Todays (July 14) print edition of the Times includes a couple of special features.
First, a 16-page special section called The Heart of Our Communities features area businesses and discusses how their past, present and future are helping local communities remain strong. It was a collaborative project between the Times editorial and advertising department that was several weeks in the making. Hopefully, you will take the opportunity to read through the section. If you missed it in print today, you can click through to it online from our Home Page.
Todays paper also includes a feature about a local soldier serving in Iraq. He is Sgt. Brian Weber and he hails from Gratiot. Sgt. Weber is in his second deployment, and 27th month in Iraq, with Charlie Company, 1st/505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division. His story is quite an interesting one, including details about injuries he suffered in a truck bomb attack two years ago and his role now as mayor of his outpost in the small farming city of Salman Pak, 25 miles south of Baghdad.
Webers story came to us through a freelance reporter from New Hampshire, Nathan Webster, who just completed his third one-month tour in Iraq embedded with U.S. troops, and second with Weber's unit. I talked with Nathan briefly last week after he offered us the story on Sgt. Weber.
He said he doesnt think hell take another embedded tour in Iraq. Its quieter there, now, Nathan said, and theres not a lot happening. Thats a good thing, obviously. He said two years ago it was a much different story. He said it will stay quiet as long as our troops are around, but he said you wont want to be there when we leave.
He said he doesnt think he will be going to Afghanistan, either. The violence doesnt bother him, he said, but trying to operate in the mountains is something hes not particularly interested in.
I asked him how he ended up reporting in Iraq as a freelancer. He said he contacted the Defense Department, and now that there are fewer U.S. reporters covering the war, its not difficult to get an assignment. All he was told to do, Nathan said, was to bring your gear which includes armor and a helmet find your way to Kuwait and the government would handle everything from there.
Nathan was excited to meet up with Sgt. Weber again hed talked to him two years ago after his injuries but didnt really have a story to sell at that time. But running into him now, and seeing him in the capacity of essentially managing the base, made for a compelling story, and I hope you agree. He said that while all who are serving there are a little battered and bruised, Sgt. Weber is maybe a little more than some of the others. Hes been there for more than two years, after all.
Webers attitude toward his duty is inspiring. It aint so bad, he told Webster. Id stay here for five years, so my brother and his kids dont have to come.
What more can you say than that?
It was nice for the Times to be able to tell such a personal story about one of our own from the area. Obviously, its an opportunity that doesnt happen that often, so we took advantage of it. I hope you enjoy the story. And feel free to leave a word of thanks at the end of the story to Sgt. Weber for his service and sacrifices for all of us.
First, a 16-page special section called The Heart of Our Communities features area businesses and discusses how their past, present and future are helping local communities remain strong. It was a collaborative project between the Times editorial and advertising department that was several weeks in the making. Hopefully, you will take the opportunity to read through the section. If you missed it in print today, you can click through to it online from our Home Page.
Todays paper also includes a feature about a local soldier serving in Iraq. He is Sgt. Brian Weber and he hails from Gratiot. Sgt. Weber is in his second deployment, and 27th month in Iraq, with Charlie Company, 1st/505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division. His story is quite an interesting one, including details about injuries he suffered in a truck bomb attack two years ago and his role now as mayor of his outpost in the small farming city of Salman Pak, 25 miles south of Baghdad.
Webers story came to us through a freelance reporter from New Hampshire, Nathan Webster, who just completed his third one-month tour in Iraq embedded with U.S. troops, and second with Weber's unit. I talked with Nathan briefly last week after he offered us the story on Sgt. Weber.
He said he doesnt think hell take another embedded tour in Iraq. Its quieter there, now, Nathan said, and theres not a lot happening. Thats a good thing, obviously. He said two years ago it was a much different story. He said it will stay quiet as long as our troops are around, but he said you wont want to be there when we leave.
He said he doesnt think he will be going to Afghanistan, either. The violence doesnt bother him, he said, but trying to operate in the mountains is something hes not particularly interested in.
I asked him how he ended up reporting in Iraq as a freelancer. He said he contacted the Defense Department, and now that there are fewer U.S. reporters covering the war, its not difficult to get an assignment. All he was told to do, Nathan said, was to bring your gear which includes armor and a helmet find your way to Kuwait and the government would handle everything from there.
Nathan was excited to meet up with Sgt. Weber again hed talked to him two years ago after his injuries but didnt really have a story to sell at that time. But running into him now, and seeing him in the capacity of essentially managing the base, made for a compelling story, and I hope you agree. He said that while all who are serving there are a little battered and bruised, Sgt. Weber is maybe a little more than some of the others. Hes been there for more than two years, after all.
Webers attitude toward his duty is inspiring. It aint so bad, he told Webster. Id stay here for five years, so my brother and his kids dont have to come.
What more can you say than that?
It was nice for the Times to be able to tell such a personal story about one of our own from the area. Obviously, its an opportunity that doesnt happen that often, so we took advantage of it. I hope you enjoy the story. And feel free to leave a word of thanks at the end of the story to Sgt. Weber for his service and sacrifices for all of us.
