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olympian2004
Lt.Jg.
Joined: 25 Oct 2004
Posts: 121
Location: Boulder, Colorado
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 Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2005 7:20 pm Post subject: Fort Hood Soldier publishes memoirs of Iraq service |
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(Author Phil Kiver will be on the Mike Rosen show Thu. Aug. 4th, details below)
For as long as soldiers have been going to war, they've been telling their stories through letters home.
And that's how Phil Kiver's book began.
"It started out just being an open letter to everyone in my life, something I could show to my wife or my cousins or whoever upon my return," Specialist Phil Kiver said.
On July 18, 2004, Kiver went to Iraq as a soldier and reporter for the U.S. Army. Now in his book, simply named 182 Days in Iraq, Kiver is sharing his experiences there.
"It's very introspective, but I know the themes and the things that happen in that book are very common to any armed conflict,” Kiver said. “You can pick up letters from the Civil War and read them and get the same sense and feelings from those soldiers, from World War II, Vietnam and now.”
In the book, Kiver describes a little boy who handed him a AA battery and an electrical motor -- two components that can make a bomb.
"He showed such courage in doing the right thing,” Kiver said. “He put himself in jeopardy and his family in such jeopardy to reach out to an American soldier."
Kiver's not shy about his political viewpoints. "Deeply held convictions you can't mask. You either believe or you don't believe," Kiver said.
He recalled a fellow U.S. soldier who was against the war. "He said it was the wrong war, and that Saddam really wasn't that bad of a guy to begin with. When he said that, I almost came unglued."
Kiver said it was important for him to have expressed his opinions in the book and hopes his views open some eyes.
"I get tired of people saying, 'We support the troops, but we don't support the war.' Well, soldiers are soldiers. You can't support me but not what I do," Kiver said.
He knows those ideas may turn people away from buying his book, but that's okay.
182 Days in Iraq is set to be released Monday, a date the author said is appropriate. To him, the Independence Day release of his book symbolizes the freedom of Iraq's repressed people.
Phil Kiver will be a guest on the Mike Rosen show on Thursday August 4th at 10:00am mountain (noon ET) on 850am KOA. To listen on-line simply goto http://www.850koa.com/ and click on the 'Listen Live' to the left side of the KOA homepage. (No registration required)
Publisher's site and book info: http://www.wordassociation.com/182daysiniraq/
"Phil Kiver’s real life, moment-to-moment journal of his assignment as an Army journalist in Iraq is honest, irreverent—gripping and emotional one moment—a howl the next. Kiver, pictured above, in Iraq, with one of his heroes, Oliver North, doesn’t dress for company. His journals are raw reaction, impression, and introspection. This, folks, is what it feels like to be Phil Kiver in this war in Iraq—missing his wife, lounging at one of Sadam’s pools, angry with the brass, witnessing the deaths of children and comrades, nighttime explosions too close for comfort, pasta with the Italians, toasting the fallen with the Ukrainians. It’s a delirium of experience with this journalist sorting through the rubble and smoke in search of the story that will one day be history."
View book info and reviews at here:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1595710787/qid=1123094540/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/002-9283900-2455262
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Tony in Boulder, Colorado |
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coldwarvet
Admiral
Joined: 03 Jun 2004
Posts: 1125
Location: Minnetonka, MN
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| Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2005 7:34 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | "I get tired of people saying, 'We support the troops, but we don't support the war.' Well, soldiers are soldiers. You can't support me but not what I do," Kiver said. |
AMEN
_________________
Defender of the honor of those in harms way keeping us out of harms way.
"Peace is our Profession"
Strategic Air Command - Motto
USAF 75-79 Security Police |
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Rdtf
CNO
Joined: 13 May 2004
Posts: 2209
Location: BUSHville
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| Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2005 10:20 pm Post subject: |
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| coldwarvet wrote: | | Quote: | | "I get tired of people saying, 'We support the troops, but we don't support the war.' Well, soldiers are soldiers. You can't support me but not what I do," Kiver said. |
AMEN |
Amen again! |
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Bill Faith
Ensign
Joined: 27 Oct 2004
Posts: 70
Location: Lawrenceville, IL, USA
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| Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2005 10:52 pm Post subject: |
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| coldwarvet wrote: | | Quote: | | "I get tired of people saying, 'We support the troops, but we don't support the war.' Well, soldiers are soldiers. You can't support me but not what I do," Kiver said. |
AMEN |
From an update I just posted to the thread I started a while back at http://www.swiftvets.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=19911&highlight=: | Quote: |
Mission Statement for “Veterans Support Our Troops”
Our mission is three-fold:
1) To organize and participate in one or more highly visible and well publicized shows of support for our military personnel and their mission by current and future veterans.
2) To educate the American public to the fact that it is not possible to truly “support our troops” without also supporting their mission.
3) To communicate to our deployed troops that we, and the great majority of Americans, solidly support their efforts. |
Item two on the list is the one that got some tired old vets off their butts ready to do battle again for the first time since the election. We've had it with the "Have a nice war, guys, but hurry up and surrender" crowd. Our web site and blog aren't quite ready for prime time yet but I'll post their addresses on this forum as soon as they're worth looking at and hope that a lot of the same people who helped sink Kerry's boat last fall will want to help shut down the "Peace with dishonor" crowd as well.
