Mosul bomb hits home

Family relative in one of the affected units


Photo by Gregory Rec of the Portland Press Herald. The Maine Army National Guard's 133rd Engineer Battalion is based here. We have a relative by marriage who is with this unit.

Two from Maine died and several were wounded in Tuesday's bomb attack on the mess tent in Mosul, Iraq. We know that our relative was not killed. But we have no word yet on his condition. This is gut wrenching. We send our prayers to his family, and to all of the families who must suffer through this, especially during the Christmas season.

Reporters Patrick Cockburn and Jeremy Redmond describe the scene in a story posted on Counterpunch:

Soldiers scrambled back into the hall to check for more wounded. The explosion blew out a huge hole in the roof of the tent. Puddles of bright red blood, lunch trays and overturned tables and chairs covered the floor.

Bill Nemitz, columnist for the Portland Press Herald, Portland, Maine writes today about the attack:

With one cruel blow, the insurgents who prowl outside the perimeter of this godforsaken place hijacked a rare chance for true celebration and set it on a collision course with yet another round of tearful eulogies, another set of gut-wrenching final roll calls....

Nemitz closes his column by describing the prayers and sentiments we all now share:

Some [prayers] will be for those who left for midday chow Tuesday with no idea they were sitting down to a full-blown tragedy.

Some will be for peace, now more than ever, in this place where long ago civilization was born.

And some will be that this base, this hell on Earth, will soon loosen its grip on these proud but weary Mainers.

Sunday afternoon, two days before he went to lunch and emerged dazed, disoriented but otherwise uninjured, Chaplain David Sivret welcomed a visitor to his decked-out chapel, poured from his ever-present pot of hot coffee and said the words that will pull the 133rd through this tangle of tinsel and torture.

"It's time," Sivret said with a weary smile. "It's time for all of us to come home."

I concur completely with the Chaplain's remarks.