horselady
07-19-06, 12:00 PM
As many of you know, I have embarked on a project to get some of the
"feel good" stories happening in Iraq to be broadcast in a medium that will get them to the American public...namely conservative talk radio. I've been in contact with Sean Hannity (#2 show in the country) who has promised to read these stories on air, he also will be interviewing the authors, when possible. Hannity has a nightly show on FOXNews as well as his 3-hour
show on radio every day.
What I am sending him is not the typical Marine/soldier-as-hero on the battlefield story, but the unreported human interest stories that show the friendships and interpersonal relationships being formed between US troops and Iraqi citizens.
One tear-at-the-heartstrings story that virtually went ignored in the mainstream media, was about the little Iraqi girl who sat down in the middle of the road and refused to budge when the approaching US Marine convoy asked her to move. What they found out was this girl had witnessed a mine being planted in the road by some insurgents and was trying to prevent the US troops from running over it.
But it was this disgrace by Time magazine that lit a fire under me to do this project.
As reported by Army Col. McMaster, his 3rd ACR unit broke the insurgents' hold of the Iraqi city of Tal Afar last September in an operation which generated these effusive words of praise from the Tal Afar city mayor: "To the lion hearts who liberated our city from the grasp of terrorists who were beheading men, women and children in the streets...you (American soldiers) are not only courageous men and women, but avenging angels sent by The God Himself to fight the evil of terrorism."
TIME magazine's embedded reporter and photographer filed a beautiful story and nearly 100 photographs of this military triumph. "But when the issue came out, the guts had been ripped out of the reporter's story and none of the photographs he submitted were used. When the reporter questioned why his story was eviscerated, TIME editors responded that the story and pictures were 'too heroic.”
Too heroic? Sure I know the media live by the motto, “If it bleeds
it leads,” but c’mon!
But now I need some help from the Marines. I have found one Army sergeant
(Tim Boggs) blogger (http://www.boredsoldier.blogspot.com), currently in Iraq, who has witten many of these kinds of human interest stories and also is very willing to be interviewed by Hannity. While I mave many such human interest stories about Marines, I can't seem to find the Marine version of a Tim Boggs, who has written several. If anyone can direct me to a site or a blogger who is writing about the friendships/good feelings happening between Marines and Iraqi civilians, I would love to contact this person.
I know about the Blackfive.com site but there are so many blogs there I don't
have the time to search thru all of them. milblogging.com is even harder to
navigate.
Here is one story I actually found here, but I am looking for one Marine who
has written several of these kinds of stories if I can find him/her.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marines Notice Things
By Ralph Kinney Bennett : BIO| 23 Mar 2006
Hardened by the bitter experience of ambushes, roadside bombs and snipers, Marines on patrol in Iraq notice things.
They have to.
When they move through a village they size up groups congregated at corners or storefront doors. They scan faces. Are they welcomed? Feared? Ignored? They make mental notes and tuck away images that might be helpful on the next patrol.
They notice particular houses or buildings, walls or clumps of trees, irrigation ditches, junked cars. They notice things. Their lives depend on it
The men of Company I, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, are no different. Their personal radars were scanning, scanning as they patrolled the dusty little town of Al Hasa back in January.
That's when they noticed something at a particular house. That's why they showed up at that house last week.
They roared up in a couple of amphibious assault vehicles.
But they didn't kick down the door. They knocked.
The family inside was surprised, but they weren't frightened. Greetings were exchanged. The small group of Marines seemed to be holding back smiles and anxious to get to the point.
While on that patrol back in January they had noticed this large Iraqi family and particularly the cute little girl propped awkwardly in a big old rusty adult wheelchair. So, well... a bunch of the guys got together back at Camp Smitty and...
The Marines unloaded a shiny new pediatric wheelchair from one of their vehicles and rolled it into the house.
The little girl had suffered a severe spinal injury in a car accident two years ago. The old wheelchair was the best the family could do for her.
Until the Marines came.
The family's faces lit up with the smiles. The incredulous father picked up his daughter and immediately placed her in the new wheelchair. He shook the Marines' hands, saying "Thank you," again and again.
The Marines didn't stay long. There were smiles and a few tears and then they jumped back into their assault vehicles and headed back to Camp Smitty.
But this is not a rare event in Iraq, there have been thousands of such selfless little acts of humanity on the part of our military in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I felt great pride when I heard about this little visit to an Iraqi house. There's something about these Marines, these infidels, these Americans. Something special. And good. And right.
A lot of us forget or ignore such acts. But one Iraqi family won't.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks guys for any help you can offer.
