Archive for the ‘Guest Blogger’ Category
August 10, 2009 By Travis G.
Posted in Guest Blogger, Spouse and Family
Due to familial obligations – read a whiny four month old – I was unable to finish what I had planned for my second week here at You Served. Fortunately, the good folks in charge saw fit to let me extend my tenure another week in order to reach their yearly quota of mildly offensive, wiener laden military based jokes. With the boy fresh on my mind: I’ve learned, in the four short months I’ve been a father, that there are a lot of similarities between raising an infant and being in the military. Here’s five of them:
# 1 You’re going to lose sleep
Baby-Wise: As a parent I’ve become accustomed to living life in a zombie-like state. Subsisting on a steady diet of energy drinks and power naps taken at inappropriate times; my life has started to feel like a video game played through a fish bowl. I’ve learned that I can sneak a quick snatch of rest at the following advantageous moments: On a ten minute break at work. On my lunch break in my car. And at extended red lights on my commute home. Of course there are some of you who will say that your child sleeps through the night and you are getting plenty of sleep. Congratulations. I hate you.
Military-Wise: In the military you are indoctrinated early on that your career will be spent in a persistent state of neither asleep, nor awake. Whether it’s basic training, a field exercise, mandatory formations or a deployment, you’re going to find that your opportunities to sleep are going to be few and far between. My father told me, when I joined the military, “Never pass up an opportunity to eat, sleep or go the bathroom.” Following that advice I’ve learned, and managed to, sneak in small increments of sleep during the following situations: in formation, while marching, and during a combat field exercise at Tinker Air Force Base while ground burst simulators were going off and Op-For was advancing on our base. Apologies go out to the fire team I was leading at the time.
Bottom Line: No matter where you manage to find it, sleep is an important commodity that can not be ignored. And however you manage you restock your supply of nocturnal,off-duty time, it’s kosher…regardless of what cadre says when the catch you sleeping in your bunk.
coiled and ready to strike!
#2 You’re going to get covered in poop
Baby-Wise: Sadly this is quite a literal statement. My son has the colonic fortitude of a revolutionary war canon defending a besieged fort, a skill that he has been more than happy to display, on numerous occasions. As any new parent can attest there will come a time, in any parent’s life, where you think you are embarking on the simple task of changing a diaper only to find yourself on the receiving end of an anus volcano that makes mt Kilimanjaro look like a miniature fireworks display. My son made this very apparent one day when he inadvertently decorated my mother’s make-up kit with fecal paint. Sorry Mom.
Military-Wise: Regardless of whether you’re in the Officer or Enlisted Corps, you’re going to start at the bottom. There is a saying in the military , “Sh*t rolls down hill.” and at the bottom of the heap you are going to get covered in more proverbial poop than a port-o-let cleaner on a bad day. This can come down in any manner of situations but the thrust of the situation is, generally, you failed to accomplish a task that would be nearly impossible unless you were a mutant with the ability to replicate yourself a hundred times over and some how, its your fault. It’s a pile of poop that’s a little harder to wash off.
Bottom Line: Whether you’re a parent or a military member, you’re going to get covered in poop. When a baby is involved it’s pretty easy to wash off. As a member of the military it will probably require a PCS to get this one off your record.
like this…but from the butt
#3 Say goodbye to your free time
Baby-Wise: As a parent I’ve learned that babies require a lot of attention. Ungodly amounts of attention. Attention that would usually be devoted to watching wrestling, drinking beer and crafting sophomoric comedy articles focusing on why I, as a man almost in my thirties, still identify with Transformers and spend a majority of my time watching cartoons. But babies hate it when their parents are enjoying time by themselves. Any time my wife and I seem to be enjoying ourselves – usually by her doing something productive and me playing Call of Duty - my son takes this to mean that we no longer love him and screams until we pay attention to him. And the joy that I’m experiencing on the “Spooky” gun ship level of Call of Duty 4 be damned!
Military-Wise: When you join the military you’re not just starting a job, you’re embarking on a lifestyle adventure. This adventure consists of things that you will never have experienced before in your life. Things like mandatory formations, parades, open ranks inspections and a little bugger known as “mandatory fun”. Only the military could take something with the word “fun” in the title and suck all of the actual fun out of it. Mandatory fun, for the uninitiated, is when someone really high on the totem pole decides that they know what the troops call “fun” and books a day filled with generic, bland activities that no one is interested in and you will be ordered to attend. This will take place on a weekend where you had planned to spend all day at the beach drinking and having an actual good time and you will have to explain to your friends that yes, this is the weekend, and no, you don’t have work, but you still have to report in at 0800 hours so you can spend your free time in accordance with your base commanders idea of a good time.
