I just had a quick chat with my brother on AOL IM. He doesn't think they're supposed to chat on it, but some of the PCs over there have it loaded. He should have brought a laptop with him.
He has a digital camera, but he can't load the software on the PCs over there to download the pictures from it. So, I'm thinking I will send him a memory card reader so he can just plug it into the PC, pull the pictures off & post on to the web. I'm guessing that will work just fine.
My brother reached Baghdad yesterday, Sunday, around 8:30am est (4:30pm Baghdad time). He went from Tampa, FL to D.C., then onto Germany, from there to Kuwait & finally a helicopter into Baghdad. I believe he's going to be stationed at the "Palace."
As I wrote a couple weeks ago, my attention in the news will obviously turn to the happenings in Iraq. Today I read about one of the first attacks on a U.S. convoy in Baghdad in quite some time. 1 U.S. soldier was killed, 6 injured, along with two CBS reporters who were killed.
IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) are the leading cause of death these days in Iraq. Basically, these are anything from suicide bombers to car bombs to bags of explosives on the side of a road. Scary stuff
Hopefully my brother will be up on email in the next few days so I can hear how he's doing and what he thinks of it over there so far.
On A&E today, I watched "Combat Diary: The Marines of Lima Company," the story of Lima Company, out of Columbus, Ohio who last year, lost ~25 U.S Marines in Iraq.
Harsh reality of war indeed, this was one of those upsetting insights into the war in Iraq, but it showed what these guys really are accomplishing over there, not just the misery of war & death.
There has to be some sort of solution to this roadside bomb stuff in Iraq…I don't know what it is, but maybe … droids that go 50 yards ahead of the military vehicles, some sort of radio signals that trigger them?
Recently, I have found myself reading, daily, about the roadside bombs in & around Baghdad. Why? My brother is heading to Iraq next week, Baghdad. Not exactly sure what he'll be doing, but I'm sure driving around in a humvee will be part of the daily activites.
I'm sure my mom will be watching & reading the news daily worrying about him, which sucks. Me, I just want to find one source for that information on a daily basis. I'm confident he'll be OK over there, he's a Marine, and like most Marines, he's crazy.
mann thoughts 