SF
http://pages.prodigy.net/indianahawkeye/newpage35/13.gif
"feel good" stories happening in Iraq to be broadcast in a medium that will get them to the American public...namely conservative talk radio. I've been in contact with Sean Hannity (#2 show in the country) who has promised to read these stories on air, he also will be interviewing the authors, when possible. Hannity has a nightly show on FOXNews as well as his 3-hour
show on radio every day.
What I am sending him is not the typical Marine/soldier-as-hero on the battlefield story, but the unreported human interest stories that show the friendships and interpersonal relationships being formed between US troops and Iraqi citizens.
One tear-at-the-heartstrings story that virtually went ignored in the mainstream media, was about the little Iraqi girl who sat down in the middle of the road and refused to budge when the approaching US Marine convoy asked her to move. What they found out was this girl had witnessed a mine being planted in the road by some insurgents and was trying to prevent the US troops from running over it.
But it was this disgrace by Time magazine that lit a fire under me to do this project.
As reported by Army Col. McMaster, his 3rd ACR unit broke the insurgents' hold of the Iraqi city of Tal Afar last September in an operation which generated these effusive words of praise from the Tal Afar city mayor: "To the lion hearts who liberated our city from the grasp of terrorists who were beheading men, women and children in the streets...you (American soldiers) are not only courageous men and women, but avenging angels sent by The God Himself to fight the evil of terrorism."
TIME magazine's embedded reporter and photographer filed a beautiful story and nearly 100 photographs of this military triumph. "But when the issue came out, the guts had been ripped out of the reporter's story and none of the photographs he submitted were used. When the reporter questioned why his story was eviscerated, TIME editors responded that the story and pictures were 'too heroic.”
Too heroic? Sure I know the media live by the motto, “If it bleeds
it leads,” but c’mon!
But now I need some help from the Marines. I have found one Army sergeant
(Tim Boggs) blogger (http://www.boredsoldier.blogspot.com), currently in Iraq, who has witten many of these kinds of human interest stories and also is very willing to be interviewed by Hannity. While I mave many such human interest stories about Marines, I can't seem to find the Marine version of a Tim Boggs, who has written several. If anyone can direct me to a site or a blogger who is writing about the friendships/good feelings happening between Marines and Iraqi civilians, I would love to contact this person.
I know about the Blackfive.com site but there are so many blogs there I don't
have the time to search thru all of them. milblogging.com is even harder to
navigate.
Here is one story I actually found here, but I am looking for one Marine who
has written several of these kinds of stories if I can find him/her.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marines Notice Things
By Ralph Kinney Bennett : BIO| 23 Mar 2006
Hardened by the bitter experience of ambushes, roadside bombs and snipers, Marines on patrol in Iraq notice things.
They have to.
When they move through a village they size up groups congregated at corners or storefront doors. They scan faces. Are they welcomed? Feared? Ignored? They make mental notes and tuck away images that might be helpful on the next patrol.
They notice particular houses or buildings, walls or clumps of trees, irrigation ditches, junked cars. They notice things. Their lives depend on it
The men of Company I, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, are no different. Their personal radars were scanning, scanning as they patrolled the dusty little town of Al Hasa back in January.
That's when they noticed something at a particular house. That's why they showed up at that house last week.
They roared up in a couple of amphibious assault vehicles.
But they didn't kick down the door. They knocked.
The family inside was surprised, but they weren't frightened. Greetings were exchanged. The small group of Marines seemed to be holding back smiles and anxious to get to the point.
While on that patrol back in January they had noticed this large Iraqi family and particularly the cute little girl propped awkwardly in a big old rusty adult wheelchair. So, well... a bunch of the guys got together back at Camp Smitty and...
The Marines unloaded a shiny new pediatric wheelchair from one of their vehicles and rolled it into the house.
The little girl had suffered a severe spinal injury in a car accident two years ago. The old wheelchair was the best the family could do for her.
Until the Marines came.
The family's faces lit up with the smiles. The incredulous father picked up his daughter and immediately placed her in the new wheelchair. He shook the Marines' hands, saying "Thank you," again and again.
The Marines didn't stay long. There were smiles and a few tears and then they jumped back into their assault vehicles and headed back to Camp Smitty.
But this is not a rare event in Iraq, there have been thousands of such selfless little acts of humanity on the part of our military in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I felt great pride when I heard about this little visit to an Iraqi house. There's something about these Marines, these infidels, these Americans. Something special. And good. And right.
A lot of us forget or ignore such acts. But one Iraqi family won't.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks guys for any help you can offer.
SF
http://pages.prodigy.net/indianahawkeye/newpage35/13.gif