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<DIV>" Yeah, that’s not to say people are getting hurt and dying, but
that’s part of the job. It does just like the cop on the beat who’s
shot by a crack dealer-we just see more of it over here. You do the
job, and you accept the hazards, dangers and costs. You just do your
best to make what your doing worth the cause. BELEIVE me, these Iraqi
citizens appreciate it."</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2>questions:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>that's part of the job... : <FONT color=#0000ff>whose
job?</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>You do the job, and you accept the hazards, dangers and costs
....: <FONT color=#0000ff>who decides about that? who
accepts?</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>You just do your best to make <EM>what your doing</EM> worth
the cause..: <FONT color=#0000ff>is it really the best that can be
done???</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>these Iraqi citizens appreciate it.........:<FONT
color=#0000ff> ?????????????</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>people are getting hurt and dying.....:<FONT
color=#0000ff> !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! who can justify
this???? </FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=ejespady@mydurango.net
href="mailto:ejespady@mydurango.net">Spady's</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
href="mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU">OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Friday, February 04, 2005 7:26
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Word from a US soldier</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>We recently received this message from a friend, fighting in
Iraq. I thought that it might be of interest for everyone to hear things
from a young soldier's perspective.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>If you think about it, we truly are "opening the space" for
the Iraqi people to live in peace.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Judy Spady</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"> </DIV></DIV>
<TABLE id=INCREDIMAINTABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 width="100%"
border=0><TBODY>
<TR>
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style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; CURSOR: auto; FONT-FAMILY: Arial" width="100%">
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV id=IncrediOriginalMessage><I>-------Original
Message-------</I></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV id=receivestrings>
<DIV dir=ltr style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt" <i><B>From:</B></I> <A
href="mailto:ltdbdunn1980@hotmail.com">Daniel Dunn</A></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt" <i><B>Subject:</B></I> Moving
again</DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Hey All:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Alrighty, You all can un-pucker your fourth points of contact (I’ll
give a lesson on that when I get home if you don’t
understand). Let’s recap all that has happened. I
flew on the 20th and landed evening of the 22nd in Kuwait, then went to
Camp Buehring, which is a pushing base, not receiving (going north, not
coming south). At that point I was supposed to go to the
506th infantry, the same unit in “Band of Brothers.” Then,
about a week later, we left and flew into Iraq, landing at a small
airbase in our Brigade sector. Upon landing, I learned I
would be going to 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry instead, and almost four
days later, right after Election Day here, we arrived at Camp
Correigador, home of the 503rd. The history of THAT unit is
that it was the only Parachute Infantry Regiment to go to the Pacific
theatre in WWII, and earned its nickname of “The Rock,” by landing on
The Island of Correigador outside the Philippines. The island
was famous for being impenetrable.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Now, after being assigned, Brigade has asked for personnel to stand
up a special unit. They’re calling it a MAT or Military
Assistance Team (similar to MAG in Vietnam). The purpose is
to train local Iraqi Security Forces to begin taking control of the
nation. Ladies and Gentleman, if you want this war to end,
then wish me the BEST of frickin luck. This is the KEY to the
US leaving. And God knows I want that as much as any mother,
father, wife, etc. I do so because I was Mortared Last
night. Not hit by mortars (take a breath mom) but in the
Dining Facility and heard them coming in…WALKING in. They
came closer and closer, four of them. We waited for the fifth
that never came. It was just a little taste of war, but it
was sourer than fifteen-year-old grapes soaked in lemon juice found at
the bottom of a latrine. Makes you heart beat
quickly. Luckily, no casualties and we got back at them with
some new high tech stuff we got.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Anyways, this is a good job. I’ll be at Brigade
