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When Greg McCallum checks the blogs on strykernews.com every day, he never knows what he will find.
While he is used to seeing video clips of strikes against insurgents on CNN and reading columns by soldiers overseas, he never expected to see his own son, Kevin, a sergeant in the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team.
Since the blog was started in 2004, McCallum has seen his son several times. Most recently, 25-year-old Kevin was featured in a CNN clip of Operation Tomahawk Strike 11.
"It's good and it's bad," says McCallum. "You see him in action, so you know he's OK, and you haven't gotten a phone call. But it can be difficult too."
His wife, Linda, will not watch it.
"She is very proud of (Kevin) and everything he does, but she finds it too unnerving," he said.
Just Friday, 27-year-old Staff Sgt. Hector Leija, also of the 3rd Brigade and a friend of Kevin's, was killed in action.
McCallum says it's hard to check the blog and see that someone has been killed, especially when the person is not always identified right away.
"They will give the company or the battalion number, but they won't say who it is until they notify the family," said McCallum. "That is tough."
But McCallum seems to take comfort in the blogs because he says "these guys believe in what they are doing."
"They have gone through months and months of training and testing," said McCallum, referring to operations such as Operation Tomahawk Strike 11, which the website describes as "a series of targeted raids to disrupt illegal militia activity and help Iraqi Security Force control in the area."
"The Iraqis are scared to death of (Strykers) because they are deathly quiet," said McCallum.
The last time the McCallums saw their son was over Thanksgiving, but they get calls from him fairly often.
"This is the 'new army' so communication is a lot better," said McCallum, as he replayed a message Kevin left on his cell phone Friday morning. "We usually hear from him a couple of times a week, although sometimes he will leave messages saying 'You won't hear from me for two weeks' or 'If you see the news, we're OK.'"[...]