DIGIJOURNAL 003--02 NOV 2006

DATELINE: 02NOV06 FOB O'RYAN

Hello from lovely FOB O'Ryan. Paul and I have been conducting the magical mystery FOB tour. We have soldiers scattered over four different FOBs, so CPL Paul “buy me a vowel” Crnkovich and I plan on being on the road quite a bit.

In order to keep a positive attitude, I am no longer calling this a deployment. I will now refer to my time in Iraq as an “Adventure Vacation.” Many folks going through a mid-life crisis pay good money to thwart death. The US Army is not only providing me this opportunity free of cost, but they are actually paying me. Paul thinks I am losing it. I am not sure that I ever had it.

I must at least provide a short rebuttal to the Honorable Senator Kerry. In the words of our Command Sergeant Major, he has “done lost his mind.” I guess the message I will tell my sons is that they must study hard and do well in school or else they will wind up in the Army like me. Paul put it this way, “If I only studied harder in school, I would not be fighting for other people's freedom.” Truth be told, those of us in the military do not take seriously what the liberal (or conservative) Brahmin say about us untouchables. We are too busy trying to defeat the bad guys and to keep ourselves and our buddies alive with all of their digits functional.


Paul is always good for a quote. The other day as we listened to the soft thumping of our mortars going outbound, I asked him the rhetorical question of what that sound was. I told him that it was democracy going downrange. He in turn said it was freedom ringing. Now he has all the battalion saying the words.

I am reluctantly having to admit to myself that there is beauty over here. Yesterday I watched a thunderstorm, complete with lightning, roll across the Tigris River valley. The birds here are magnificent, and the near tropical vegetation around the river gives the impression of Eden. When we went out on patrol two days ago, we saw acre after acre of lush grape fields. They have citrus orchards along the Tigris as well. Again, I believe that this country, if it ever got its act together, could be a beautiful and productive place.

Our soldiers are something else. You can always tell an American GI by his generosity. Out on patrol, our soldiers stopped to talk to the families living in a small village along one of the canals. As their leaders were conversing, our Joes started passing out food and candy to the kids. As we prepared to leave, an older boy brought out his infant sister to wave goodbye to us. One of our guys had an extra chocolate muffin, and he tossed it to the girl. Her big brown eyes melted about everyone. I am glad we do this--getting out to talk to people--for it prevents us from becoming overly cynical about this place.

Well, must sign off. We are going to walk around the FOB talking to guys. Please keep us in your prayers. We love you all.

Warhorse Archangel