Bottom Line: It may be time to take up a new hobby that doesn’t require a lot of attention. I personally chose “Letting other people have a good time while I read about their exploits on facebook from my phone because I’m either up at 2am rocking a baby back to sleep or stuck at drill again.” Of course your new hobby is up to you.
#4 You have the opportunity to pass on your life experience – and screw up yet another generation.
Baby-Wise: There’s no test for being a parent, which is both a good and bad thing. As a parent one of things I look forward to the most is the opportunity to share with my child the lessons I have learned over my life. I hope that these lessons will prevent him from having to make the same mistakes I made and I hope that they will help him grow into a respectful adult. The flip-side to this is that when his head is still all soft and ripe for programming I can convince him of things that a grown up wouldn’t believe. The first example of this will be when I take him to Chuck E Cheese and convince him that it’s Disneyland. I’m sure his therapist will thank me, years later, when he is financing her vacation home in the Caribbean.
Military-Wise: Conversely there are tests for becoming a Senior NCO and an Officer, but those tests don’t always weed out those who would not make good leaders. As an NCO or Officer you have in your hands the malleable minds of young enlistees who will take to heart anything you tell them. ANYTHING! Certainly you can use this for good and train them to be effective soldiers who will be organized and accomplish their mission with dignity and respect. Or you could just lead them down the wrong path by seeing how many items off of Skippy’s List that you can get them to do. The first option is obviously the more effective one but the second option will provide you with hours upon hours of entertainment.
Bottom Line: You have the opportunity to hone the generation that will be replacing you, in both the service and in life. What you do with this power is up to you. Use it wisely. For the record, I’ll be telling my son that the sun sets in Phoenix Arizona, so I think it’s pretty clear which option I’ll be choosing.
trust me, he’s learning a valuable lesson from this
# 5 You’re no longer in charge of your own life.
Baby-wise: If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the four short months I’ve been a dad it’s this: the little thing that can’t even form an intelligent word, let alone a coherent sentence, is in charge. His needs and wants dictate the tone and tenor of your everyday existence. You learn to survive by being able to predict their moods and needs. Certainly eons of evolution would dictate that the people in the group who are able to make rational decisions and verbalize their needs would be the one in charge…but not in this case.
Military-wise: Pretty much the same story. Except replace “baby” with “Colonel”.
Travis
topic submitted by @chromedcurses on twitter
You can find more of Travis at his website – Whiskey For Breakfast or you can follow him on twitter .
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July 29, 2009 By Travis G.
Posted in Guest Blogger, Military News
This story has been running around the internet for a few weeks now, but considering it’s really only being reported on in military circles I figured that maybe it was time to bring it out into the light of day.
If you don’t have time to click the link and read the story, here’s a quick synopsis:
Army Reserve Major Stefan Frederick Cook – who, for the purposes of this story we’ll call Major DoucheNozzle – volunteered to go to Afghanistan as an Individual Mobilization Augmentee. That “augmentee” part is pretty important to this story because it means that Maj. DoucheNozzle volunteered to work outside of his career field for this deployment. Volunteered is also important because it means a mobilization order didn’t come down from the top stating that Maj. DoucheNozzle would be forced to leave friends and family and spend a year in a foreign country. Volunteered means that this Major took a look at the deployment roster and said, without coercion, “That looks okay, I think I’ll go do that.”
a brief look through the Major’s rose colored glasses
Apparently after googling “Having fun in Afghanistan” Maj. DoucheNozzle realized that the closest Disney Resort is thousands of miles away. Promptly realizing that he might have made a mistake in his interpretation of “deploying to an active combat zone” he balked at his orders and decided that if he couldn’t bring cartoon souvenirs home to the family, he wasn’t going. As an Individual Augmentee, and a volunteer, the Maj. had the opportunity to revoke his orders at his whim. He could have walked into his mobilization office and yelled, “FOOLED YOU, I AINT GOING NOWHERE!” and walked out a man who wouldn’t end up spending a year picking sand out of crevices where sand should never go.
Instead, in a move to prove that he has bigger balls than the current administration, Maj. DoucheNozzle grabbed himself a lawyer and some press attention and loudly declared, “I aint going because Obama aint the President!”
AND HE GOT AWAY WITH IT.
