News from Eastern Baghdad

Bob had only a few moments to write yesterday, but sent this email...

We have been in Eastern Baghdad now for a few days. We are with Major Sean Ryan and the 2ID/2BCT from Ft Carson of Colorado Springs. Our first day there, Major Ryan was our first guest. He shared some background of their time here and the progress they have seen.

Yesterday we went out on a convoy into Eastern Baghdad and spent some time with our troops in two large outposts. Outpost Sullivan holds both American and Iraqi armies together. Outpost JSS holds U.S. Army and Iraqi Police, all working together. We were able to interview some of the soldiers in-between their convoys, and had a number of shoutouts, too (where the soldiers said hello to family and friends).

We tried to get video as we drove through Eastern Baghdad in the convoys but the window in the humvee is just so small. But I think we got some. We will see later, when we go over the videos.

We are now back at FOB Loyalty. Tomorrow we will be interviewing some personnel from the 2/17 out of Ft Carson, who we spent some time with over the past few days. The 2/17 was originally deployed to Ramadi from Korea, then came to Ft Carson after that deployment. Now they are back in Baghdad doing a great job. They seemed glad that we are here to give the troops the opportunity to tell their positive stories to the American people in their own words and to say hello to their families.

We will be driving back into Eastern Baghdad to document more progress stories. Driving through Baghdad is an incredible experience. Business seems to be booming in this large metropolitan city, and we have heard the population could be as much as 6 million people. As we drive through the streets children wave at us, give us the thumbs up. People see me wave at them through the window and wave back. We see many Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police Checkpoints, and the streets are very busy with traffic and people.

Once again,the perseverance of our troops in not-the-best of living circumstances is amazing to me. Meals are brought out to the Outposts from the main base once a day. Fortunately, we could also see many boxes of care packages from back home.

[Bob cut this short, as he had to dash.]