_________________
Bill Faith
bill.faith@gmail.com
http://smalltownveteran.typepad.com/
USAF 1970-1974
Viet Nam 1971-1972 |
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Navy_Navy_Navy
Admin
Joined: 07 May 2004
Posts: 5777
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| Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2005 11:48 pm Post subject: |
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Well, I'd buy this one in a second! WTG, soldier!
Good news from you, too, Bill Faith. 
_________________
~ Echo Juliet ~
Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
Navy woman, Navy wife, Navy mother |
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coldwarvet
Admiral
Joined: 03 Jun 2004
Posts: 1125
Location: Minnetonka, MN
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| Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2005 12:30 am Post subject: |
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| Bill Faith wrote: | | coldwarvet wrote: | | Quote: | | "I get tired of people saying, 'We support the troops, but we don't support the war.' Well, soldiers are soldiers. You can't support me but not what I do," Kiver said. |
AMEN |
From an update I just posted to the thread I started a while back at http://www.swiftvets.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=19911&highlight=: | Quote: |
Mission Statement for “Veterans Support Our Troops”
Our mission is three-fold:
1) To organize and participate in one or more highly visible and well publicized shows of support for our military personnel and their mission by current and future veterans.
2) To educate the American public to the fact that it is not possible to truly “support our troops” without also supporting their mission.
3) To communicate to our deployed troops that we, and the great majority of Americans, solidly support their efforts. |
Item two on the list is the one that got some tired old vets off their butts ready to do battle again for the first time since the election. We've had it with the "Have a nice war, guys, but hurry up and surrender" crowd. Our web site and blog aren't quite ready for prime time yet but I'll post their addresses on this forum as soon as they're worth looking at and hope that a lot of the same people who helped sink Kerry's boat last fall will want to help shut down the "Peace with dishonor" crowd as well. |
Count me in Bill from the west side of Lake Michigan. Wow this was my 1,000th post and I am not on steroids honest.
_________________
Defender of the honor of those in harms way keeping us out of harms way.
"Peace is our Profession"
Strategic Air Command - Motto
USAF 75-79 Security Police |
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Bill Faith
Ensign
Joined: 27 Oct 2004
Posts: 70
Location: Lawrenceville, IL, USA
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| Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2005 1:15 am Post subject: |
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| coldwarvet wrote: |
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Count me in Bill from the west side of Lake Michigan. |
Thank you. We'd like to think a lot of the people we know from this forum will be willing and able to help us out with this. The "founding members" of the VSOT team met right here in the period leading up to the November election and have stayed in touch since then, mainly via email. Until we realized there really is a very real danger of losing the war in Iraq in the streets of America, just like the war in Viet Nam was lost, we were all pretty much content to sit back in our rocking chairs and gloat about the election. Then we woke up and realized we have at least one more battle left.
_________________
Bill Faith
bill.faith@gmail.com
http://smalltownveteran.typepad.com/
USAF 1970-1974
Viet Nam 1971-1972 |
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DLI78
PO3
Joined: 10 Nov 2004
Posts: 273
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| Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2005 4:31 am Post subject: |
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Bill Faith,
As Edmund Burke said, "Evil prospers when good men do nothing."
The swift boat vets DID do something and stopped a lunatic from being president.
You wrote: | Quote: | | Our web site and blog aren't quite ready for prime time yet |
If you wait for it to be "ready" the war might be over. We have Fonda out trying desperately to grab one last headline before she fades to obscurity, and a lot of leftie press trying to torpedo our soldiers.
C'mon, let us have what you've got, man. We're all on the same team.
BTW, thank God for the swifties. I wouldn't have known Kerry's record if it hadn't been for you guys.
_________________
DLI 78
Army Linguist
1978-1986 |
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Bill Faith
Ensign
Joined: 27 Oct 2004
Posts: 70
Location: Lawrenceville, IL, USA
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| Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2005 4:54 am Post subject: |
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| Lotsa_Static wrote: | Bill Faith,
As Edmund Burke said, "Evil prospers when good men do nothing."
The swift boat vets DID do something and stopped a lunatic from being president.
You wrote: | Quote: | | Our web site and blog aren't quite ready for prime time yet |
If you wait for it to be "ready" the war might be over. We have Fonda out trying desperately to grab one last headline before she fades to obscurity, and a lot of leftie press trying to torpedo our soldiers.
C'mon, let us have what you've got, man. We're all on the same team.
BTW, thank God for the swifties. I wouldn't have known Kerry's record if it hadn't been for you guys. |
A LOT of people wouldn't have known the truth about Kerry without the Swifties. We dodged a bullet. Thank you Swift Vets and POWs.
If I don't step under a falling piano or something I should be ready to announce the URL for an almost empty blog by sometime tomorrow night. I need to delete some "is this thing working" posts and some "I think I can put something here when I get a round tuit" notes first. Giving out the address before I do that would be setting the group up for a lot of Leftie ridicule: "Those old fogey's have all these big plans, and they call that a blog?" We'll open for business before the blog "pretty" but it at least has to be "clean" first. Please be patient; I'm pedalling as fast as I can.
Thank you, and everyone else who's shown any interest, for your encouragement.
_________________
Bill Faith
bill.faith@gmail.com
http://smalltownveteran.typepad.com/
USAF 1970-1974
Viet Nam 1971-1972 |
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Bill Faith
Ensign
Joined: 27 Oct 2004
Posts: 70
Location: Lawrenceville, IL, USA
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