B36 News - 11 July 2006

I've decided to cancel the Google Earth file. It was taking up too much time and not getting enough circulation. If demand picks back up I'll start again, but I think there's better things I could be doing with my time. Things like posting the good news!

Today's top story comes from Camp Liberty in Baghdad, where Staff Sgt. Michael Gingras describes how he survived a sniper shooting him in the head.

Shot in the Head
Gingras, a New London, Conn., native, and fellow Soldiers from the 1-87 Inf. Regt., were conducting a “meet and greet” operation in which they walk through a neighborhood, interact with the local citizens and build relationships with the local people.

As they moved about the streets, a young boy recognized Gingras and came to thank him for help he had given the child in the past.

Gingras went to one knee among a throng of children to accept the young boy’s hug, and as he rose back to his feet, a bullet struck his helmet – the Army’s new Advanced Combat Helmet.
“After I recovered from the shot and took shelter in the vehicle, I was in disbelief,” said Gingras. “I had young Iraqi children all around me, and the enemy still decided to take a shot at me. It revealed just how careless the terrorist forces are towards their own people.”

Besides being shaken up and a little sore, he went back to work immediately – wanting to deal a psychological blow to his enemy.
“I took it personally when that bullet hit me in the head,” he said. “My family knows, and they asked me why I continue to put myself in harm’s way. But I am proud to be a Soldier, and I have a job to do. I knew the enemy might still be watching, and I wanted him to see me go right back to work.”

(Written by Spc. Jason Jordan, 1st BCT PAO, 10th Mtn. Div.)

Roll on ISF
CENTCOM
The Iraqi Army keeps rolling, this time in Tikrit. In this report you can see a number of indicators showing progress on various fronts. First, the ISF conducted the operation. Second, the local civilians provided the initial tip to the ISF. Third, upon gathering intel on the original objective the ISF then acted on that intel and captured more bad guys.

Half of Iraq's Provinces Independent by Year's End
Yahoo
Can you believe it? Yahoo has good news? Try as they might they're only able to get through about half of the story positively before they fall back into the usual defeatist garbage. Anyway, based on a recent briefing, the current assessment is that in keeping with the example of Muthana, by the end of the year we should be able to transfer security responsibility back to about half of Iraq's provinces.

Iraqi Loggies
Defend America
An army can do nothing without supplies, and now the Iraqis are getting their logistical feet under them. No gunshots or bodycounts in the loggie world, but without loggies, there are no gunshots or bodycounts. Combat Support, hooah!

Forward Together
Government of Iraq (GOI)
Yes, the GOI has it's own official website and everything. If you spend any amount of time looking through it you'll notice that not everything is particularly complimentary of the MNF-I. This is good, it shows the fact that the GOI isn't an American puppet and that it's actually looking out for Iraqis, which it should be doing. As for the story, it's a score card of sorts for the progress that has been made in Operation Forward Together by the ISF.

As B36 News continues to mature you can expect to see an actual video broadcast in the near future, with an anchor and news features and everything. Stay tuned.

***UPDATE1***
I just got an idea. For the video broadcast, why not answer questions posed by readers. So here's the deal, if there's anything you'd like to ask me about please feel free to either email me with the question or post it here on the blog. I'll pick my favorite question and answer it in my upcomming video newscast.