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While searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, US Forces found some pretty interesting things in the desert, like this MiG-25 Foxbat interceptor. It was hidden underground with its wings removed. Military personnel dug it up by hand in 2003 and transported the jet to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio for examination. Eventually, it will go on display to the public. Read the story of this reclamation project, and see more pictures at Urban Ghosts. Link
A veteran of the Iraq War compares his readjustment to civilian life with that of the character Billy Pilgrim in Kurt Vonnegut’s semi-autobiographical novel Slaughterhouse Five. Vonnegut wrote of becoming “unstuck in time”, which is a launching point for the science fiction parts of the book, but Matt Gallagher says the feeling is real when you leap from one life to another.
I’ve walked by manholes in New York City streets and smelled the sludge river I walked along in north Baghdad in 2008. I’ve stopped dead in my tracks to watch a street hawker in Midtown, a large black man with a rolling laugh and a British accent, who looked just like my old scout platoon’s interpreter. And I’ve had every single slamming dumpster lid — every single damn one — rip off my fatalistic cloak and reveal me to be, still, a panicked young man desperate not to die because of an unseen I.E.D.
Despite these metaphysical dalliances with time travel the names on my black bracelet are, in fact, stuck in time. Or, more accurately, stuck in memory, where they’ll fade out and disappear like distant stars before becoming shadows of the men we served with and knew.
So it goes.
Link -via Metafilter
SMITH Magazine has a site where people tell stories in exactly six words. One section is a collaboration with the organization Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) to share stories about coming home from the war. Link -via Breakfast Links
Spc. Matthew Mortensen is a combat medic, charged with providing aid to wounded front line soldiers, but that was no protection against harm. He was shot by a sniper while on patrol in Baghdad on December 10th.
“After I was shot, I had my platoon sergeant examine for a wound and he found one on my right shoulder blade,” said Mortensen. “Then I jumped into the truck, threw off my kit because I couldn’t reach my right side with my kit on. After I took it off, I started cleaning up some of the blood with gauze then I used the package for the gauze and created a pressure dressing over the wound just in case it penetrated my chest cavity. I didn’t know what happened to the bullet so that was the only thing I was really worried about”
Mortensen even directed his own medical evacuation. He was awarded a Purple Heart and a Combat Medical Badge the next day. Mortensen is now recovering in the US and expects to be back in Iraq in February. Link -via Digg
Fourth-grader Hannah Eschrig got a surprise on the next-to-last day of class at her school: her father, Air Force Master Sgt. Joseph Myers returns early for a surprise homecoming.
Matt Woolbright of My San Antonio has the story:
Myers’ reunion with 10-year-old Hannah was his second of the day. He reunited with his 19-month-old daughter, Adison, just before surprising Hannah.
Adison didn’t know how to react, burying her face into her mom before uttering, “Hi, Daddy,” and bringing tears to many of the people there.
Hannah’s class was interrupted when Bessette announced that some friends would be talking to the class and taking pictures. When everyone was in place, mom and dad walked in.
Hannah’s expression and instant tears drove her mother to tears as well as she watched her daughter and husband reunite.
“I was so excited, I couldn’t believe it,” Hannah said. “I don’t really remember what happened because I was just so happy.”
Link | Watch the heartwarming video (Photo and video by John Davenport / Express-News.net)
Update 11/3/09 by Alex – I replaced the unattributed video with the original source over at My San Antonio News – Thanks Michael Knoop!
Army Reservist Staff Sgt. Brett Bennethum was ordered to Iraq in July. His four-year-old daughter Paige had a hard time letting go, so much that she held onto his hand in formation. No one, including the commanding officer, had the heart to pull her away. The picture of the incident, taken by Paige’s mother, has gone viral and touched people all over the country. Link -via Buzzfeed
(image credit: Abby Bennethum)
Six years after the invasion (and subsequent liberation) of Iraq, the country is still too dangerous for normal tourism. This is too bad since Iraq is literally a treasure trove of archaeological artifacts.
To accommodate armchair tourists too timid to risk life and limbs, the Italian government funded the creation of The Virtual Museum of Iraq, showcasing pieces dating from the Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian eras and more.
Check it out: Link – via Neal Ungerleider’s True/Slant blog
Iraq’s missing Air Force jets have been traced to Serbia, where they are mostly in pieces. They have been cannibalized, parted out, or left to deteriorate over he past twenty years.
Iraqi officials said they found the planes in the process of trying to trace what Saddam, the former dictator, did with the country’s military assets. The 19 planes, all Soviet-built, were sent in 1989 to a Yugoslav maintenance plant in Zagreb, in what is now Croatia, but never got the overhauls they needed.
In 1991, when the Croatian war for independence broke out, the jets were transported to Serbia in parts. And there they remained.
A delegation from Iraq will go to Belgrade to negotiate the return of the jets, but they are unlikely to help Iraq rebuild its air defenses. The Iraqi Air Force currently has no jets. Link -via Fark
(image credit: Richard Mosse)
Army Major Phil Packer began the London Marathon when everyone else did, but his doctor will only allow him to walk two miles a day, so he is expected to finish on Saturday, 13 days after starting the race. Last year Packer was seriously injured in Iraq and was told he probably would never walk again. However, he is walking the marathon on crutches to raise money for Help for Heroes, a British organization that supports wounded veterans.
The marathon is only part of his project, he says. In February, he rowed the English Channel, and next month, he plans to climb El Capitan, one of America’s iconic mountaineering sites. It’s a 3,000-foot vertical rock formation in California.
The idea to take on the three challenges for charity came to him while he was in a hospital for more than four months last year following a serious injury in Iraq, he says.
“I needed and wanted to be able to move on in life,” he says. “I wanted to do something for other personnel who had been wounded.
“I don’t want to be helped. I want to help other people. Not that I’m not grateful, but … you know,” he says, an apologetic smile forming as he makes his way up the north bank of the Thames River, along the marathon course. “I really want to be able to help people.”
Packer’s goal is to raise £1 million; he has so far raised over half the amount. Link -via Fark
During a news conference at his surprise visit to Iraq, President Bush showed great reflexes by dodging a shoe thrown by an angry Iraqi journalist:
In the middle of the news conference with Mr Maliki, a reporter stood up and shouted "this is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog," before hurtling his shoes at Mr Bush, narrowly missing him.
"All I can report is a size 10," Mr Bush said according to the Associated Press news agency.
The shoe thrower was taken away by security guards and the news conference continued.
Correspondents called it a symbolic incident. Iraqis threw shoes and used them to beat Saddam Hussein’s statue in Baghdad after his overthrow.
Link – Thanks Mark Storen!