A statement issued by LT. COl Maria Quona spokeswoman for the U.S. Army Human Resources Command-St. Louis, said “Cook was no longer expected to report today to MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., for mobilization to active duty, according to a report in the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer of Georgia.”
cajones THIS BIG!
Now there’s obviously a couple of groups that need to be addressed following this debacle. First is the United States Military.
Really guys? You’re going to let him get away with this? I understand that this was a voluntary deployment and he could have pulled out at any given time, but the precedent that you are setting is ABYSMAL! Certainly most people would want to get out of a deployment because of the familial hardship but you have officially opened the floodgates for any crackpot theory to be a viable excuse to get out of deployment. And unless you’re willing to wade into the murky waters of the tinfoil hat crowd in order to judge the relevance of every whack job conspiracy theory, be prepared to offer an easy out to anyone claiming any of the following:
1. Dinosauroid-like Alien Reptiles are dominating the World and I’m not fighting THEIR war!
2. 9-11 started all of this and since September 11 was orchestrated by the U. S. government the war is immoral.
3.Hitler is still alive living on his moon base and that’s the real threat we should be fighting.
4.My underpants out rank you and they say I don’t have to go. (followed by a crisp salute to their nether regions)
I hope you’re ready to deal with this, because the only thing most people took away from this news story is “crazy talk gets you out of a deployment.”
And finally; Major DoucheNozzle himself. Aside from being a disappointment to your superiors, and a chickenshit to your subordinates, I really only have one thing to say to you:
I got you a present.
It’s a bag of dicks.
And you can eat as many as you want.
Travis
i would’ve gone easier if he’d just admitted he was scared
You can find more of Travis at his website – Whiskey For Breakfast or you can follow him on twitter .
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July 27, 2009 By Travis G.
Posted in Guest Blogger, News
In a move to assure the American people that it can prioritize its workload with all the grace of a monkey banging on a type writer; Congress recently decided to draw its attention away from real problems and focus on making a change to something that I’m sure has been bugging many of us: The Homeland Security Terror Alert Graphic.
The system was created by Homeland Security Presidential Directive 3, six months after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, to provide a “comprehensive and effective means to disseminate information regarding the risk of terrorist acts to Federal, State, and local authorities and to the American people.” It’s basically the Crayola Crayon Color Chart for American Populace Freak Out. I can understand, to an extent, why Congress would want to ratify this visual metric of American Security so I have decided to help them out in their design process. I have combed the internet in search of design alterations to The Homeland Security Terror Alert System in order to give Congress a look at all of the options available.
Some of the ones I found were hyperbolic in both color scheme and warning convention.
Some of them reflected the pop-culture sensibilities of our modern world
And for reasons I have to been unable to discern; one of them revolved around hot dogs.
And while each of these designs has merit I think that they may still be overly complicated and in some cases confusing. I believe that any infographic used to alert the American public to possible danger should be both simple and to the point. Which is why I’ve designed my own version that I’ll be sending off to my Congressman/woman/cymbal banging monkey as soon as this post hits the internet.
Following this land mark decision Congress has promised that it will appoint a $14million dollar committee to review and revise the kids menu at Denny’s to include more pictures, a wider selection of food choices and, according to one Congressman who wanted to remain nameless, “A maze that doesn’t take an hour and a half to finish, causing me to lose all my concentration and spill my ‘moons over my hammy’ all over my lap.”
Travis
thank god they’re in charge
You can find more of Travis at his website – Whiskey For Breakfast or you can follow him on twitter .
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July 24, 2009 By Travis G.
Posted in Guest Blogger
Before this all gets started I want to first thank the people at VA Mortgage center for giving me the opportunity to express myself in this forum. Mil-Blogging is not something that I’m normally associated with and the chance to express my opinions on some of these matters is a refreshing one. But before we get to my contributions – some serious and some bordering on the ridiculous and sophomoric – I thought it important to acquaint you, the Mil-blogging community with who I am and what my credentials are.
Yes, I am in the military – if you count being a part of the Air National Guard “military”. Most of the Mil-Bloggers I’ve met are battle hardened Marines and Soldiers and using the Air National Guard moniker in those ranks is like screaming, “I’m a tough guy too,” at a mixed martial arts tournament because at, almost thirty years old, no one has threatened to beat you up and take your lunch money in at least two weeks. What can I say; some of the geeks I work with in the civilian sector are mean S.O.Bs.
