A sad bit of trivia popped up in the news today.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – U.S. military deaths from hostile fire in Iraq (news – web sites) have reached a grim landmark with the post-war toll surpassing the number of troops killed during the invasion itself.
Now a lot of people are going to tell you that this is significant. I’m going to tell you that it was inevitable and the administration told you this in the very beginning. Do you remember back before the invasion how we were told that the urban street fighting would be the hardest part and the part where the risk of casualties was the greatest? That’s where we are right now.
I know, you envisioned the urban combat to be more conventional like with the US and UK military still in full combat mode. I did too and I believe so did the military, still just because we thought the enemy would use a certain tactic during this phase of the war to defend Baghdad that doesn’t mean that he had to use that tactic. The enemy is using the tactic of a terrorist. That really shouldn’t surprise us either. Isn’t this suppose to be a war on terrorism?
About Larry D. Burton
I'm a 55 year old controls engineer who just likes tinkering with stuff.
Finished high school at a local institute of learning. Decided it wasn't a good time to be a healthy, physically fit 18 year old with no college experience. Entered college and started working toward a degree in animal husbandry.
1975-1976
Discoverd that I was not going to be a very good husband of animals so I left school to figure out what I might be good at. A local beverage company took pity on me and paid me to go from place to place making sure their on tap beverages were maintaining their high quality.
1976-1979
Got out of quality control and into vending. Learned about control systems and refrigeration also learned that vending machines are heavy and vending doesn't pay all that well.
In 1977 I found myself married
1979-1981
Dedicated myself to installing and maintaining commercial refrigeration equipment. Found myself on the roof of a local grocery store one night in the middle of an ice storm replacing a compressor and figured it was time to get back into school.
1981-1986
Got my but back into school at night and changed jobs to keep the mechanical and electrical systems of a local coporate hospital in working order. The job expanded to unstopping drains and burning lab samples and amputated body parts.
1986-now
Finished school and took on a job designing, installing and maintaining industrial control systems. Along the way I picked up a bunch of computer skills that became very useful connecting various industrial controllers to one another and moving the data into coporate databases. I now operate Dallas Bay Technologies, a one man shop specializing in technology solutions for industrial problems.
