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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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Posted on 04/15/2003 9:15:09 AM PDT by Osage Orange
"You're Still My Baby"
Baghdad, Iraq -
Capt. Daniel Schmitt looked eagerly at the tank and then explained. "I have a hobby. I drive every single thing in the Marine Corps at least once."
But this is a Russian-made T-72 Iraqi tank, not a Marine vehicle.
"It is now," said Schmitt, 31 grinning like the Cheshire cat as he climbed into the tank for a short joyride through a palm grove Monday.
Schmitt, commanding officer of the Weapons Company of the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, dreamed of driving the tank when he first saw it parked by the side of the road Sunday in the northern Baghdad neighorhood of Tunis, which his Marines are patrolling.
The battered, rusty monster appeared to have been abandoned in a hurry - an old pair of Iraqi army trousers were attached to it by a cord, as if hung out to dry.
After a few false starts, Schmitt began driving the tank among the palm trees with jerky motions, like a teenager learning to drive a stick-shift car in a parking lot. The ride lasted about five minutes.
He popped out of the tank and grabbed his rifle, which he calles Condoleezza as an homage to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.
"Come here, Condoleezza," he said. "I wasn't with another woman. It's a tank. You're still my baby."
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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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It is in the breaking news sidebar! |
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Sure PING away..!!
FRegards,
it would give a new meaning to friendly fire!
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