Atlanta Lay-Over

Hour five at the Atlanta airport and it’s all been good. Lots of time on the laptop, although, it appears Google Blogger is overloaded and I can’t get into my account. I did upload Firefox finally; I been meaning to do that. So, I’m writing in Word and hoping I can figure out how to get the posts into my blog.

I had a really great conversation with two service persons going back to Iraq, Eva Chapp and Travis Butler. Eva’s from Michigan and the mother of three teen age girls. Travis is from Alabama and had 10 and 11 year-old boys. These are their last tours of duty. They were both in complete agreement on the things we discussed. They said the Iraqi people are good, kind, trustworthy, and suffering. Both soldiers work in the detention center and Eva also works in PR and with the Iraqi leaders in Baghdad. Eva is Travis’ commanding officer. Women are well respected in Iraq. One of their heads of state is a woman.

Both agreed that the coalition should not pull out of Iraq yet as the work that has been done would be undone if we pull out too soon. The Iraqi people are just beginning to learn the truth about Saddam Hussein and to trust America and her allies. These two soldiers trust our government even with all the politics and also trust their higher command. They said that many of the Iraqi people who are detained in the detention center don’t want to leave because the conditions there, no matter how bad according to our standards, are way better than what they would have to go back to. There were dozens and dozens of soldiers in the airport waiting to go back.

They didn’t know where the government-chartered plane was taking them and good thing because if they would have known and told me, then they would have had to kill me. They said they would be told moments before they landed where they were and then from there each group would be transported to their own companies. They were both upbeat and encouraged by what the U.S. is doing in Iraq. They felt safe where they were going and thought progress was being made. I felt even prouder to be an American after talking to the two of them.