I’ve been writing online since long before the term “blog” was en-vogue and after I joined the military I was expressly forbidden from ever mentioning my “affiliation” with any government agency on my now infamous and defunct website. A rule that I firmly stuck to until I was exposed, in a very grandiose fashion, thanks to some reporters in Northern California. At the time of the story I was the enlisted aide to the Adjutant General of the California National Guard and I ran a comedy website – a website based around sophomoric humor and wiener-laden off color social commentary – called HowToKillPeople.com. After the story hit the mainstream media I was made a public pariah at the expense of my blossoming career. The name of my site – in and of itself, without viewing of the content – was used as a rallying cry around which sycophants and the socially inept could clamor in order to express their distaste.
pictured: the face of public outcry or just a guy who likes Transformers too much?
Blogging, as a military member, is a fundamental part of the new media experiment that the world is currently ensconced in. Never before has the Private on the front line had the same ability as the embedded reporter to bring to the masses the true stories of the ugliness and beauty of war. Some of you may be turned off by equating the words “beauty” and “war” in the same phrase but the fact of the matter is that even in the midst of a bloody war, beauty can exist. The mainstream media often salivates over the numbers of people killed and the number of road side bombs that have been detonated on any given day. The Private working patrols outside the wire is the one who will bring you stories of children playing soccer in an arena that was once used by an oppressive regime for troop amassment. As such mil-blogging is an invaluable tool to connect the American public to the events that are happening half a world away. It’s one of the truest expressions of the first amendment, an amendment most in uniform will unhappily tell you does not apply to them because though they have volunteered to die in defense of the constitution they are not protected by its governance.
Recent events have forced the government to deal with the reality of blogging and its repercussions not only here on American soil but also abroad. Mil-blogging represents the truest form of military reporting; an uncensored, unwashed, direct to the public, view of life in service to our nation. Though they’re very rarely given the credit they deserve people like Troy, CJ and Marcus not only bring you untold tales of heroes who would normally be forgotten, they also risk the animosity and rancor of not only their superiors but the public at large as well.
I’ll be out of the military in a little over three months, having served six years, but I’ll always consider myself fortunate to be counted among the few who have donned the uniform and the even fewer who have spoken their mind during that tenure. Thank you for allowing me this opportunity to bring you my take on military events, though some of my opinions are patently ludicrous. But thank you even more for giving these men the ability to bring you their stories. For history is no longer being written by a chosen few. And by visiting the mil-blogging community you are being given a front row seat to the stories that will populate the text books of your children and grand children. It’s an honor and hopefully I can rise to the occasion.
Travis
i am humbled
You can find more of Travis at his website – Whiskey For Breakfast or you can follow him on twitter .
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July 16, 2009 By You Served Editorial Staff
Posted in Guest Blogger, Veteran Benefits
Many years ago, before the government became involved with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, credit reports and credit scores were hidden from the public. We all knew there were credit reports and credit scores, but we couldn’t get access to them. It was terrible, which is why the government stepped in to protect consumers rights.
However now we face a whole new set of challenges. Many years ago, the reports and scores were used mostly to decide whether to accept a loan and at what terms. A good score meant the interest rate on your 30 year mortgage was lower, a bad score meant your car loan cost a little bit more. Today, your credit score is used for a lot of things, only a few of which actually have to do with credit.
Potential Employers
The biggest and scariest new application of your credit worthiness is with new jobs. Employers are starting to pull credit to determine whether or not to offer you a job. They aren’t allowed to make decisions based on bankruptcies, but apparently they like to use other parts of your report to decide whether or not you’re a risk. Miss a few payments? Maybe you’re more likely to steal something.
Insurance Premiums
For whatever reason, and they won’t disclose it, insurance companies believe that the lower your credit score, the greater your insurance risk. The lower your score, the higher your premiums. Their actuaries have analyzed the statistics and the end result is that your score is being used to determine how risky it is to insure you, your car, your house, and everything else.
Cell Phones & Services
Finally, service companies use your credit to decide whether or not they will give you a service contract. If you have trouble making a credit card payment, they worry that you’ll have problem making a cell phone bill payment. The cell phone business model is especially sensitive to this because they often give you a phone for free, hoping to earn it back on a two year service plan. If they are worried you can’t pay, they won’t give you the phone.
As you can see, your credit score is starting to be used in areas it was never intended, so it’s important that you make sure you regularly review your credit reports, check your free FICO credit score, and ensure it’s as accurate as possible.
Jim is the editor of personal finance blog Bargaineering.com and writes about money issues from budgeting to investing, from credit cards to banking. To learn more, check out Bargaineering or follow Jim on Twitter.
