Lunch With the Soldiers

Another view from another soldier in this post from a blogger. (Hat tip to Instapundit.)

Here’s a soldier luncheon report. I wish, no matter what you think about the war in Iraq, that you could have been there....

The tables were arranged so that a soldier just returning from Iraq or Afghanistan sat between every two or so “civilians”. I sat next to Isaac Martinez, who led the first military police unit into Iraq. Isaac was promoted to unit leader two weeks before his deployment. He returned home from in March. In a year’s time his unit provided over 700 convey escorts logging 1.1 million miles without an accident. They trained 120 Iraqi police to be highway patrolmen and confiscated numerous guns and other weaponry.

It's a relieving corrective to the usual media reports.

I'm curious if anyone in Memphis does something similar? If you do, or know of someone who does, please get word to me and I will distribute it here at Half-Bakered. This is a great way to get the unfiltered and unmediated story direct from soldiers who were there, and for the community to say "thank you" in return.

By the way, you can read how the local paper covered this same event here. A world of difference.