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Warm farewell tour

Jan- 2-2005 » Filed Under: TF Olympia

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By BILL NEMITZ, Staff Writer

DIYANAH, Iraq - The sun has not yet touched the snowy peak of Korek, the 6,943-foot mountain that towers over Forward Operating Base Round Top. But already Staff Sgt. Steve Bond is up preparing breakfast for his Charlie Company platoon.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" says Bond, who has been here nearly seven months and still starts each day in awe of the postcard-perfect scenery - unlike anything he'd see back home in Waterford, Maine. "I haven't minded this one bit."

Nor have the people in this northeast corner of Iraq minded having Bond and his comrades from the Maine Army National Guard's 133rd Engineer Battalion. When the Maine soldiers depart this outpost at the end of this day and return to their main base 2 1/2 hours away in Mosul, they will be missed by people who came to know them not as invaders or occupiers or easy targets for a remote-control bomb.

Not a chance. Here in Irbil Province, part of what is commonly called Kurdistan, the people came to know the Americans as friends.

First with Alpha Company and then with Charlie Company, the 133rd labored hard here to build health clinics and schools and community centers. The soldiers repaired old roads and created new ones, cut ribbons while local television cameras rolled and brought candy and school supplies to legions of smiling children. [...]


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