12/18/06

Yesterday was a mixture of sadness, happiness and more potential sadness.

Sergeant D.'s memorial service was held...as usual a very sad affair...he was killed a few days ago during a patrol by an RPG, after an initial IED explosion followed by a small arms firefight. He was 29 years old from Pennsylvania. He was loved by many, and it was my loss I did not have the opportunity to know him better. He had been in country barely 3 weeks.

This was his unit's first KIA and it has really changed the attitude of the unit because of this.

Here it seems there are constant reminders how bad one human can treat another, but it must be said too, how much good rises from these painful episodes.

The love, the caring, the compassion that may be there that is just below the surface but rarely brought to the surface and seen. Life is too short and this is a painful testimony to that.

If one truly loves life, than time cannot be wasted, for that is the stuff life is made of.

At night our tent was shut down for a...(finally)...USO show. It was a much needed diversion to lift spirits after the service, and just to distract everyone from the usual here.

Leann Tweeden, 2 Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, 3 country singers, (sorry not big on the country, so I really didn't know of them, but now Willie, and Hank Jr. I know), and Al Franken.

The tent was packed and it was a really good show, they sang and did skits, Al Franken did a Saddam Hussein skit with Leann that ended up with soldiers dragging "Saddam" off in handcuffs. It brought alot of laugh to the soldiers. Definitely good stuff.

The folks in the show stayed past midnight setting up an autograph table and the line of soldiers anticipating small chats, photos and to take pictures with them stayed long...I just stood back and enjoyed all the smiles...

I had a chance to talk with Al Franken before they left and we exchanged our views on this whole deal here. It was very interesting.

Unfortunately, this happiness turned to potential sadness from news I received from a dear friend of mine. His neighbor's told him they had received a call from the Marines saying their son Staff Sergeant K. of the 5th Marines was reportedly captured during house raids in Fallujah.

There has been no news anywhere on this, and all involved have been searching news wires, the net, making calls, etc for something.

The longer though that it goes with no news, it leads me in another direction.

Actually I wondered from the start with just a call to the family and not someone going to their house to tell them this terrible news.

Before we even come here they tell us to burn everything with any information on it, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses etc. "OPSEC IS A PRIORITY" is drilled in your head everyday from the very beginning. At every meeting, daily papers you have to sign...even commercials on the AFN sat TV.

However, even with the best practice of OPSEC things happen, I myself have had incoming and outgoing mail jacked...that had addresses on it. Most phones and Internet are not secure here and they can be hacked or listened in on.

So the opportunity no matter how safe you think you are being, could still arise.

One of the reasons this stuff must be destroyed is because if it is not destroyed, this information could of course, fall into enemy hands. It has happened in the past that the bad guys have received this information and they write, call, or email loved ones saying their soldier has been killed, taken hostage etc.

It is of course about the cruelest thing a family could hear, but it is part of war. Psych Operations...it's been present in every war, albeit alittle varied from war to war.

Unfortunately I pray that is what has happened, and someone is just playing PsyOps with them.

Although it is cruel for the family...the alternative...would be even crueler.