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Long Walk

One more anniversary nod to the late, great Michael Kelly from my friend Sig at the San Antonio Express-News. Sig describes a long walk and some talk along Gulf Road. Familiar ground along the bay in Kuwait City, my old running route from the apartment at Bibi House. Then,

Fast forward to Iraq.

The sun sets, and we talk a few yards from the Humvee he will die in. It has a power inverter in it and I wonder about going with them. The inverter in my truck is broken and I have no way to recharge my laptop and satellite equipment, but I decide to stay put and ration the use of my gear. It isn’t like I have a bad feeling about going with Mike and Wilbert Davis, but I’ll soon discover it is the most important decision I have made - or may ever make.

No one knows what is coming next, except that Karbala is to be the decisive battle before we make the outskirts of Baghdad. From now on out we expect fierce resistance and, perhaps chemical attacks designed to stop us or at least slow us down. We’re in our chemical gear day and night, even asleep, our masks, gloves and boots within arm’s reach. The conversation comes easily between Mike, Housley and myself as darkness envelops our armored column. There are no funny feelings or dark premonitions, but this is the last time we’ll see Mike alive.

The clock is quickly running down on his life.

This moment of the war, like our walk on a sunny day before it all began, is never far from mind, as is a profound sense of sadness. It is one of those scenes so vivid I can still see it like a movie, right down to Housley suggesting a title for the book and the big smile forming on Kelly’s face.

“Call it, ‘Air Force TACPs kick butt,’” Housley said, referring to his team and other the Air Force close-air support crews that had been calling in the air strikes that decimated Iraq’s elite Republican Guard.

A few moments later we went separate ways.

Because that’s how things go. But you’ll want to read the whole thing.  Then buy Kelly’s excellent books, support the widow and her sons here and here. My own encounters with Kelly, if you haven’t seen them and have some time to kill, here, here and here.

Topics: Iraq, media

  Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:14 am on Thursday, April 10, 2008

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