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June 29, 2009 By You Served Editorial Staff
Posted in Guest Blogger
Dr. Diane Hassan, who we recently featured here on You Served with our “On Loan” segment, has launched a blog over at www.angelsamonguseveninirag.blogspot.com.
We had a lot of positive feedback about Dr. Hassan’s posts here on the site, so if you’re looking for more from her, check out the blog!
You can read her posts from the “On Loan” segments here. Last Thursday, she was a guest on You Served Radio.
Buy her book Angels Among Us . . . Even in Iraq from Amazon.
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June 26, 2009 By You Served Editorial Staff
Posted in Guest Blogger
This post is contributed by Dr. Diane Hassan, author of “Angels Among Us Even in Iraq”, who is currently participating in “On Loan at You Served” as a guest blogger.
As the days went by, we started having a routine. We actually became use to the planes coming every night at 9 pm on the dot. One night the planes did not come and I actually felt disappointed.
Early one morning around 2 am, I was listening to the voice of America, the planes were over head dropping missiles all around, I heard President George H. Bush say three words that I will never forget,”Okay cease fire.” Planes were still over head dropping missiles, I thought okay fellas, our President said cease fire you can quit now. They continued to hit our area until dawn and then we had silence.
Around 8 am we heard gun shots all around us, we heard continuous sounds of gun fire. We did not know where it was coming from. My nephew who was only 8 years old at the time, Ali, was listening to the radio and told us the people in Basrah are fighting the government.
The soldiers that were returning from Kuwait on the highway of death, when they made it back to Basrah one of the Iraqi tanks fired on a Statue of Saddam. Nothing happened, people were watching. It was their clue that it is time to rise up against Saddam, America is near by, they will help.
Every town, and village in Iraq rose up against Saddam. Men, women and children began the fight for freedom. We heard shooting day and night for days.
We stayed in our home, away from the windows and prayed for all the brave Iraqies that were fighting for freedom. They were willing to die in order to bring Saddam down. I was listening to the voice of America, while gun fire was all around us. I felt safe as long as I heard English being spoken. I heard President George H. Bush say, “We do not interfere in internal affairs.” Tears started coming down my checks, I felt hopeless, I knew how every one of my patients felt when I had to tell them they had a terminal illness. Iraq had a terminal illness, Saddam.
Iraq was destroyed, the Iraqis were fighting a hopeless battle, help was not coming. I knew what would happen next. Saddam was allowed to fly his helicopters and he and his Revolutionary guards killed in the South of Iraq 300,000 Shites who were fighting for freedom. The revolution was squashed, Saddam ordered everyone to return to work and business as usual in a destroyed Iraq. That was the Iraq of yesterday. The people were persecuted ten times more because they rose up against Saddam.
We left Iraq in 1993. The people left behind suffered so much. They lost their hope for Freedom. They were willing to pay the price, but they needed help. They were almost to Baghdad, the government had fallen and Saddam was allowed to fly those horrible black helicopters…
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June 25, 2009 By You Served Editorial Staff
Posted in Guest Blogger
This post is contributed by Dr. Diane Hassan, author of “Angels Among Us Even in Iraq”, who is currently participating in “On Loan at You Served” as a guest blogger.
The first night of missiles being dropped all over Iraq was over. We made it thru the first night. When the sun came up planes left. The planes came to our area only at night.
I remembered the Iran war, missiles were launched into Baghdad, but they never hit their targets. Usually the missile would fall on neighborhoods and innocent people were killed. America was precise in only hitting military targets.
As, I watch the news today and see the unrest in Iran, I feel like I am back in 1979, when the Shaw left Iran, and there was so much violence going on in Iran, like I am seeing today. The Iranians are like the Iraqies were during Desert Storm, the people are tired and they want change. I feel I am back in 1979, when I see Iran today.
After our first night of bombing during Desert Storm, the people of Iraq knew what is was like to be at war with a super power. The Iraqies were not afraid as long as America was overhead. The farmers in our area bragged on America and were excited about how they only hit military targets, not civilians, I heard about the soldiers that went in to the South of Iraq, they bragged on how they didn’t even step on the tomato plants.
After the first week we no longer had food or water. We would save water in barrels outside when the government did turn on the water. We bathed every two weeks, water was scarce, and fuel to heat the water was scarce.