Headquaters (which is why this doesn’t have an APO address yet), out of
the way most of the time, and when I’m on the streets, it’ll be with
other guys watching over Iraqi Troops, and, for those of you who know
that my hope is to one day join the Special Forces, this is a GREAT
start. That’s what SF does all the time!</DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>Spent Election Day at a small Marine Airbase called Al Taqueddum
(or TQ for short). The information about the events around us
was been sketchy. We heard most of the action is in Baghdad,
with some small pockets around us. Sitting in the tent, we
heard four large explosions off in the distance, and ran out to
see. We watched as two Marine Corps Cobra gunships attacked
targets on the ground near the town of Falleujah. We could
see the tracers and everything, including smoke on the
horizon. Occasionally you’d hear .50 cal’s shoot up at the
choppers and they’d climb high out of range. Then the
shooting would stop and the helicopters would go back down and engage
again. We thought an AC-130 was going to clean up, but it
just circled over the area once and landed.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Predator drones fly over constantly. It sounds like a
lawnmower in the sky! It’s kind of an odd sight, but damn,
cool thing to see. Not sure on the policy for photos, so I
hold off on that. Plus the light was waning, so it might not
have turned out very good.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>We stayed in a tent about a football field away from the airstrip
so we see and hear all this air traffic. It made sleeping at
night tough, and I usually had to use ear plugs or my iPod to drown out
the noise of the aircraft, especially the -130’s and the Cobra’s on
night missions (we’re on a Marine controlled Airbase right now).</DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>There’re these small local vendor store (we call a “Hadji-shop”)
that you can get things you’d never see in America. They have
bootleg DVD’s (most of which are still in theatre’s in the US, but low
quality in video), and VERY inexpensive electronics (but questionable
about legality on those), as well as Cuban Cigars for very cheap (2 for
$10, in comparison to a good Montecristo No. 2 in the US (non-Cuban) for
$16…don’t ask how I know).</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Something I want you all to know (in case the Media f**ks THIS one
up) there WAS a 72% turn out at the Iraqi polls. There were
over 5,000 voters in Falleujah alone, which is good considering that
ended not two months ago. It ALMOST makes it all worth
it. I won’t tell what the cost was, because it isn’t my
place. It’s not THAT high in comparison to most of what we’ve
done, but…You also need to remember that every voter that DID go out
risked their life. The insurgents ran video ads on TV that
said they’d kill any voters in the street. These people live
in absolute TERROR of these people. Insurgents regularly chop
heads of in public squares, kill whole families for US support, and
often indiscriminate against US and civilians. Meanwhile, the
US builds schools, immunizes children, pays for our damages AND the
insurgents damages…I don’t tell you this as propaganda or to gross you
out, I say it out of shit I have REALLY seen first hand. This
war truly isn’t about oil or WMD’s, at least not to us ground
pounders. It’s about ridding these people of a scared
lifestyle.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Yesterday I talked to one of the Iraqi Commando force that is
attached to the 503rd. When I say talked, I mean tried to
break the language barrier, and for the most part, did fairly
well. We talked about families, and fighting, and stuff like
that. We traded dollar for Dinar and signed them for each
other. It was cool talking with someone from another world
(which again, goes to reinforce that I might be the right guy for this
new job).</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Anyways, I won’t scare you all anymore. I just want all
of you to know that WHATEVER the media says, it’s not all that bad over
here. IEDs don’t go off every day, and when they do, someone
doesn’t always die, mortars arne’t shot into Us compounds everyday, and
when they do, we’re not usually hit or killed, and someone doesn’t die
everyday over here. Yeah, that’s not to say people are
getting hurt and dying, but that’s part of the job. It does
just like the cop on the beat who’s shot by a crack dealer-we just see
more of it over here. You do the job, and you accept the
hazards, dangers and costs. You just do your best to make
what your doing worth the cause. BELEIVE me, these Iraqi
citizens appreciate it.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Take care all.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Daniel "Soldier Boy" Dunn</DIV>
<DIV>2LT, IN</DIV>
<DIV>2BCT/2ID</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></TD></TR>
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