A Soldier's Message From Iraq

Paco · Posted: 02/09/05 - 11:02 Post subject:

Sorry for the spacing. Wanted to share this. Smile

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.
Today I got to witness first hand a new democracy take its first
steps. My day started early....acutely 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 thank 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

A Soldier's Message From Iraq

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