Posted on 11/02/2006 9:56:59 PM PST by NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
We've been inundated with media requests about the source of the now-famous "HALP US JON CARRY" banner. (I've already done a live shot on Fox News, and given interviews for John Gibson's show and "Inside Edition," which should air later today.)
**UPDATE The MSM catches up.
Even CNN is reporting Troops respond to 'Jon Carry' with plea for 'halp'; while CBS is reporting "Minnesota Guard Members Mock Kerry In 'Irak' Photo", The AP has put a story on the wire, and the Minneapolis Star-Tribune is also catching up:
The photo initially was posted on the website of Milwaukee talk radio host Charlie Sykes, who said "everybody picked it up to the point where it crashed our server."
Sykes said one of his listeners has had regular e-mail correspondence with a member of the unit. "Yesterday morning the listener sent it along to me and I put it on the blog," Sykes said. "It's national at this point. It's huge."
Here is the audio of my discussion with the father of one of the soldiers in the picture.
Here is the background:
The listener who emailed me the picture writes:
Thanks for getting that posted and out. What awesome coverage. Kyle Kuepker was my college roommate... He is in that unit and his commander is the third from the left. He sent it over yesterday to me. Didn't really think this would circulate like it did, but man, how awesome. I'm so damn proud of Kyle and those guys.
Here is an email I received from him a couple weeks ago about all the great stuff they are doing.
He attaches this earlier communication:
Hello,
Once again, I find myself writing an update after two months have already passed - time's flying and I'm not complaining. ...
September was our most active to date. Violence escalated due to sectarianism which seemed to coincide with the beginning of Ramadan. Our base was rocketed through the month with one particular stretch lasting four consecutive nights. Thankfully they're terrible aim and rarely pose much of a threat - mostly serve as a disruption and an inconvenience. Our mission continues unchanged and successful. My company leads the way with fewest IED strikes and most IED discoveries year to date - as well as battle loss $$. Within the 8 companies in my battalion, we've accumulated over $750,000 is battle damage or un-repairable equipment due to the mission - of this total, my company represents $497 or less than 1% - so I'm extremely pleased at our results and couldn't be more proud of the track record - my troops continue to do "The Hard Right".
Civil Military Operations (CMO) conducted since the arrival of the Red Bull; we're in the process of completing a water treatment plant that was started a year ago, built a city park in Al Batha, constructed a water treatment facility/reverse osmosis purification system that provides water to 1500 villagers in Al Fawaz and surrounding areas of the Euphrates River. We've employed approx 100 locals throughout the Dhi Qar province in an effort to improve roadway appearance and remove debris, repaired an existing/inoperable reverse osmosis pump/generator which feeds approx 250-500 villagers in another area, repaired 25 km of road that was previously un-navigable during the rainy season near Al Harza, improved 10km of Al Batha City Center roads to increase access in and around the City Center which should create a short term economic boost to the city by employing laborers from the local area, provided 100 1500 liter water tanks to 13 villages what will store potable drinking water to an estimated 3000 people, replaced an electrical transformer in Al Humady that was hit by lightning and provides electricity to a school and local villages with more than 300 people. Future projects we have our radar on include a medium scale irrigation restoration project to provide water to cropland, improvement of 14 km of Al-Shakarra road to double lane width which is impassible 6-8 months of the year due to road height in low areas, a water infrastructure project expected to employ 1000+ manual laborers which would ultimately support commercial and industrial expansion and to raise a school yard to prevent it from flooding. In addition to these projects we've provided medical training to Iraqi Highway Patrol officers, cleared unexploded ordnance from agriculture areas and delivered countless humanitarian supplies to numerous villages and locals tribes. Every project we coordinate or develop, we put an Iraqi face with - so the work being conducted is by the locals and all the materials come from within the country - which can be frustrating. We (the Army) tries to buy everything we need from the local economy - some of it good, some of it not so good... "In Sh Allah" means God willing, so if the part we bought off the local economy works...it was because God willed it... if it didn't, it's because God willed it... Everything is In Sh Allah, hence the frustration since it seems God didn't want anything that we buy to work??? We ask, "will you come back tomorrow to fix it"? "In Sh Allah" ... see the frustration??
The first 6 months we spent adjusting, refining and adapting to our mission and surroundings. Now we're on the down hill slide and trying to keep the "horses from smelling the barn" (quote from my Sergeant Major) or becoming complacent. Our time for training was extremely limited during our first six months in country - however, we've found our groove for the moment and training has been taking place for about 3 weeks now. "A company that trains during war survives during war". I'm not sure if this is a famous dead guy quote, but I heard our Brigade Commander (COL Elicerio) say it the other day and it stuck, so this is my plan until we leave, which is about 150 days away. Plans are being developed for our re-deployment to Ft McCoy, WI and appear we will be in the area the early parts of April.
November 1st will mark the 1st ever Twin City Marathon (Shadow Race) in Iraq - which I'll make up a team of 4 for the event. I participated in the Tallil 10 mile (Tallil Air Base) a couple weeks ago and averaged an 8:40 pace, which I was pleased for two reasons. #1, I wanted to beat a 9 minute mile pace. #2, I quelled all thoughts of running a full marathon (Sorry Mark, but I think I've only got a half left in me)...
Regardless of what you see on the TV and read in the papers, let it be known that we're doing good things in this country and for its people - and I'm proud to be a part of it.
All for now - I hope this finds everyone well, in good spirits and in health.
Take care,
Kyle J. Kuepker
CPT, AD, HHC 1-34 BTB(FWD)
Commanding
:-) That's music to my ears!!!!
