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Rich, Al, All Others With Interest,
I decided to search out Scott Stanger, Lt. Colonel, US Army. It would
appear Rich's sources are a great deal better than yours, Al. The
story is accurate although not an exact quote but a summary.
I happen to like Mark Twain a lot. So, I looked through his stuff to
see if he had something to say that was appropriate for this situation
and he does. Al, pay particular attention!
"It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it
and remove all doubt."
- Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain
Ron
Rich;
At the risk of starting the flames from those who won't understand my
position, I can appreciate you're feelings on this, but I'd rather you
omit
me from any messages of this nature. I consider them just another type
of
spam. 1. They have nothing to do with Ercoupes, and 2. it's probably
fictional internet junk that gets circulated by folks eager to share
their
patriotic passions. I, for one, don't need any semi-professionally
authored
stories to appreciate our men and women who are forced to give up so
much so
that we can fly whenever and almost wherever we want. Please check the
source of your offerings next time and you may better understand where
I'm
coming from.
----- Original Message -----
From: "McClure, Rich" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, February 04, 2005 5:56 AM
Subject: [COUPERS-FLYIN] You don't get this news from the networks
Family and Friends, 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.
If any one has already gotten this from Scott, You will just have
to
forgive me. I received this email from him this afternoon. I am sending
this
to as many people as I could think because I am so proud of my husband
and
his observations will tug at your heart strings. It goes to show all the
good that has come from their efforts. I thank God for men like him who
are
so willing to serve their country, and in return, serve others.
~Ronda
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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
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