The farmers in the area knew what grew naturally that we could eat. They made sure they shared their bread with us and what food they had. We were tired, hungry, cold and scared, but that was okay, that was the price we knew we had to pay for freedom…freedom is not free
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June 24, 2009 By You Served Editorial Staff
Posted in Guest Blogger
This post is contributed by Dr. Diane Hassan, author of “Angels Among Us Even in Iraq”, who is currently participating in “On Loan at You Served” as a guest blogger.
I turned the t.v.off and tried to sleep. In the distance I heard gunfire. I went to the window and pulled the curtain covering the glass back, the street light was on, surely if there were an air raid they would close the electricity.
I woke Hashmia up and we both stared out the window into the night. I don’t know what we thought we might see. The gun fire became closer and more intense. I turned the small radio on to the voice of America and I heard President George H . Bush say The Liberation of Kuwait has begun. I knew every Iraqi was saying the liberation of Iraq has begun. I told Hasmia the war started, they are bombing Baghdad.
We woke the boys up and we all all got out our blankets. Hashmia and I decided the safest place was under the stairs. Hashmia, her two boys, Mohammed and I all hid under the staircase. I was shaking so hard. I don’t know if it were from the cold or from fright. We were settled under the stair case, waiting for the planes. No one spoke.
Then we heard the sounds of the engines, it felt like the sky was filled with planes. Missiles were being dropped all around us. The floors moved, the walls shook, windows blew open, I want to say I was proud to be an American. The greatest military force in the world was over head. I knew if we died that night, we would die at the hands of the best.
Missiles were being dropped continuously until around 4 am and it was like the planes left as quick as they came. It was so quite, the most beautiful quietness I ever experienced. When we could move, I ask if everyone was okay. Every body was okay, just shaken a little. Then I realized there were cases of Pepsi behind us, I decided we would have a Pepsi break.
Mohammed ran to the kitchen to get the opener. I opened all of us a bottle of cold Pepsi. While we sat there and had a Pepsi break, we heard the engines again, my little nephew whispered to me, Doctora, I guess the Pepsi break is over…..
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June 23, 2009 By You Served Editorial Staff
Posted in Guest Blogger
This post is contributed by Dr. Diane Hassan, author of “Angels Among Us Even in Iraq”, who is currently participating in “On Loan at You Served” as a guest blogger.
Saddam sent all the male doctors to the front with the soldiers and all the females had to go to the village or the bomb shelters. I was preparing to leave Baghdad and go to my sister-in-law’s home. She lived in Yethrub, which was a small village about five minutes from the largest airport in the Middle East Every military installation in Iraq surrounded her home.
My husband wanted me and Mohammed to leave Baghdad, he did not know what would happen. Everyone felt a coup against Saddam would occur, after all America was near by to help. Hashim felt if I were in Yethrub, I would be close to the Turkish border. I could escape to Turkey and the Americans would help me. Everyone wanted to leave Baghdad, because they were afraid Saddam would use gas on the Iraqi people and say America did it.
I was packing a few things to take with me. I did not know if I would ever see my home again. How could I decide what to take with me, something that I did not want to loose in case my home were hit. I decided on my microwave oven that I had just bought in the Duty free shop. There were very few, maybe four or five microwave ovens in Iraq. My microwave was a symbol of my life in America, a symbol of an easy life, a reminder of Freedom.
My husband took me, Mohammed and my microwave to Yethrub. My neighbors came out to say good bye, they wanted me to remain in Baghdad with them, they felt if I were near by they were safe after all it would be my relatives in the sky and relatives don’t kill relatives.
As Hashim turned on to the main street, I saw numerous cars with all their household goods on the roof, people filled the street going to the market on the main street where we lived. We passed gas stations that had long lines of cars waiting. Due to the mass number of people leaving Baghdad, we moved slowly, until we reached the highway to Yethrub.
We arrived at Hashmia’s ,Hashim’s sister’s home about 7 p.m. She was preparing for us. She had one room with mats on the floor and the one window in the room was sealed with tape. She hope this would be sufficient if Saddam threw chemicals over our area. Hashim said good bye and returned to Baghdad. He stayed in Baghdad and would come to Yethrub from time to time to check on us.
We were alone now, me, my son Mohammed, my sister-in-law, Hashima, her two small sons, Amar, Mohammed’s age and Ali who was eight years old…We had our dinner, everyone had their mats, Mohammed had a sleeping bag, we settled in for the night . Everyone slept, but me. I remained awake watching a Glen Ford Movie, and praying the planes would not come.
Nothing could prepare me for what was about to happen….
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