You guys know I like to hear good stories from Iraq. Our guys over there are doing some very good works. These stories need to be more widely spread than our media lets out. Cannot understand why it is that you never hear these kinds from main media.  Jim

Thanks for your help
Dear Mr. Boortz,

Thank you for your efforts to assist the Tennessee Army National Guard in our effort to help the people of Iraq. Your comments have spawned an influx of inquires of people wanting to help get shoes and other things to the children of Iraq. The aid and relief programs are afraid to leave the safety of the green zone so it's up to us to make things happen. This mission is suited for us with our experience with floods, fire, hurricanes and other natural disasters we are trained to deal with. Here is an account of your efforts:

Diyala, Iraq- Yesterday we went to a village several miles off the main roads. The children came out to meet us with the biggest smiles you have ever seen. The ground in that area was dry and as hard as concrete with sharp jagged rocks scattered all over. Sheep and goats were in the rusty chain linked pens that were connected to the front door and side walls of most of the dwellings scattered about the village, in no geometrical order. Keeping the animals close at night protects them from the wild predators that roam the flats.

Chickens and lambs strut in and out of the dirt floor homes as if they were the keepers and not the kept. Farming is the only life these Iraqi families know.

Wires are strung loosely along crooked concrete poles that lead out into the desert and to parts unknown. What is known is that no power flows through those wires to the small single light bubs in each of the homes, that have the lines connected to them.

We are greeted by the village elder with a smile and a hand shake and touch of his hand over his heart which was sign of respect in his language. He welcomed us as if we were a long lost brother or son that has just returned. The children barefoot, excitedly run over those sharp stones and hard ground as if it were carpet.

The Troopers of the First Squadron 278th Regimental Combat Team of the Tennessee Army National Guard opened the back of a medical vehicle and pulled from it several boxes of children's shoes that were donated by a shoe company back home in the United States. The troopers were handing candy to the children to the point that their little hands could hold no more, as they stood in line to hold their tiny foot up to the bottoms of a new pair of shoes to see if they fit.

One little boy about 3 years old put down his candy and while putting on his new blue Power Ranger Velcro shoes, a small goat grabbed a piece of candy and ran off, with several others chasing after him. The little boy did not seem to mind the candy thief and as he fastened the Velcro. He began stepping around the troopers lifting his feet as high as he could. Almost falling, it looked as if he was tiring to kiss them as he walked.

"The Department of Electricity came a few days ago and took our electrical transformer", the elder told us. "It had not worked for several months. We hope they will bring it back soon", he said. The patrol leader told him that we would check on that when we returned to our base.

He pointed to a construction project going on a few hundred yards from their village and when complete, will produce concrete and employ most of the young men of the village. He was happy for that.

Iraq has problems in a lot of areas and in this area there were problems in the months following the fall of Saddam, however, the solders have not gone away. They come back to the villages again and again and each time they make the children happy with clothes, books, candy or a new soccer ball. When their children are smiling how can anyone ever be mad at the soldiers?

The troopers do what they say they are going to do. They take things into their own hands to get done that what needs to be done. The elders of the village are surprised at this and the young are learning from the soldiers to do the same. But, it takes time to learn to take the initiative and to do things for yourself when all your life, you have not been allowed to do that. The troopers here are setting an example and it's spreading across Iraq.

Soon other parts of Iraq are going to evolve and the people are also going to be surprised at the works of the US Troops, but I think it will be the World that gets the biggest surprise of all. A safe and free Iraq.

After visiting five villages that day, the convoy pulls back onto the base and the Non-commissioned officer in charge, asked the command center at the gate, if anyone had the phone number or e-mail address to the Department of Electricity.

