sacrifice

john 15:13 - "greater lover has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

i was thinking recently about this war i'm apart of... and how few people in the u.s. are feeling any of the impacts or sacrificing anything in their life for it. 1% of the u.s. population serves in the military. i'm not saying we all have to come over here and run around in the desert... i'll gladly do this if it means someone else doesn't have to. i just feel many americans are disconnected from what's going on over here. i include myself prior to deploying.

what made me think of this was reflecting on the memorials i've covered since being here. i've only done a few while many of my troops have done more than their share... but each time really hits home. i don't get angry at the insurgents or this war, i get angry at humanity and our seemingly need to kill each other. i also feel for the soldier and his/her family. to put yourself knowingly in harms way to cover your battle buddy's back i believe takes a certain caliber of person. the first memorial i did was for a 20 year old named dwayne covert. he was married with one child and another on the way. i hope to never forget his name... and that's where i'm going with all of this. i think even if we can't or won't all serve, we should all do something... even if it's as simple as looking up a fallen soldier and remembering his or her name.

here's a site if you feel compelled to do so.
http://icasualties.org/oif/BY_DOD.aspx

if you're religious... pray for their families and as odd as it may seem... my soldiers who have to attend these ceremonies and bottle their emotions more than anyone should have to.

i'm not trying to win anyone over on whether or not we should be in iraq... i'm just hoping you will remember those who answered the call regardless of their political views and layed down their lives for their friends.

3:10 to kirkuk pt.2

if this were an episode of my life... i'd have a "previously on kevin" bit at the beginning of this blog. but instead... just read the blog below.

so after my first jog through northern iraq... i took about two days off and then if was on the road again. the mission this time: to document the opening of a substation in my favorite province, sulaymaniyah. then it would be back to kirkuk for the progress on the provincial construction center (oooo exciting kevin please go on) and the pipeline exclusion zone.



for those of you wondering where all these strange far off lands are... here's a map.




back to my story...

i'm in sulaymaniyah for this grand opening with a ribbon cutting, speeches, doves released and the sacrifice of a sheep. if you just raised an eye brow and read that last piece out loud... you're in the same boat i was in. unfortunately we missed that part but i was interested to see this whole sacrifice thing, plus i was curious how many more volts the substation would deliver with spilt sheep's blood on there. it must help conduct electricity or something. what do i know... i rely on eweb to overcharge me to turn on my lights.

anyway, i get there and there had to be a dozen video cameras and twice as many still cameras. this was some event. since we were on time... we were late. which meant no time for micing the podium and i had to elbow my way into the pyrana pool of journalists. they were all crowded in and one guy, who even had a bodyguard, had free reign to walk wherever he wanted, which usually ended up in front of all of the rest of us. it's a good thing i have some patience because i was ready to throw some elbows. after the chaos was over and the dust had settled i took a tour of the site. it's set to power more than 40-thousand homes. impressive... most impressive.

later, we went out to lunch with some of the mucky mucks of sulaymaniyah at a four star restaurant. it was great. lamp kabobs, hummus galore, dill cucumber sauce and my favorite... flat bread! i was in heaven. i almost forgot where i was when they started pouring wine... but then the hooah soldier voice in my bowels sprang to life and reminded me that we can fight over here... but there sure won't be any drinking going on. it was a great time.

the provincial construction center was the next stop... but i won't bore you with that. it's almost done... and it will help things. enough said.

the pipeline exclusion zone is actually pretty cool in concept... but trying to get video of people working or doing anything was near impossible. iraqis along there work a 10am to 3:30pm schedule with a lunch. not bad for a day's "work." once it's done it should help prevent theft and attacks on the oil here. one of the engineers said the project cost about $30 million dollars... but once complete, they're be able to make more than that in one day of uninterrupted oil flow.

so there's part two. as with most sequels it was probably a let down and relied more on it's graphics than on actual story. i'll try to write a prequel at some point that will have me as a hyper little kid with unfathomable powers. i'll annoy you and have a random jamaican dude ruin the whole thing.

3:10 to kirkuk

so it's been yet again another span of time since my last post... so here's the latest scoop on my travels/adventures abroad.

my most recent excursion involved... just that a ford excursion. for the last couple of weeks i've gone to almost every region of northern iraq with the corps of engineers. the corps of engineers is still an enigma to me as far as how it operates. it's army driven but funded through the da, not dod. i'd like to say that after my trips that i understand their structure more... but that's not the case. i do have a new appreciation for the work they do. 99% of the corps are civilians. so they truly volunteer to come over here. and unlike many of the contractors... these folks aren't doing it for the money.

anyway... i've digressed from my trip report.

journey #1: we headed to logistics support area anaconda (lsa anaconda or mortaritaville as the locals call it.) flights were hard to come by so we drove. not in your standard military vehicle mind you. as i said... they're da not dod... so we took up-armored ford excursions as well as a contracted security force. i felt like a v.i.p. for sure. lsa anaconda is plush... as it is one of the largest bases here located just north of baghdad. other than that... nothing too spectacular. we met up with a lt. gen. who's in charge of both the corps of engineers and all the other engineer units in the army. after touring the construction projects on the post and speaking to the troops... we (my group and the general's) headed to sulaymaniyah.

sulaymaniyah is a province that borders iran and is north of baghdad and east of kirkuk. it's kurdish run so i was in for quite the treat. you see the kurds pride themselves on being a progressive culture... the airport was just like a small town private airport back in the states. very impressive. it was here that i visited an old russian castle, that sadam used to torture kurds and is now being renovated into a prison. due to all the bad memories it will double as an incentive to not break the law. i also ate the best meals i've had here. the corps of engineers office in sulaymaniyah is inside a kurdish post and their cook is a local. he was trained and worked in germany but moved back to iraq to marry and because he felt it was safer. his food was awesome. red wine beef... do i need to say any more?

after checking out the old castle... we headed to kirkuk on our way back to speicher. nothing eventful happened other than the coolest car ride through town of my life. when we got to kirkuk... we decided to go through the city instead of around. remember i'm travelling in an excursion. we zipped through the city really fast and more direct than the roads were designed to allow. we jumped medians and forced traffic to make a hole for us to fly through. it was like being in a bourne identity car chase. awesome... simply awesome.

needless to say... i made it home safe and sound... but i have new experiences that have helped shape my view of how the country as a whole is doing rather than just what's on the news. none of the news agencies go to the iraqi controlled provinces and report on the successes. that's not sexy enough. they just stay in baghdad where the main government drags its feet constantly, and in mosul or the diyala province where the insurgency still has a foothold.

this was only journey#1... i saw how long this blog was so i'm going to split them up.

to be continued...