Post
by Chalkperson » Sun Apr 18, 2010 7:47 pm
Whilst I certainly apprecate everyone's kind words, my coments are actually very true, look at all the Thread Topics that I don't contribute to, subjects like Science, Economics, Religion, Politcs and the background to American Society, that's all the kind of stuff I did not get to learn because I "dropped out" at 16, I read those Threads and marvel at everyone's knowledge, it's very impressive to someone like me, and so I read and learn from you guys, and, as I said at the begining of this Thread, i've learned and grown enormously since I joined CMG, i'm very grateful for that...
Barry brings up Col. Bob, and maybe it's time to tell a little bit of how I managed to befriend one of the best brains in the US Army, it also illustrates the power of the Internet and the Global Village it brings to light so it's not too far off topic...almost seven years ago I was reading a Blog on MSNBC and came across a letter from a "Major Bob", currently in Iraq and needing something from home that the Military did not supply, Creamer for his Coffee, the short and concise letter asked for readers to send him some, he was at the Green Zone and he printed the Zip Code that we gave to that particular part of Iraq, so it was easy for people to send it to him, I certainly was not the kind of person to send creamer to Iraq, and, I thought it a little weird that an Army Major would even be allowed to go on the Internet and ask for some, me being someone who had a little interest in History, but mainly 300+ years old stuff, I had no interest in our current Wars, or so I thought...
A few weeks later another letter hit the MSNBC Blog, from the same guy, but, this time asking for everyone to stop sending creamer, the American people had done Bob a great service, he had sent a photograph of himself, 6 ft 4 and 220 pounds of pure muscle, standing next to an enormous pile of boxes of Creamer, it was everywhere in his tent, boxes and boxes of the stuff...he said he had another request, this time he wanted a Subscription to the New Yorker and The Economist, that threw me, this dude's a Soldier, how come he wants these Magazines I thought, obviously the Army had people that were way more intelligent than I ever gave them credit for, that night, Bush was on TV, appealing for us to Support our Troops, even if was just the simple act of writing to a soldier, OK I thought, I can do that, and, I work for Conde Nast, I could arange for those Subscriptions, so I took care of his request and fired of a letter, I tried to explain how I knew nothing of his War, I objected to it, yet, I felt the compelling urge to communicate with this "Soldier", if I had known then exactly who this "Soldier" was then I doubt I would have ever had the guts to start a dialog, anyway, two days later came a reply to my letter, that fact alone blew me away, here I was, a Dovelike Photograper in New York getting an e-mail from Iraq, it was signed, Best from Baghdad, Bob...best from Baghdad, how cool was that, not just Baghdad but the Green Zone, I wrote straight back, commenting on some things I had read in the Washington Post, a story about a LT Col who was nearly blown up by an IED when his lead Humvee hit one, a reply came straight back, not only did Bob know Col. Mike but he wrote up the incident report, it turned out that he was in charge of Route Irish, the most dangerous Highway in the World, the one into Baghdad from the Airport...Bob said that he was running out of ways to write "Killed by IED", this really hit home with me and subsequent letters described Bob's happy little Band of Warriors, there was Stinky, Wingnut, Cityboy and others, it then occured to me that I had all these great Rock and Roll stories from my past that would make great reading matter for his soldiers, after all, many people had urged me to write a book about my experiences, I always brushed them off by saying that it was the fact that I would NOT write a book that allowed me the access, but, nobody said I could not sent them as messages of Support for Our Troops, so I started writing every week, long letters and full of funny stories about the excesses of my past, I could envision Bob leading his Troops in a Humvee Convoy between the Green Zone and the Airport, he had told me the sequence of three Heavy Metal songs that they played in order to make it in one piece, I knew then that I was definitely doing the right thing...
Little things sipped out, it turned out that Bob was a Military Historian, an author of three books, he did not tell me this, he gave me his surname onetime and so I googled him, I found out quite a bit of stuff that way, his College Photo and other interesting facts, but, I never really talked about the War, that seemed pointless, he had War eighteen hours a day, seven days a week...we corresponded quite a bit over the next year, his deployment lasted 16 months instead of 12, he said that was because he was working on something important and his boss had asked him to stay on and see that work thru, in the end it took him eight days to travel back from Iraq to Washington, he commented that if anyone wanted a definition of inefficiency then the US Army was a perfect model...after he returned I got a package in the mail, it was postmarked "The Pentagon" and it contained Bob's three books, beautifully inscribed to me, I was very touched, but then I found the letter, it thanked me for my support during his deployment and said that those non War related letters had helped him get thru his 16 months...it was the Letterhead that totally threw me, it was from the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and was embossed by the Seal of that Office, holy sh*t, this dude's way more important than I had suspected, it turned out that Bob had been promoted to work for Rummy, he had been given a Two Star General's job and had three computers on his desk...Classified, Secret, and Top Secret...Bob worked directly for SECDEF, we met up a few months later, he was off to give some lectures at West Point and also to start a dialog between the Army and the Navy, Rummy had asked him if he had any good ideas and Bob had suggested that it would be a really good idea if the Army talked to the Navy...Rummy told him to get on it...he went back to Washington via New York and we met up for dinner, he explained how he had been working for General Petreaus and that was why he had stayed on in Iraq, as I said if I had known who he was, I would never had thought that I was capable of talking to someone with his particular skills, he is an Army Ranger, that means that he's Special Forces, and, capable of rappelling out of a Helicopter, or down a mountain wearing a Heavy Pack and then ready to start killing the enemy as fast as possible, not really my kind of person, at least that's what I would have thought if I had known, he's a Senior Commander now of course, but, the Internet is a great place to stay incognito and Bob had managed this very well, I subsequently took him Backstage at a Who Concert and he took me for coffee in the green field at the centre of the Pentagon, obviously by now I had taken a great interest in the War, and as Barry says, Bob's an incredible teacher and I have learned a tremendous amount from him, as I said in my previous post if i'm interested in something then I can learn all about it, Bob's job was interesting and I was a model student, we were all set to go on a Battlefield Tour this year but he got deployed again, first to NATO in Rome and then on to Afghanistan in May, just in time for the Battle for Kandahar...
Anyway, that's my story, it illustrates exactly how the Internet can produce friendships that would never happen any other way...in fact i'm very lucky, because I have been receiving these incredible letter from him, detailing his travels in Italy whilst at NATO for six months, he's walked the same corridors as Caesar, sat on the same stones as Brutus, and, visited the Battlefields upon which the Carthaginians fought their Wars, but, he's off to Afghanistan soon, to do the job he was trained for, writing this post has prepared me perfectly to write those weekly letters from home, letters that I know he appreciates...he's made me into a Patriot, who'd have ever thought i'd end up like that...
Sent via Twitter by @chalkperson