CPT Rick Walters
US Cavalry
278th Regimental Combat Team
Diyala, Iraq

And thank you listeners. 
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Went to an AUSA dinner last night at the Ft. Hood Officers' Club to hear a speech by MG Pete Chiarelli, CG of the 1st Cav Div. He and most of the Div. have just returned from Iraq. Very informative and, surprise, the Mainstream Media (MSM) isn't telling the story. I was not there as a reporter, didn't take notes but I'll make some the points I remember that were interesting, suprising or generally stuff I had not heard before.It was not a speech per se. He just walked and talked, showed some slides and answered questions. Very impressive guy.

1. While units of the Cav served all over Iraq, he spoke mostly of Baghdad and more specifically Sadr City, the big slum on the eastern side of the Tigris River. He pointed out that Baghdad is, in geography, about the size of Austin. Austin has 600,000 to 700,000 people. Baghdad has 6 to7 million people.

2. The Cav lost 28 main battle tanks. He said one of the big lessons learned is that, contrary to docterine going in, M1-A2s and Bradleys are needed, preferred and devastating in urban combat and he is going to make that point to the JCS next week while they are considering downsizing armor.

3. He showed a graph of attacks in Sadr City by month. Last Aug-Sep they were getting up to 160 attacks per week. During the last three months, the graph had flatlined at below 5 to zero per week.

4. His big point was not that they were "winning battles" to do this but that cleaning the place up, electricity, sewage, water were the key factors. He said yes they fought but after they started delivering services that the Iraqis in Sadr City had never had, the terrorist recruiting of 15 and 16year olds came up empty.

5. The electrical "grid" is a bad, deadly joke. Said that driving down the street in a Hummv with an antenna would short out a whole block of apt. buildings. People do their own wiring and it was not uncommon for early morning patrols would find one or two people lying dead in the street, having been electrocuted trying to re-wire their own homes.

6. Said that not tending to a dead body in the Muslum culture never happens. On election day, after suicide bombers blew themselves up trying to take out polling places, voters would step up to the body lying there, spit on it, and move up in the line to vote.

7. Pointed out that we all heard from the media about the 100 Iraqis killed as they were lined up to enlist in the police and security service. What the media didn't point out was that the next day there 300 lined up in the same place

.8. Said bin Laden and Zarqawi made a HUGE mistake when bin laden went public with naming Zarqawi the "prince" of al Quaeda in Iraq. Said that what the Iraqis saw and heard was a Saudi telling a Jordainan that his job was to kill Iraqis. HUGE mistake. It was one of the biggest factors in getting Iraqis who were on the "fence" to jump off on the side of the coalition and the new gov't.

9. Said the MSM was making a big, and wrong, deal out of the religious sects. Said Iraqis are incredibly nationalistic. They are Iraqis first and then say they are Muslum but the Shi'a - Sunni thing is just not that big a deal to them.

10. After the election the Mayor of Baghdad told him that the people of the region (Middle East) are joyous and the governments are nervous.

11. Said that he did not lose a single tanker truck carrying oil and gas over the roads of Iraq. Think about that. All the attacks we saw on TV with IEDs hitting trucks but he didn't lose one.

Why? Army Aviation. Praised his air units and said they made the decision early on that every convoy would have helicopter air cover. Said aviators in that unit were hitting the 1,000 hour mark (sound familiar?). Said a covoy was supposed to head out but stopped at the gates of a compound on the command of an E6. He asked the SSG what the hold up was. E6 said, "Air , sir." He wondered what was wrong with the air, not realizing what the kid was talking about. Then the AH-64s showed up and the E6 said, "That air sir."

And then moved out.12. Said one of the biggest problems was money and regs. There was a $77 million gap between the supplemental budget and what he needed in cash on the ground to get projects started. Said he spent most of his time trying to get money. Said he didn't do much as a "combat commander" because the the war he was fighting was a war at the squad and platoon level.

Said that his NCOs were winning the war and it was a sight to behold.13. Said that of all the money appropriated for Iraq, not a cent was earmarked for agriculture. Said that Iraq could feed itself completely and still have food for export but no one thought about it.

