In The News

As a child it was always exciting to get your name and picture in the newspaper. Most often they spelled my name incorrectly but it still was pretty cool. It usually happened because of sports or the good 'ol Pinewood Derby as a Cub Scout (the Stinson 'wedge' car was pretty fast). This time my picture was tied to something not so exciting. Our team got a call that a car bomb went off at a local market place. When we got there the place was swarming with coalition and Iraqi troops. The Iraqi bomb squad gave us permission to have a look around so we could let our command know what happened.

I was with my fellow team member and one of the security guys at the blast site when the MP saw a few guys taking our picture. He went over there and had them delete the ones of us but I guess a picture slipped through. This picture found its way to the New York Times and Voice of America websites:

Here are the links: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/12/world/middleeast/12iraq.html and http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-02-11-voa24.cfm

It's really not a big deal having our picture taken although it does mean that harassment and owing a case of beverage will follow. We already have one "Hollywood" in the company and hopefully he doesn't think that we're trying to take away his spotlight.

On a good note, these types of incidents are slowing down and things are improving here. The Iraqi bomb squad is learning and improving. Let's hope that things continue to improve.