Last month I met with a writer for a local Concord Ca. paper called the Concordian. The Concordian has been around a really long time. I should have asked the date they started. I couldn't find it on the website.The paper was mailed to everyone in the city. It was a free monthly newspaper that talked just about our not-so-little city. Not to be confused with the local blogs like Mayor of Concord or Claycord that fill the internets with news. Recently the paper has had to stop the mailings but still prints thousands of copies and places them in Concord, Pleasant Hill and surrounding area. The writer André Gensburger who is also the co-publisher for the paper first entertained the idea of talking with me a few months ago. He said my background would be something interesting that the community may want to read about. The topic of the article was to talk about how I have adjusted post Iraq. I agreed and thought this would be a nice thing to talk about. The last time I was interviewed by the media for Iraq was after coming home and talking to reporters that had read my Last Letter From Iraq. The ...

I pulled together a bunch of news clips from my time in Iraq and put them all together. It's only a few minutes long. ...I told you I got bored today. Maybe I can add "video editor" to my resume now?

After our initial drive into Iraq and setting up camp at Tallil. The heat was already beginning to rise. The locals were saying that August was "white mans death" since that seemed to be when the heat was at its peak. It was only June and it was already well above 100 degrees before noon. The entire Army was in short supply. We ate MRE's (Meals Ready to Eat) 2-3 times a day depending on how much you could stomach, and for the time being, we seemed to have an endless supply of bottled water at our disposal for drinking. There was some comfort that we wouldn’t die from dehydration, but people in the unit were still dropping like flies during the day because they were not getting enough fluids. The communications sergeant was stuck with about seven IV's in just as many days, because he couldn’t grasp the fact that drinking a bottle of water an hour was a requirement and not a suggestion. Keeping the bottles cool was always a task. We had two choices, warm water or hot. We would use wet socks as ...

After serving America he’s serving youth Oscar Munguia knows the difference a mentor can make in a young person’s life. The 2001 East Union High graduate served America in Iraq and is now serving its future — the youth accessing Give Every Child a Chance’s free tutoring programs — as program director. “Everybody needs a mentor in life,” Munguia, 22, said. He learned that lesson in Iraq serving with the military police. He credits his sergeant — Koka Sexton — for showing him how to stay alive and to understand life has purpose. “He got me to save my money over there,” said Munguia who married Irene shortly after serving his stint with the Army Reserve. “A lot of guys didn’t. I know he (the sergeant) made a big difference in my life.” Munguia said that is what he wants to do — make a big difference in the lives of others. And what better way than to work in a program that brings hundreds of volunteers together each year to help over 1,000 kids improve their academic performance. “It also shows that someone cares about them,” said Munguia. Munguia said he has a young cousin involved in the French Camp GECAC tutoring program who is benefiting immensely from ...

Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2003 10:32 AM Hello from Kuwait! Yes I finally made it here. From Washington we were issued out weapons and boarded the commercial airline wearing our desert camouflage uniforms. Our plane made a 2 hour layover in Ireland once we taxied to the gate from my window I saw airport security setting up a chain link fence around the plane and guards started walking the fence line. The unit was allowed to exit the plane and enter another lobby in the airport that was also guarded. People hit the gift store and some got a bite to eat. I made a call and played some cards until we were allowed to board again. Another plane came into the gate next to ours and a similar fence line was setup around it a group of people in normal clothes walked into the same lobby. They appeared to be military by the way they carried themselves and the haircuts. I talked to one guy and he said that they were Airforce on there way back home from the Middle East. He didn’t mention ...

Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2003 7:31 AM Hey there. I didn't forget about you. I have been pretty busy lately. No.. I have not left the states yet, I am still in rainy Washington. The last month my unit has been getting trained in more mission specific duties that we will be doing over in Iraq. There have been some days of complete boredom but over all we have gotten a lot accomplished. Everyone had to get cross qualified on other weapon systems. For example I am a team leader that primarily uses an M-16 rifle with a 40mm grenade launcher attached under the barrel and I also had to get qualified on my gunners weapon which is an automatic grenade launcher that mounts on the turret of the hummve as well as his squad automatic weapon or SAW for short. The saw is a beefed up version of the M-16 rifle that can spit out 800 rounds a minute. My driver and gunner in turn had to learn about the other weapons as well. Usually a normal size company can move through one weapons range a day but we would usually spend or more days at the range because there are ...

Five days before I was supposed to get on a plane and return home from the Sunni Triangle, an order came down from General Sanchez himself that the 341st MP Co. from San Jose Ca. was going to be extended yet again after their 365 days had been fulfilled. Most of our equipment had been handed over to our replacements leaving us with our individual weapons and our belief that our year long tour had finally come to an end. Fortunately the unit had only had to send home a few soldiers to minor combat related injuries and with the constant fear of the next roadside bomb or ambush tarnishing that accomplishment, almost being done and getting off the dangerous roads made us all take a deep breath of relief. With the footlockers closed and put away and the final preparations being done, our unit was ready to send our advanced party back to the US to get things ready for our homecoming. Just hours before that happened the phone rang in our day room as I watched the morning news about the war that was taking place outside our gates. The commander took the phone and his tone immediately changed from ...

Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2003 9:28 PM Hello everyone. Not much to say about Iraq. Its still hot here even thought the heat has dropped to 102 degrees. The missions have not changed very much. The main difference is that we are doing more convoy security missions. I sleep in a different base every other day and I have had the opportunity to see a lot of this country. I’ve had the opportunity to see many ancient ruins as well as many of the war torn areas of this land as a result of the last hundred decades of fighting. I saw the ancient city of Babylon and had a chance to tour some of the ruins. Its amazing that this region is the supposed birthplace of civilization and its strange to see it in such shocking conditions. The unit found out a couple of weeks ago that we will be deployed for 365 days in country and that would mean that I would be here until late May. A week after that I found out that the Army is thinking of keeping Military Police deployed for up to 24 months. OUCH! Like everything else in the Army nothing is set in stone. The ...

http://cbs5.com/news/local/2004/07/07/Are_Troops_Streched_Too_Thin_in_Iraq%3F.html Some Democrats are raising concerns about the troops in service in Iraq and Afghanistan. Wednesday, Rep. Ike Skelton, D-MO, said he fears service members are being pushed to the breaking point.It's a concern that was echoed by one Bay Area soldier who recently returned from Iraq. Army Reserve Sgt. Koka Sexton of the San Jose-based 341st Military Police returned to a joyous homecoming at Moffet Field last month. But he had believed he was to return to the U.S. three months prior. Five days before he was supposed to come home, he got new orders to stay. "The unit was heartbroken," Sexton said.Sexton's emotional and articulate emails were copied and forwarded throughout the world -- especially the one in which he told his family his military unit was being kept in Iraq beyond their expected one year duty. It meant another three months of combat patrols, dodging hidden roadside bombs, and almost hopelessly trying to keep Iraqi drivers from getting killed in the explosions meant for him."The best way I can explain it, if you were driving down 680 and there is north and southbound lanes, if northbound was closed, they'd just continue north in the southbound lanes and ...