Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

Our thoughts are with all of our service men and women who died fighting for this great country. Happy Memorial Day.

Jamie Leigh Jones of Houston filed a federal lawsuit in May against Halliburton Co., its former subsidiary, KBR Inc., and others claiming she was raped by co-workers while working for a Halliburton subsidiary at Camp Hope, Baghdad, in 2005. On the heels of a congressional inquiry into the handling of that case, another inquiry is made by Senator Bill Nelson into a second victim, this one from Tampa.

Bill Nelson, U.S. Senator from Florida: Nelson demands answers about government role in second Iraq rape case, raises specter of more assaults:

In the Florida woman’s lawsuit, filed earlier this year and now in arbitration, she alleges she was raped by a drunken male KBR coworker in Ramadi. But federal authorities have failed to file charges in the two years since then, a contention about federal foot-dragging that mirrors a charge also leveled by the Texas woman.

Two years, and files are still not charged charges are still not filed? Is this “foot-dragging” or a cover up? AND Bill Nelson thinks there may be more victims.

Pushing Rope’s Michael Hussey wants your Department of Defense to come clean, and plans to keep us updated as the story unfolds.

30, of Apopka, Fla.

assigned to the 1st Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.; died Aug. 21 near Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his unit during combat operations.

Britt graduated from Lake Mary High School in 1994. He played soccer for the school and enjoyed martial arts and surfing… “The beach was something that would relax him”

22, of Gainesville, Fla.

assigned to the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Schweinfurt, Germany; died Aug. 6 in Baghdad of wounds sustained from an improvised explosive device.

Neiberger graduated from Gainesville High School in 2003 and left the college town to attend Florida State University for two years… On the Web site Facebook, friends and family have posted tributes to Neiberger, describing him as someone who always had a smile on his face, a person who would celebrate the triumphs of others and was always ready with a joke… Neiberger also loved to write and had gone on numerous missionary trips with his church.

Another Floridian killed in Iraq.

I’ve held off on writing this for a long time as I’m not sure how to address it and remain within the ethics of both blogging and my teaching profession.

Certainly you’ve heard the story by now of Yousef Megahed and Ahmed Mohamed, USF students picked up in South Carolina on charges of terrorism.

The students claim the “explosive devices” in their trunk were simply fireworks, while Berkeley County Sheriff Wayne DeWitt says they definitely had bombs in the trunk.

Meanwhile, Megahed’s family, on vacation themselves at the time of the arrest, consented to an FBI search of their house — only to find the feds took all their computers away.

I’m actually familiar with Mr. Megahed, having had him as a student and seeing him around campus. He’s a nice kid, an excellent student, and given the bully pulpit of a speech class, never used his time to spout any kind of extremist rhetoric. That hasn’t stopped sites like this from labeling them “Islamic terrorists” or this woman from identifying them as Al Qaeda members.

The problem, of course, is that we’ll probably never know the details about what was in the students’ trunk; what I call fireworks may be dangerous bombs to Sheriff Buford T. Justice. The boys aren’t getting out of jail any time soon; a $300k and $500k bail will tend to keep you from posting. The nearly-graduated students are “flight risks,” after all.

… at least for Miguel Angel Suarez:

The insurgents never got him. But early Saturday, Suarez was gunned down and left to die a mile and a half from his childhood home.

The thug wanted Miguel’s necklace.

We started the roll call of Floridians who died in Iraq on May 1, 2007, May Day. I was irritated because I had just learned a couple more local guys had died the previous day. I found out just how many Americans paid the price and figured one of our soldiers died every eleven hours or so.

Using that rate, I decided to name each of the Floridians who paid that ultimate price. I quickly realized that the effort would end near the 4th of July, but did not even consider that Memorial Day and Flag Day would also be included in the series, but here we are.

Just wanna stop here and make a clarification. Shortly after I began the effort, an anonymous reader suggested my motives were untrue:

It would be nice if this roll call had more of a feeling of an reverent “thank you” than a trite political middle finger… Nah. That would require an admission that someone volunteered to sacrifice their life so you could have the freedom to backhandedly mock their deaths.

As I responded to that reader, The roll call is not meant as a “thank you” or a “middle finger.” And I certainly don’t intend to mock anyone. I simply got tired of reading about the deaths in the news, and hearing very little public reaction or any realization that these were actual REAL people. It seems we have become numb to the news. I just want to point out that these great heroes were regular folks, many of them played high school football, some were practical jokers, and they had all sorts of passions. Just like you. People who lived here because they like the beach, or the low taxes, or because it’s where they were born. Just like you.

Anyway, I’m not sure that point is getting across.

So far, we have mentioned 92 dead soldiers, heroes, Floridians. There were 63 listed by Memorial Day, and almost another 30 thus far in June. As I mentioned in when I began, if the rate had held up, another 92 Americans would have been killed since May 1 of this year. But we have already lost another 162 soldiers, meaning the rate of American deaths have gone up almost double over the past month and a half.

Over the course of the series, we expected five more Floridians would be killed between May 1 and July 4, and with a bit over 2 weeks still to go, we have already had six more pay that toll, including Joshua Brown from Tampa. So for those of you who think this roll call has gone on too long already, will unfortunately have to bear with it a bit longer than originally intended.

And happy Flag Day.

It’s Grand Opening Weekend for Salutes American Meat Market, the new restaurant / bar at 4802 Gunn Highway (former location of Goodfellas). A military-themed joint, Salutes is decorated with flags representing the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, and Coast Guard branches, and pledges community involvement:

Salutes will also be part of the community in donations to non profit organizations. Their [sic] will be two standard non profit organizations receiving the funds and weekly “specials” for other non profit organizations. This donation mechanism is very transparent to all parties involved.

The menu features items like “Surrender Soup” (their version of French Onion), “Congressional Soup” (chicken noodle), “The Clinton Split” (a banana split), and the “Atomic Bomb” chili bowl.

This sounds fantastic, but you might want to check their list of “unwelcome elements” before heading up Gunn (or down Gunn, depending on where you live). Salutes, according to their radio spots, will refuse service to:

liberals, communists, fascists, and other enemies…

Photos of the “Enemy of the Week” appear as targets in the men’s room urinals. (This week, your national enemies are Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.)

I applaud any new business in our area, but is it really smart to openly exclude so many possible patrons? Only in Florida, I guess.