My son, Alex, is a Cavalry Scout with the Minnesota Army National Guard and is trained as an "Advanced Reconnaissance Specialist". He is now serving in Iraq as a HUMMVEE driver doing convoy escorts and combat patrols through out the Sunni Triangle. Here is a link to some of his photos 4” wheeling with his HUMMVEE during the Iraqi rainy season. http://longlostlake.com/v-web/gallery/ Thare is also a link on my home page.

I hope to trade in his 2000 Arctic Cat 500 for a 650 and surprise him when he comes home.

 

Thanks for sharing the photos scotto. Alex and all the brave men and women that are serving in the Armed Forces are to be commended for their great sacrifices they, and their familys are going through. I SALUTE YOU ALL.
Please tell Alex Thank You from all of my family and friends.

scotto, make sure you take some pictures of his big surprise when he gets home, I'm sure he will love the 650!
Thanks again
Kurt

 

My nephew is also over there with the Mn National Guard, working as an MP. He is with the TRF post.

 

thanks everyone your words of support means a lot to me. I am so proud of my son and all of our young warriors that word can’t describe.
Don’t believe every thing you hear in the news. For every bad thing that happens there are countless good things happening. It’s a shame that it’s the bad things that “sells” the news. If you need to watch the news think, FOX yes – CNN no. This is the list of things that has happened in Iraq recently: (Please share it with your friends and compare it to what you see on the news or what you read in the paper.)

Over 400,000 kids have up-to-date immunizations.
School attendance is up 80% from levels before the war.
Over 1,500 schools have been renovated and rid of the weapons stored there so education can occur.
The port of Uhm Qasar was renovated so grain can be off-loaded from ships faster.
The country had its first 2 billion barrel export of oil in August.
Over 4.5 million people have clean drinking water for the first time ever in Iraq.
The country now receives 2 times the electrical power it did before the war.
100% of the hospitals are open and fully staffed, compared to 35% before the war.
Elections are taking place in every major city, and city councils are in place.
Sewer and water lines are installed in every major city.
Over 60,000 police are patrolling the streets.
Over 100,000 Iraqi civil defense police are securing the country.
Over 80,000 Iraqi soldiers are patrolling the streets side by side with US soldiers.
Over 400,000 people have telephones for the first time ever.
Students are taught field sanitation and hand washing techniques to prevent the spread of germs.
An interim constitution has been signed.
Girls are allowed to attend school.
Textbooks that don't mention Saddam are in the schools for the first time in 30 years.
600 Iraqi Highway Patrol officers are patrolling the highways which is slated to reach 6200 officers by July 2006.

DeeDaug, thank you for your service and don’t let those left coast left wing wacko’s get you down. Alex is also a MP maybe they know each other. I follow "OPSEC" rules so I don’t want to give out details on there deployment other than what is already known. I also do my riding in NW Minnesota (White Earth Indian Rez) drop me a e-mail next time your home and maybe we can do some riding.

 

QUOTE from scotto: Don’t believe every thing you hear in the news.

You are so right most people cannot even fathom how right you are. When I was over there, the news reports where so far off I thought I was fighting a different war in another country. All you hear about is the bad stuff, never anything positive. Had I listen to the news, I would have thought we were getting our butts kicked!!!!! We where lucky enough to have Oliver North from Fox with us.

People have forgtten that in WWII we lost 1,500 people just in one day during a TRAINING exercise for D-Day. Yes, thats one thousand and five hundred people. Compare that with the news today.

I would bet our guys know each other. Small world. I have another nephew with the TRF post that may get sent over about the time this one comes back.

Most of my riding is north of the Red Lake Rez. Ever been up around Fourtown?

 

Scotto, thanks for the picture link. I totally agree with everything you said about the news 'media'. My neighbor's son was over in Iraq and he said the exact same thing about how scewed the news reports are. You'd never guess it was the same war!

Tell Alex we're with him 110%!

 

Scotto,

Awesome pictures. Thank you and please thank Alex for me. Tell him that many of us out here understand and appreciate his service. I made a hyper-link to make it easier for other's to view and with your permission, I'd like to link to his photo page in another forum. I'll wait until I hear from you. Thanks again.

Alex's Photos

 

MassMark,
Yes, please do and thank you so much. I talked with my son last week and he sounded a little depressed. As a parent I can’t tell you how hard that is to hear, but he never complains even when his leave was up he never wavered about going back to the "sand box". He said "dad we have a job to do over there". I remember when he called home after the Iraqi elections he was so excited and proud of being a part of history and with the huge turnout it showed our soldiers that there sacrifice was not in vain. How many people in this country would turnout to vote if on election day no one was aloud to drive there cars and had to walk under the threat of death and dip there finger in ink? I am looking forward to the day that my son and I can once again hit the trails with our cat's.

Migwetch (Ojibwe for thanks)

 

They won't vote here even when they offer to bus them to the polling place! Too many generations have passed since we had to fight to get a vote.

 

Nice pics. My 5 year old son just had a little girl in his kindergarden class lose her 34 year old dad last week. He and a second US army person were killed by a bomb. Guy leaves behind 4 little kids.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-disgusted.gif[/img]

I was in the peace time Navy....just makes me sick to see our people killed....lost a kid from my town in Somailia a few years back...Black Hawk down movie depicted his death.....gang makes me want to nuke someone.....[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]