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Chief Warrant Officer Tom Humes is shown with a unidentified Kurdish officer in Iraq. (Submitted to the Milford Chronicle)

Jun 09, 2005 - 11:27:26 pm EDT

By Gwen Guerke, Milford Chronicle

MILFORD - Army National Guardsman Tom Humes took a break from his deployment in Iraq to come home to Milford and spend time with his wife and children.

Chief Warrant Officer Humes, 43, was fortunate that his leave also coincided with the date of his son's wedding Saturday at Avenue United Methodist Church.

Although he's been in the National Guard since 1985, this is the first time he's been called to active duty, to use his skills as a Blackhawk helicopter pilot.

His unit, while based in New Castle, is part of the 42nd Infantry Division from New York.

The owner of Gander Construction was called to active duty on June 2, 2004.

His company was deployed to For Dix, N.J., for five and half months of training. He also trained at Fort Rucker in Alabama on combat flight simulators, and in Fort Indiantown, Pa., for using night vision goggles.

After training was complete, the company left in November for Kuwait.

Chief Warrant Officer Humes spent Thanksgiving in Kuwait, living in a 70-man tent and completing desert flight qualifications.

In December, the unit flew to Iraq and the group's new home at Forward Operating Base Speicher.

He describes the living quarters as 20-foot trailers, each of which holds four men. The bathrooms and showers are situated in separate trailers, and the dining room, or chow hall, is a half-mile walk.

He said his missions involve battlefield circulation of troops and VIP transport.

A couple of weeks ago, Chief Warrant Officer Humes carried country singer Toby Keith to visit with local troops.

"He said he wanted to go where the troopers were, no matter what the risk was to himself, and he did. We took him to some out of the way places. He was tired and dehydrated, but did not slow down. The troops he saw were very glad to see him, and to get pictures taken with him. He performed for about an hour at each stop," he said.

"My job is not all a cake walk. There are rockets and mortars, but it's not like out driving a convoy. There are some moments that really get your attention," he added.

Chief Warrant Officer Humes said what he's experienced in Iraq is not what he sees on American TV.

"What people see in the media is mostly the bad side. We're getting people's confidence in the Iraqi army and police. They are taking steps in the right direction, and I think most people there feel we're doing good," he said.

In an e-mail sent in May to family and friends back home, Chief Warrant Officer Humes described having tea and some sweet bread with some Kurds.

He wrote about swatting flies while exchanging token items, such as pens and patches, with them.

"The Kurds are very grateful to the Americans for getting rid of Saddam Hussein. One man said that Hussein killed his father when he was a boy. I didn't question how or why this happened. Hussein killed lots of Kurds. I have even heard stories that the Iraqi Army helicopters would use them as human targets for gunnery practice," he wrote.

Chief Warrant Officer Humes, the son of Carolyn and Harry Humes, said he and his wife, Sandy, and their two children, Quinn and Anna, spent time camping, going to the beach and visiting a theme park.

He expects to finish up his tour of duty in October or November when his unit is replaced by members of the 101st Airborne Division.

Chief Warrant Officer Humes says he knows his military service is appreciated when he comes home.

"Everybody supports you. Even coming through the airports, people come up to you and say thank you," he said.

The bodies of men killed execution-style lie in a gravel pit near the Iraqi town of Qaim, about 450 km (330 miles) northwest of Baghdad, June 9, 2005. A total of 16 bodies have been discovered in western Iraq, witnesses said on June 10, the latest grisly killings fuelling fears of a civil war in Iraq. Police said that 22 Iraqi soldiers were kidnapped after leaving their base in the town of Qaim, near the Syrian border. It was not immediately clear if the victims, who were in civilian clothes and left in two different locations near Qaim, were soldiers. REUTERS/Ali Mashhadani (Stringer/Iraq/Reuters)

At Least 17 Bodies Found in Iraqi Town

By MOHAMMED BARAKAT, Associated Press Writer

QAIM, Iraq - At least 17 bodies in civilian clothes were found scattered near a town close to the Syrian border that is considered an insurgent hotbed, with 11 shot in the head and another beheaded, witnesses said Friday.

The 11 who were shot in the head had their hands tied behind their backs, according to the witnesses, which included a reporter for The Associated Press. They were found near a small hamlet called Jabab, about 19 miles east of Qaim. It was unclear when they were killed.

The Interior Ministry also confirmed that another six bodies were found near Qaim outside the village of Fosfat. Interior ministry Maj. Falah al-Mahamdawi said the six men were found Thursday. They all had civilian ID cards.

It was unclear if the bodies had any connection to a group of about 20 Iraqi soldiers that have been missing from the Qaim area since late Tuesday.

Qaim, about 200 miles west of Baghdad, has been the scene of numerous U.S. military and Iraqi army operations. U.S. Marines carried out two major operations in the area last month, with a total of 11 Marines being killed in the campaigns.

Al-Qaida in Iraq, the terror group led by Jordanian-born Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed in an Internet posting that it had abducted a total of 36 Iraqi soldiers in western Iraq on Wednesday. The posting, on a Web site known to carry militant statements, could not be verified independently.

"A group of the infidel guards was arrested and investigated Wednesday," it said.

The group added that the men confessed their crimes "against Sunnis and their loyalty to crusaders." To release them, it gave the government of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari a day to set free "Muslim women" held in Iraqi prisons. It did not elaborate.

Capt. Ahmed Hamid said the soldiers disappeared Tuesday after leaving an Iraqi army base in two minibuses from Akashat, a village near the Syrian border about 70 miles southwest of Qaim.

Hamid, contacted by telephone at an Iraqi military base in Qaim, said the soldiers were wearing civilian clothes and traveling to Baghdad for a vacation.

Elsewhere, a U.S. soldier died Thursday of non-combat injuries near Tuz Khormato, about 130 miles north of Baghdad, the military said.

Five other U.S. soldiers were wounded Thursday when a suicide car bomber attacked their convoy between Beiji and Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad, but none of the injuries was life-threatening, the military said.

At least 1,684 U.S. military members have died since the Iraq war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

In southern Basra, gunmen killed the dean of the city's police academy, Col. Karim al-Daraji, police said.

A man inspects car of the Dean of the Basra police academy, Col. Karim al-Daraji, Friday June 10, 2005. AL-Daraji was assasinated by unidentified gunmen in Basra, Iraq Friday morning. (AP Photo/Nabil Al-Jurani)

The European Commission, meanwhile, said Friday it plans to have a delegation in Baghdad within a month, re-establishing a permanent mission for the first time since before the 2003 Iraq war.

Briefing reporters after returning from the EU's first high-level visit to Iraq since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said the mission will be small but would grow as the security situation permits.

EU external affairs commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner (2ndL) speaks to the press with Foreign policy chief Javier Solana, Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn and Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone.(AFP/Ahmad al-Rubaye)

"The security situation is difficult, and that's also the reason why we haven't opened a mission yet," she said. "But we need a delegation there, with all the possible care given to security."

The EU wanted to appoint a charge d'affaires who could engage in a political dialogue with government authorities, she said. The EU wants the delegation located in the Green Zone, the security enclave in the center of Baghdad that also houses the U.S. Embassy.

The EU delegation's one-day visit to Baghdad on Thursday was to prepare for a major donors' conference in Brussels, Belgium, later this month.