A day with the troops

U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson of Cape Girardeau recently visited the Middle East. She kept a daily journals. Here is the seventh installment.

By Jo Ann Emerson

Monday, Nov. 10: This afternoon, we were supposed to fly to Tikrit, the hometown of Saddam Hussein, but weather wouldn't permit us to fly in there. That city has more loyalists than you would find in Kirkuk, and there has been more resistance to the coalition troops there as a result.

Tikrit has been the center of much speculation about Saddam as well. There is a lot of anxiety among Iraqis over where he might be and how much power he retains. People think maybe he returned to Tikrit. I even heard one rumor that he is driving a taxi cab.

I was disappointed not to see a community that might be facing an entirely different set of challenges. Instead, we had lunch with the troops. I had never had a Meal Ready to Eat before today, and, frankly, I hope I never do again. The food would take some getting used to. Everything is packaged for long-term storage without refrigeration.

The troops do get some variety in their MREs, so maybe I just caught them on a bad day. They told me they appreciate having American foods. One thing I thought to do before leaving the United States was to bring along some phone cards from Operation Uplink, which is a joint effort of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, SBC and some other companies. (The VFW has distributed 900,000 phone cards to service members in the last 100 days alone. I brought about 50.) This is a great program to put the men and women serving all over the world in our armed forces into contact with their families and loved ones back home. I could tell from how the troops gratefully accepted the phone cards that they will be put to good use.

I found myself thinking ahead to the holidays and how difficult it will be for these young men to be away from home. Some other programs have been started in the United States where people donate their frequent-flier miles to a special fund that enables troops to fly home for free when they get some time for leave. Few are lucky enough to get to do that, though. The creature comforts they miss came up in general conversation: football, news and even a brief discussion about good home cooking.

I told the troops my favorite part of today was no corkscrew landings on the plane. After the long morning, I found myself saying a quick silent prayer for them all to be home soon.

After our meal together, it was back to Amman, Jordan, on the C-130 for another Iftar, the large meal Muslims eat after sundown every day of Ramadan.

Next we are on to Damascus, Syria.