T -5 Days and counting

Minneapolis, Minnesota - With 5 days to go to my departure things are coming together. I'm still waiting on a few last minute packages from FedEx and UPS, and finalizing my packing list, but all in all I'm feeling ready to go.

There are some students that need to clean their room before they can start studying for a test, and my wife has to clean the house before we can leave on a trip. Monday night I got 5 duffel bags of old Army gear down from the attic, and I'm sorting through them looking for gear that might be useful on this trip, and finally throwing away a bunch of stuff that I'll never use again.

My wife is happy that I'm finally getting rid of the junk, and I've found a couple of useful items.

I need a new video camera ASAP

I'm going to be shooting video in Iraq for KSTP channel 5, the Minneapolis ABC affiliate. This is great news for the mission, but it also means that I need to get a new video camera in a hurry. The consumer grade camera that I was going to bring just isn't going to cut it for broadcast quality video...

So I'm in the market for a pro quality minidv camera. Ideally a Panasonic AG-DVC30, because it has cool infrared (night time) shooting capability, but I'll take whatever I can get. A Canon GL2, for instance, would do nicely.

If anybody has a suitable camera that they would like to loan or rent to the cause I would love to hear about it (obviously if I break it I'll buy it). I'll probably end up buying one, but it wasn't exactly in the budget...

Leading from the front (SGT Wosika, the rest of the story)

One of the things that has always differentiated the US military from many others in the world is that our officers and NCO's lead from the front and by example. SGT James Wosika Jr, whose funeral is today in St Paul is another fine example of the this ethic.

The media accounts of his death that have been published so far, have simple said that SGT Wosika was killed by an IED while on foot patrol in Fallujah, and that no other soldiers were injured. Those details made me curious. IED's usually don't injure just one soldier, and I wondered what really happened...

I'm know proud to publish some more of the details of what really happen (emphasis mine) from SGT Wosika's company commander, CPT Chip Rankin (reposted from a private forum with permission):

Army Sgt. James M. Wosika, Jr., 24, of St. Paul, Minn. Sgt. Woskia was assigned to the 2nd Combined Arms Battalion, 136th Infantry, Crookston, Minn. Died Jan. 9 in Fallujah, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his unit while on combat patrol.

I wanted to take a moment to inform everyone that is part of the wrestling community back home about one of the Best wrestlers to ever come out of Minnesota. As I read the forum we all like to point out who won the most matches or won the most titles. Rarely do we think about the majority of wrestlers that work there butts off and never see there names on these lists. In fact, this last week a former Minnesota Wrestler was killed in Iraq that most people don't remember, but let me tell you that Jim Wosika tops nearly everyone I know when it comes to what is most important when remembering great wrestlers. On Tuesday, January 9th a brave leader told the guys in his squad to get behind some cover as he checked out a potentially dangerous situation, an explosion occurred and Jimmy was killed instantly... His actions that day without question saved the lives of 8 other Soldiers, his fellow brothers. Jim did this without hesistation and knowing Jimmy he would do it again.

Jim Wosika wrestled for Jim Paddock at Highland Park. Trust me I was informed everyday how much tougher AAA schools were than AA schools and just how Highland Park would kick Litchfield's butt anyday of the week. We have some wall mats that we threw down in a tent over here in Iraq and we would meet on Monday nights after a day full of combat patrols do some grappling.. He loved the sport of wrestling and he represented the very best of what the sport of wrestling teaches all of us.. Discipline, Teamwork and Sacrifice were just a few of the qualities that James Wosika lived by everyday here in Iraq... He may not have won the most matches or the most titles, but he will go down as one of the finest wrestlers I have ever had the honor of knowing...

Wrestlers, coaches, parents and fans please keep Jim Wosika and his family in your thoughts and prayers throughout the rest of the season. Think about it all, the wins and losses and more importantly the lessons that wrestling teaches us, because in the end it won't matter how many matches you won or loss when faced with the challenges like one that faced SSG Jim Wosika that Tuesday afternoon, when he knew the price he might be asked to pay and went ahead without hesistation because it knew it was the right thing to do because of the valuable lessons he learned from the sport of wrestling.

CPT Chip Rankin
Commander B Co 2-136
Camp Fallujah, Iraq
Litchfield Wrestling Coach

SGT James Wosika Jr Visitation

An honor guard of Patriot Guard volunteers lines the entrance to visitation for SGT James Wosika Jr at Highland Park Senior High School in St Paul Minnesota.

SGT James Wosika Jr. funeral details

Here are the details of the funeral arrangements for SGT James Wosika Jr. of Bravo Company 2/136 (from the St Paul Pioneer Press):

"The funeral for James M. Wosika Jr., the Minnesota National Guard soldier killed in Iraq earlier this month, will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at the Cathedral of St. Paul. Burial will follow at Fort Snelling National Cemetery.

Visitation will be from 3 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Highland Park Senior High School.

Wosika, a 24-year-old native of St. Paul's West End neighborhood and a 2000 graduate of Highland Park, was killed Jan. 9 by a bomb while on foot patrol in Fallujah. No other soldiers were injured in the blast."

Questions from another friend: Logistics

"If you're still taking questions, I'd like to know more about the logistics of the trip. How do you fly out, who 'manages' you while you're there, how do you plan on moving around the country, do you have security planned... things like that. Meat and potatoes stuff. "

Here's an overview of my itinerary:

1. Northwest Airlines: Minneapolis, Amsterdam, Kuwait City
   
2. Meet SSG Bravo (not his real name), a tall white guy with a short haircut wearing civilian clothes at Starbucks in the Kuwait Airport (I'm not making this up).
3. He'll take care of clearing me through Kuwait and putting me on a C-130 to Baghdad.
4. Once I land in Baghdad, I sign up for the "Rhino Ride" into the Green Zone.
5. Deal with paper work at the Combined Press Information Center (CPIC) in the Green Zone.
6. Catch a helicopter to Al Assad Air Base (a big hub), and then catch the next helicopter to Fallujah.
7. Three days before my plane is due to leave Kuwait, I catch another helicopter to Al Assad. From Al Assad it's a direct flight via C-130 to Kuwait.
8. Catch a bus to the Kuwaiti International Airport.
9. Prepare to drink my first beer in weeks.

The itinerary above is paraphrased from an email from CPT Mark Lappegaard of the 1/34 Brigade Combat Team, Public Affairs Office. Mark has been my primary contact in Iraq while we were working out the details to really make this trip happen.

Physical Security:

I will be wearing comparable body armor to the troops I am embedded with, and I will never be "outside the wire" on my own, or traveling in unarmored vehicles. If I visit any Iraqi civilians it will be in the company of a bunch of Bravo company soldiers loaded for bear. I'm not worried about security...

Who manages me, do I have a "minder"?

Short answer no. There is no official filter or censor of the photos I take, or the stories I write. I'll have a satellite phone and satellite internet access 24x7, and it's my responsibility to follow the rules. At a basic level these rules are pretty common sense:

• Don't report details that might damage operational security, such as operations currently in progress, or the exact locations and numbers of American troops.
• Don't release personal or casualty information without approval. Particularly bad examples would be publishing the name of an injured soldier before their family has been notified, or publishing that an unnamed soldier from a specific unit has been killed in action prior to the family being contacting (you can image the stress of every family in the unit waiting to find out if it was their soldier).

I'll be work directly with the local commander as I go to make sure I'm staying inside the lines, but ultimately it's "on me".

CNN dropped in on the Minnesota National Guard today

Here is an entertaining post from a soldier who works in 1st Brigade HQ back here in Minnesota about CNN dropping in on them this morning.