack helicopters, engineers...you
>name it, we had it. The Iraqi government shut down all
>traffic in the country so the streets were deserted. At about 10am
>the streets were packed with large crowds of people walking
>to the polls. We were on edge waiting for more attacks that never
>came. By about 3pm we could start to let our hair down
>and talk to the people. The site was amazing.
>
>We dismounted from our vehicles and were instantly mobbed by about 200
>kids. The kids were all over the place playing in
>the streets while their parents voted. The kids walked with us for
>about 2 miles while we were talking to the adults. I have
>never seen anything like it. People everywhere wanted to talk to us
>and thank us. This is what it must have been like when
>the Allies liberated Paris. Iraqis of all ages wanted to shake our
>hands and thank us for allowing them to vote. The kids were
>proud to tell us that their parents voted. Adult after adult wanted
>to thanks us for making this day happen. When the Iraqis
>voted they dipped their fingers in indelible purple ink so that
>polling officials could tell who had already voted. When we
>walked the streets the Iraqis would hold their purple finger up in the
>air as a mark of pride. They were very proud of their
>purple finger. The Iraqis statements to us were all the same; "Thank
>you for your sacrifices for the Iraqi people"; "Thank you
>for making this day possible"; "The United States is the true
>democracy in the world and is the country that makes freedom
>possible"; "God blessed the Iraqi people and the United States this
>day"; " We have never known a day like this under
>Saddam"; "This day is like a great feast, a wonderful holiday." I
>shook more hands today then I have ever in my life. If you
>missed a hand they would follow for a mile to get a chance to shake
>and say thanks. It was nothing like we expected or have
>ever seen. The Iraqi people were strong and brave today. The Iraqis,
>stoic to danger, faced fear, and went out and voted.
>Then after they voted, the Iraqis stayed on the streets to celebrate
>by singing dancing and trying to shake the hand of any
>American that they could find.
>
>Even though today was a great day for Iraq, the Iraqis took their
>lumps. There were 6 car bombs in Iraq today, 2 of them in
>Baghdad. One I believe did more for Iraqi moral then any other event
>I that I have ever witnessed here. A suicide car bomber
>drove up to a polling site, which was not to far from us, and blew
>up. The bomb did not kill anybody but the
>bomber himself. After the bomb went off the Iraqi voters calmly
>walked out of the polling site and spit
>on the remains of the suicide bomber. The polling site stayed open
>and the voting continued. That
>incident ran all day long on Iraqi TV. It was a beautiful act of
>defiance for the Iraqi people. The Iraqi people stood up for
>themselves today and stuck a purple finger in the enemy's eye.
>
>Later in the day I thought about our sacrifices that we have made. I
>wondered if the three men that my unit has sent home in
>flag draped coffins was worth what I saw today. I am still not sure
>if that is the case, but when a grown Iraqi man thanks me
>with tears running down his face, it made me feel better about what we
>have accomplished.
>
>Addendum:
>
>Much later that night we had two Kiowa attack Helicopters working for
>us. One of our sister battalions was in contact and
>needed help. We diverted the helicopters to the other battalion and
>watched. A unit of the other battalion was under attack by
>15 insurgents. The enemy was trying to flee on foot in the open.
>That was a mistake. The Kiowa's launched 10 rockets
>and hammered the enemy. The pilots report after they attacked was two
>words, "Target Destroyed"!
>
>Scott
Member of the world's premier gun club, the USMC!
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