a mobilized year

In these last couple of weeks, we’ve had an embedded reporter from the Milwaukee Sentinel-Journal with us. She’s written some good pieces, both from a “what’s going on” perspective and human interest perspective. Below are the stories I saw that she wrote (not sure if there are others):

*Spirit of Christmas spans 7,000 miles: Wisconsin military personnel in Iraq connect with family for holiday http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/dec05/380403.asp

*Ordinary objects hide deadly surprises: Road patrol is trained with an eye for spotting the unusual http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/dec05/380250.asp

*A foreign situation in a familiar land: With changes in enemies and working conditions, the climate is about all Gulf War veterans recognize http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/dec05/379901.asp

*A bond so strong, held fast by paper: When the Sunday school student wrote the soldier, the unspoken risk was that death could part the pen pals - and it did, in a way http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/dec05/379638.asp

*Fighting for goodwill: Wisconsin unit helps settle conflicts with civilians in Iraq town http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/dec05/379394.asp

*For supply soldiers, there's no holiday from danger: Wisconsin Guardsmen are essential to keeping lifeline of the Army open http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/dec05/379036.asp

The reporter, Meg Jones, also wrote to a blog about her visit: http://www.jsonline.com/news/site/weblogs.asp?id=90

The stories she wrote are generally fairly accurate and it was interesting to read another person’s perspective concerning the same or similar experiences. A number of her articles were about soldiers in my company, which was neat to see in print. As far as the human interest pieces, I especially liked the "A bond so strong" article--the underlying story is fairly tragic and sad though.