WEBVTT

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testing . Hello , you hear me ? Heather .

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Hello ? Hi , how are you ? Good . How

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are you ? Will you say your name ? Give

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me the correct spelling ? Yes , it's

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Hall Garth the first name is Jacob J A

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C O B blast name ? Hall Garth , H A L L

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G A R T H . It's A

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L L G A R T H

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H A L L G A R T H .

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And give me your title over there . I

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am the collection manager for 1st

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Brigade , 25th Infantry Division .

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And where are you from ? Are you from

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here in Guyana ? Were not Wyoming ? Uh ,

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I'm from Cheyenne and I went to the

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University of Wyoming out there in

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Laramie and my folks currently live in

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Matisse out by Cody . Oh , sure . So

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you've been living here and say and

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then yes , I have .

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All right , real quickly . Tell me what

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you do over there in Iraq . Okay . As I

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said , I'm the collection manager for

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25th Infantry First Brigade . Uh , so

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basically I handle the intelligence

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assets , make sure that our assets are ,

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are focused on the right areas as well

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as some of the assets that are given to

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us by higher echelons , uh , like some

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of the different , um , these unmanned

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aerial vehicles , like the predator or

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global hawk , things of that nature .

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Okay . Um , do you think the war looks

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winnable ? Oh , absolutely . Absolutely .

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Since we've been here for about three

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months ? I believe we've made some real

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progress and things are really starting

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to look positive . What are , what are

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some of the good things that you're

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seeing over there . Well , uh some of

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the things that I'm seeing that , I

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think are very positive are just a

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feeling of optimism , not only among

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the soldiers here , but also among the

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the Iraqis . From what I've seen , what

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I've heard , um as far as uh seem to be

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uh more friendly to us . Also , we're

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starting to work more with the Iraqi

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National Guard , um and the Iraqi

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Police and some of the other Iraqi

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security elements and giving them more

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and more responsibilities and they're

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doing very well and taking very well to

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it . Do you think there's enough

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soldiers over there , I guess ,

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especially with the elections coming up

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and um I think Bush is also going to

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send over a few more soldiers . Right .

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Right . Yeah , that's what we're

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tracking to . Uh really , I'm not in a

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position to say if if there's enough or

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not , I believe that we we have enough

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to get the job done here and as I said ,

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we're really doing positive things out

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here and the morale amongst the troops

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is really high . Um You think it's

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worth losing soldiers over there for

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the job that we're doing Well , I'll

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tell you , uh it's a terrible sacrifice .

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Um but uh , you know , we're doing good

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things out here and we're really

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helping rebuild this country and we're

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taking steps forward every day . I'll

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talk a little bit about the elections

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coming up in january , do you think

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it's possible ? Yes , I do . I do think

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it's possible . As I said , we're

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working closely with the Iraqis , uh

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and and they're taking over more and

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more responsibility . And I think that

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the local populace do is looking

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forward to to a chance for democracy

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and to express their views . Um ,

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talk a little bit about how often you

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talk to your family back home . Mhm .

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Uh you know , we're pretty fortunate

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here in Missoula in this area . We have

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a good internet access and uh it's much

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quicker when I was deployed before ,

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you know , letters take a while and

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we've got great internet access and we

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get to make phone calls from time to

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time . So we are pretty fortunate .

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It's not true in all the places , but

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here in uh in Mosul , we're fortunate .

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What do you miss most being over there

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about maybe some of the amenities and

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stuff that you might have back home and

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if you don't have over there , I guess

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I just I just missed particularly in

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Wyoming , I missed the snow in the

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mountains and the clean fresh air , you

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know , and just uh the open spaces , I

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really miss that . Is there anything

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else that you want to touch on that ?

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Maybe I haven't asked you about , just

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uh I just want to say a big thank you

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to everyone out there who's watching ,

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um , you know , your support and and

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what you've done for us has been

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wonderful . Uh there's all sorts of

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programs out here where the soldiers

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are getting care packages and letters

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from people they don't even know , and

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it's just fantastic . And it's just

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really brighten their day when they get

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a letter or a care package from someone

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just knowing that you guys are out

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there for us , really brighten their

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day , especially now around the holiday

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season . All right . I think that's it .

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Okay . Okay . Thank you heather . I

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appreciate it with me . No problem .

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Alright . Have a good day . You too

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heather .