Said the Cav started working with Texas A&M on ag projects and had special hybrid seeds sent to them through Jordan. TAM analyzed soil samples and worked out how and what to plant. Said he had an E7 from Belton, TX (just down the road from Ft. Hood) who was almost single-handedly rebuilding the ag industry in the Baghdad area.14. Said he could hire hundreds of Iraqis daily for $7 to $10 a day to work on sewer, electric, water projects, etc. but that the contracting rules from CONUS applied so he had to have $500,000 insurance policies in place in case the workers got hurt. Not kidding.

The CONUS peacetime regs slowed everything down, even if they could eventually get waivers for the regs.There was more, lots more, but the idea is that you haven't heard any of this from anyone, at least I hadn't and I pay more attention than most. Great stuff. We should be proud. Said the Cav troops said it was ALL worth it on Jan. 30 when they saw how the Iraqis handled election day. Made them very proud of their service and what they had accomplished.
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  Vietnam Pilot Receives Army Award
Associated Press
March 25, 2005

WASHINGTON - It's 33 years overdue, but Stephen E. Lawrence is finally receiving the official Army recognition he earned for exceptional heroism in the late stages of the Vietnam War. At a ceremony in the Pentagon's Hall of Heroes on Friday, the Army is presenting to Lawrence the Distinguished Service Cross, the second-highest military award for valor, for rescuing the crew of a downed helicopter while under heavy fire near the village of Tay Ninh on Oct. 5, 1971. Lawrence was nominated for the award in May 1972, but by then he had returned to civilian life.

He said in a telephone interview on Thursday that the Army never notified him, even though his official home of record - Virginia Beach, Va. - remained valid for many years afterward. Now living in Clearwater, Fla., Lawrence, 56, sounds more annoyed than bitter about the long delay. "It would have been nice 33 years ago," he said with a chuckle. "But it's real nice today," with the added benefit of having his family, including two children, present for the ceremony. "The real story is that this is not really about the medal. It's about long-lost friends" who set out to correct what they saw as an injustice done to a fellow war veteran, he said.

Lawrence had almost finished his one-year tour in Vietnam when, as the pilot of a UH-1M "Huey" helicopter gunship, he chose to attempt a rescue of another American helicopter that had gone down in flames in an area near the Cambodian border known to be an enemy stronghold. According to the official Army citation, Lawrence twice landed his gunship near the burning aircraft before he and his crew managed to get the downed crew aboard and fly away under heavy fire. "Chief Warrant Officer Lawrence's utter disregard for his personal safety, his devotion to duty and outstanding flying expertise enabled the crews of both aircraft to return to safety," the citation says. Within days he had departed Vietnam, returned to Fort Lewis, Wash., and been discharged from the Army. Before he left the war front his commanding officer told him that he intended to nominate Lawrence for the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest honor for military valor.

That was the last Lawrence heard of the matter until last summer, when he had dinner with fellow Vietnam vet Roger Almquist, who was surprised to hear Lawrence had been awarded nothing beyond the Distinguished Flying Cross, which was presented to him two days after the rescue mission. "He wanted to hear the whole story again. I hadn't told the story in 30 years, I don't think. So I told him the story, and he said, 'And you got nothing?' And I said, 'Yep, got nothing.'" Almquist decided that should not be allowed to stand. He began researching the matter and soon discovered that the completed paperwork for the Distinguished Service Cross, dated May 1, 1972, was in Lawrence's files at the National Archives.

For unexplained reasons the Army never notified Lawrence, who remained in the Army National Guard for another seven years. He also served for 15 years in the Coast Guard, retiring from the Coast Guard Reserve in 1994. Lawrence is one of 846 soldiers who received the Distinguished Service Cross for Vietnam service, according to Army records. As far as he can tell, he never was nominated for the Medal of Honor. Now that he's out of uniform, Lawrence feels the award has lost just a little of its luster. "I have a Distinguished Service Cross and nowhere to wear it," he said. "But that's just the way life is."~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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