Oh cool! I just e-mailed the photo to myself for kicks and grins.... (and to help Yahoo's stats rise a little higher ;-).
Thanks---I enjoyed the responses to the senator's gaff. But a question: Why did either the malaprop or the reaction it engendered cause you to think of me??
Dat dere vas Minnesooota speak..don't cha know.
How To Talk Minnesotan
By Howard Mohr
http://minneapolis.about.com/cs/books/a/aa072799.htm
Howard Mohr teaches more than just the regional dialect. He also sets you straight on Minnesota etiquette.
Friends back East used to rib me about the covered wagons we lived in out here. That wasn't even thirty years ago. Today, thanks largely to popular media and major league sports, the Twin Cities are a world-class metropolis -- albeit, still in the Europeans' fly-over zone. Provincialism dies hard though, so despite all our best efforts to explain "Fargo" as a cartoon, visitors still expect that dulcet droning.
Of course they'll be disappointed in the Twin Cities. Tourists won't hear the uninflected "Ee-ah, sure." On the other hand, there are plenty of speech oddities to amuse the visitor and frustrate the transplant.
That's where How to Talk Minnesotan comes in handy.
If you've relocated here from beyond the five-state area, I urge you to watch the televised version when it airs during a PBS pledge drive. While you're waiting, you could do worse than to buy yourself a copy of the book. It should be in the foreign language section of your local bookstore, but you're more likely to find it under humor.
They may not know it, but the underlying motive for Minnesotans' behavior is the need to blend in, to be inconspicuous. While not everything is as uniform as a Minneapolis alley lined with giant, gray-green government-issue garbage receptacles, Minnesotans avoid drawing attention. Blending affects most aspects of life. If you've ever been frustrated by local drivers not using lane change signals, now you know why. Likewise, in outward appearance you may have trouble distinguishing executive from clerk. Even stranger, however, are the ways Minnesotans blur the boundary between staying and leaving.
Howard Mohr devotes a chapter to a real local custom, the "long good-bye." In case you think it's far-fetched, let me warn you, it's not. It's also one of the easiest habits to pick up. For practice, next time your guests mutter to themselves about how late it's getting, rush into the kitchen and brew up a fresh pot or pop open a few beers. Whatever. In this way your friends will be obliged to prolong their departure and you'll have been polite.
Strong reactions are frowned upon, although Howard Mohr rightly points out that a strong negative is better than a strong positive. Somehow natives, like my son, master this early without sounding like whiners. It's trickier for the rest of us and, frankly, that's not Howard Mohr's concern. What he is concerned with is explaining how to interpret the bland, neutral sounding comment of a native.
Positive expressions that avoid the sin of jinxing one's luck include:
It could be worse
Not too bad
Not so bad, and
Can't complain.
These are perfectly suited to describing those one or two days of perfect weather annually or as answers to "how are you?" after you've just received the Pulitzer.
The most important lesson Howard Mohr teaches comes near the beginning. Three expressions:
You bet,
That's different, and
Whatever
have a multitude of nuances, from agreement, through resignation, to disappointment. Howard Mohr provides plenty of sample dialogues for you to practice with a friend.
In addition to being a useful manual for transplants and visitors, it provides dry humor for everyone in the area.
Jon Carry seams too haf know rispeck fur peeple lak u eeeethur.
Your former service to this country. It has my respect and thanks.
Eye bees jest anuthur dumass R-me ossifur.
Chek ur freepmale (in the spirit of the banner's text ;-).
Yahoo! has this picture as one of their "most emailed
More bad news for the democrats. Now the only question is, Who made the banner Karl Rove, Dick Cheney or Don Rumsfeld?
Oh cool!!!! I'm going to drop this unit's webmaster a line and nudge him/her to post their now-famous picture on their site for posterity's sake.
Great shot. Thanks.
Hmmmm.... now maybe some enterprising, Photoshop-skilled FReeper would like to offer a secondary "edit" of this now-famous photo? ;-)
What people like Jon Carry don't seem to understand is that people like you have made a conscious CHOICE to do what you do. They just don't get it, because you apparently keep coming back for more and really enjoy what you do.
And that kind of mindset reveals itself all the time - by his chronic disrespect of the troops since 1971 all the way through this current "botched joke" blunder (yeah, right...) that, hopefully, may have finally sunk his future presidential election hopes for good!!!
The world needs more people like you, not less.
I love these guys!!! An 11x17 copy of the pic is hanging where I sleep and where I live (the campaign office) as I type.
Saved the article to read on November 8th. ;*)
It's been e-mailed something like 935 times. The next highest number on that list is in the 100 range. Yahoo! indeed.
voted ? viewed 1224
and counting
Man, It's great to see some of our troops over in Iraq sticking it to Kerry.
I Just wish they could fire back at Murtha, Kennedy, Durbin and all the other demoRats who undermine them.
I would love to see a sign directed at Murtha saying something like "do you support us or not" The voice of the troops is powerful, as we have seen with the "botched joke" Kerry mess.
Kind thanks.
Happy to be of service.
What the US Army recruiting poster under "President" Kerry would look like:
Our brave warriors n Irak respond to Jon Carry"
Kerry is no different re his hatred of a strong America and our warriors than 99.9% of the rats in congress. Every rat running for election should have to face a copy of this banner everytime they show their treasonous faces. Pelosi, Murtha, Clintoon, Boxer, Kennedy, Durbin, Levin, Rangle, Reid and other rats in congress hate our military and a strong America. Just look at their voting records the past two years as President Bush pointed out this week.
Kerry is shown leading his fellow hate America and our military Rats to their final destination in American Politics:
Vote against all traitors this election day. Support our troops and their CIC, President Bush.
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