You may remember my post a few days ago about Major Jamil...

Well, hold on to your hats, and read the latest word from George K --

Hello Everyone, and hold on to your seats!!!

I hope all of you are having a wonderful New Year thus far.

As for my team and I, we are doing well. There is a Greek Belief, as some of you may know, that whatever happens to you on New Years day, happens to you all year long. With that in mind, it seems that I am going to have an interesting year.

It started off quiet, got very exciting, and then I received a blessing that I am still in shock over and overjoyed.

First, we went out on a mission of the New Years Eve...Midnight rolled in and it was nothing spectacular here, it came and went like any ordinary day. However, a few hours later, we were involved in a firefight that lasted a while. No one was hurt, at least from our side, but we did loose a transformer and thus lost power in the compound for a day and a half. The powers surge also killed the computers, and now we are using our own personal laptops, as the other ones in the Internet room have to be replaced.

Thus, I will leave it up to you fine folks to tell me what all of this means for me for the rest of the year. Getting shot at has been my everyday affair for the last seven months, hopefully when we come back to Chicago, the shooting will stop. Unless I am foolish enough to buy tickets to a White Sox game.

Second, and most importantly, I Had the shocker of my life. I visited an Iraqi Army compound up here and realized that it was mixed soldiers, some Iraqi Arabs and some Kurds. One of the Kurdish soldiers I knew, from my time I spent with them at Ft. Defiance with Jamil. It was bitter sweet to see him and share some time with him.

I expressed my condolences to him, for my friend, and his friend and leader, Jamil, in my limited Kurdish, and he acknowledged and thanked me, in his limited English. We continued our talk and as we were talking about Jamil's tragedy, I realized we were talking about two different things. He was talking about Jamil's tragedy with loosing his brother, sister, their spouses and his nephew and nieces. I quickly realized in our discussion that either he did not know that Jamil was dead, or I did not know that he was alive.

It turns out, that there is another bittersweet moment here, and to my personal feelings, it is more sweet then bitter. There was a Maj. Jamil killed along with his lieutenant, but it was not my friend or his lieutenant, also a close friend of mine. The Jamil killed in the Car bomb incident was a major, named Jamil, Kurdish and from Dahouk, Kurdistan. If it sounds to good to be true, keep in mind that the name "Jamil" here is like Smith, or Jones back home. I brought over a translator to be sure; I did not want to be ecstatic over misinterpreted information. The translator confirmed my joyous assumption. This is one time I was glad for faulty information in the military chain.

It is like having a friend come back from the dead again. Like Martha and Mary receiving their brother Lazarus back from the tomb. To add to this excellent news, I am scheduled to go to another city in a week with my team, named Kissik, (you can see it on the sign I am standing in front of, in the last photo I sent) for 3 or 4 weeks, and Maj. Jamil and his men are supposed to be there as well. Not only is my friend, for all practical purposes back from the dead, but we will be reunited in a few days and working and eating together once again. God is Awesome. This has turned out to be a great New Year thus far.

Afterwards I went off by myself and thanked God for the great news and shed a joyous tear. However, I had to also pray for the other Jamil and his lieutenant, my good news is some one else's tragic event. I am truly sorry for that man, as I found out he left behind six children, between the ages of two to thirteen.

For those of you who were praying for Jamil's family, who wished me your condolences and reached out in such a caring and loving way, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. It means a lot when people back home, some of whom I have never met can sympathize and empathize with you at such a time of loss. If it is one thing all of us as humans share in, it is the common fate of all of us; death, and the sadness, pain, hurt and emptiness it leaves behind to those grieving. I also want to thank those of you who took Jamil and I into your prayers and posted such beautiful and caring tributes to this great man. One day when I see him I will share with him those sites, so he and his men, as well as his fellow Kurds could see in a real and tangible way, what support there is not only for us Americans, but for those Iraqis who have stood up to make a difference. I thank you all for your support.

Since I have not had time to e-mail all of you, or even had the opportunity with the blackout, I am sharing with you at the bottom of this e-mail. Some sites that had a tribute posted for my friend Jamil. When I first saw them, they were sad and broke my heart, now I can look at them with joy and a sense of humor, as I will be sharing them with Jamil.

I will right again soon to all of you, and hopefully in a personal way.

From Iraq, with joy and Gladness

George

And while all of us Soldiers' Angels are just thrilled to hear the news, we also keep "the other Major Jamil" in our hearts, for his family and friends are grieving his loss.