WEBVTT

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how long have you been there ? I've

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been here approximately 11

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months so far . It's been nice and we

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have a few a few months left and still

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a lot of work to do , But things are

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going very well here . What

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what's your average day ? Like , what

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do you do ? Well , it's kind of

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interesting , yes , because normally

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we're field artillery were supposed to

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deal with cannons and rockets and that

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type of thing . But here we've been

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doing your standard infantry missions ,

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conducting patrols and working closely

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with the people of Mosul and the people

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that we worked with down south and they

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are area . But lately right now we've

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taken up more force protection role and

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uh we're here in Mosul protecting the

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fob and the forward operating base . Um

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whenever we hear something suspicious

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that's going on outside of the walls ,

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we react to it , take a patrol outside

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and see what's going on right now .

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It's it's interesting . We've gone

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through this entire year and all of our

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men have gone from being standard

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artillery soldiers to working with the

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infantry and doing infantry skills very

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well , basically it's uh sort of combat

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in , you've been converted from

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artillery to combat infantry ? Yes , we

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have . And uh but do you

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think do you think that the training

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and just the experience over there has

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made the conversion go pretty well .

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Yes . I mean originally we we've done

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some training back in Fort Lewis where

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were stationed out of and prepare

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ourselves for this deployment . But

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once we got here , we learned a lot

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more about what it meant to be infantry

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soldiers of what it meant to patrol and

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in a dangerous situation every day .

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Any complaints about how that sort of

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conversion process , land , no ,

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actually the soldiers that great , they

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stepped up and wanted to do the job and

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they've done nothing but be successful

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down south were able to clean out a few

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towns and by catching some

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terrorists in those towns and making

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the village a lot safer people allowing

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us to develop schools and generators

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and all that type of thing because it's

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not necessarily just a combat mission

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out here . A lot of people in the

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States here about the bombs and

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everything that go off in Mosul on a

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regular basis . But in reality there's

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a lot of things that happened for us

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delivering generators to town so that

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the entire village can have power

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improving water water treatment

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facilities so that people can have

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better water in the area . We do med

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caps in order to improve the health of

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the people in the area . There's a lot

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of things that are happening that are

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going on very well in Mosul and down

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south where I was working before . So

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this , uh , this experience both

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your acting both in terms of you

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ready for combat yet , you're dealing

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with the populist too . What's the

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reaction of the populist reaction of

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the populace has been very positive

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people once they see that America see

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the help and we're doing our job . The

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soldiers , I think enjoy helping people

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more than they enjoy going out just

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being on a strictly combat mission .

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When you see the Children out there

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that are , that are asking you for

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things and and the people that are very

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receptive for how you've helped their

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town out . It's a good feeling and I

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think the populist really wants , wants

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to see hear and they respect what we're

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doing . Um they understand that we're

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faced danger every day by going outside

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the wire and the courage of the

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soldiers is unbelievable . They go out ,

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they do their job every day and help

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all the people that they worked with

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all the time .

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What when

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you come home , what do you think your

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greatest impression of the area will be

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that Iraq has a great culture .

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It's amazing to be walking

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around down where we were at . We had

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some old ruins from called the hot to

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ruins down south outside of Chiara .

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And it was interesting to see that

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these ancient ruins have been here for

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ages and the fact that the people here

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have such a fantastic culture and the

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people here have been oppressed for so

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long that now they're finally starting

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to come out of their shells and are

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working with us very well . And uh and

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we're winning this over here . We've

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had terrorists complaining about how

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they're getting beat so bad in Mosul .

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There was a letter that was intercepted

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by an abu , they're written to Zarqawi

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basically stating that he can't handle

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what's going on up here in Mosul and he

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needs help . So the good thing is we're

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winning , we're winning the people and

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we're winning the fight . What's the

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attitude there with the constitution

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based on the constitution convention

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happening there Now ,

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Is there a lot of interest that you see

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for the people that I've talked to down

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south and around here in Mosul ,

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They're concerned they want to know

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what's happening all the time . It's

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nice that more people are being allowed

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to have satellite tv so they can stay

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in touch and they're allowed to do the

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internet . Whereas with the previous

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regime that we're not allowed to so a

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lot of people are pretty well informed

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and they're very concerned about what's

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going on with the constitution and

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that's encouraging to us . Do you see

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any dissension or any kind of sort of

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factionalism amongst the population ? I

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mean , are there groups that are

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pushing their agenda versus other

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groups that are pushing their , that

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the parents to you folks are people who

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would be the underside . It's kind of

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funny that you say that because isn't

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it the same way in America everybody's

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pushing their agenda . So I mean , it's

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kind of the same way it is here in

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Mosul . I mean , people are trying to ,

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people are trying to get their point

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across and uh it wouldn't be a

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democracy if that wasn't the case .

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Okay , what's your unit again ,

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just like this is Regular Army ,

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correct ? Yes , this is active duty

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army were bravo battery , second of the

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eighth Field Artillery , part of first

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Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division ,

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based at Fort Lewis Washington .

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So what would be the message ? You

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would have to have somebody sort of

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boots on the ground for people back

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home uh regarding how you guys are

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doing personally ?

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Well , my message is that we are

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winning the fight and you know , the

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men here generally view this fight as

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reasonable , they appreciate and they

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work hard to help the people of Iraq to

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make it a safer place . And we are

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winning the soldiers here have

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sacrificed a lot , a lot of , a lot of

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good soldiers that have made the

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ultimate sacrifice . But all the men

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here showed great resolve and they work

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very hard and go out and do the mission

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every day . And we're all looking

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forward to going home . But we can all

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look back and say that we've done

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something that made a difference in

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Iraq . You know what I'm gonna do ?

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I'm going to go see my wife and uh

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and just enjoy time with because I

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realized how much I have appreciated

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that haven't gone , you're staying in

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the service . Yes , I am . And right

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now I'm uh right now I have a few more

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years of commitment and I'll make a

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decision whether I stay in uh making a

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career coming up here in the next few

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years , but I've got some more avenues

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to go down , but I like what I'm doing

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now . I really enjoy being a platoon

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leader and leading soldiers on the

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ground . Okay , well this has been

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terrific . Thanks very much . Good luck .

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Uh and uh , one other

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thing , have you done any vermonters ,

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particularly guard people and how they

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doing actually heaven . I I

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looked for him all the time though . I

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like to , I like to touch base with the

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Vermont because there aren't that many

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of us out here , especially the guard .

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I'd love to touch base with my brother .

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I've been able to talk to him . He's

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currently down and down the south and

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kuwait and uh he's got his mission down

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there . It was nice to talk to him the

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other day on the phone . So other than

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that , I haven't talked with many other

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vermonters in the area . Also have a

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question for you . When when will this

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air ? We're probably going to do

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something on it tonight . Okay , great .

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So I expect you to email your dad and

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family . Okay , great . I'll let him

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know . Okay , terrific . Okay , thanks

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very much . Again . Good luck . It was

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great talking to a vermonter . Okay ,

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take care