I was invited by Janet Stevens a former Instructor of mine, to speak to her International Relations class at Madison Area Technical College (MATC) about my findings and observations in Turkish and Iraqi Kurdistan. I spoke to the class this past Monday night. She allowed me almost an hour and a half to speak to her class. This I feel is a great honor because college instructors and professors have limited class hours to get their vast subject matter out to the students. I see it as a great privilege as well as a great treat for me. The students asked intelligent questions, my wife Heide added her voice as someone who held down the fort while I was in Iraq, and the Instructor asked questions as well.
About the time I get discouraged with my work in Iraq, some event comes along like this past Monday and my spirit is revived yet again. I would like to thank everyone involved that gave me a chance to share my work.
This week's Wisconsin soldier to remember is Staff Sergeant Todd Olson, 36, who died December 27, 2004, at the 67th Combat Support Hospital in Tikrit, Iraq. He had sustained wounds a day earlier from a roadside bomb detonated in Samarra, Iraq. Olson's home was in Loyal, Wisconsin. Todd was killed two weeks after his Wisconsin National Guard unit arrived in Iraq. He died on patrol when hit by the bomb in Samarra, a town north of Baghdad. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel mentioned Olson had studied finance at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse; he was married and the father of three teenage boys and a 5-year-old girl; he was a member of the Loyal School Board; a loan officer at the M&I Bank in Loyal and Neillsville; a youth group leader at Trinity Lutheran Church in Loyal; and a youth football coach. Staff Sergeant Olson joined the National Guard after he graduated from Loyal High School in 1986. He was attached to the Neillsville Unit Detachment 1, Company C, 1st Battalion, 128th Infantry Regiment, Wisconsin Army National Guard. They had been activated for training in Mississippi in June of 2004 and arrived in Kuwait in November. Staff Sergeant Olson was the 33rd soldier from Wisconsin to die in Iraq since spring 2003.
3,876 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
464 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
28,530 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1,797 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
82 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
6 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
124 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
14 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
Soldier of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; and, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
