A nod to an old friend, football colleague, classmate, and farming neighbor..., Dan Hookstead, 1955 - 2014

Having worked on an ambulance for years and having done the Army thing in the Cold War and the end of 'Nam, I like to pretend I am immune from the sadness of death. But,an old friend, football colleague, classmate, and farming neighbor's passing really hits home.

Dan Hookstead passed away a couple days ago. We both chewed some of the same Lima Center, Wisconsin, dairy farm culture dirt back in the 1960s and 70's. Dan grew up on his family's farm less than a mile from my family's farm. We both survived the last throes of the small rural American school system, both attending the small Lima Center, Wisconsin, First through Sixth Grades country school. We are both probably better off for it. Later at Whitewater Junior High and then High School, we waded through the challenge of being "the outsiders from the little country school," among all the city kids.

Back at Lima Center School with no equipment, we played tackle football to the angst of our teachers, Then later at Whitewater High School under the tutelage of legendary Coach Jim Crummey, we played Varsity football together. Dan's Senior year we won the Southern Lakes Conference Football Championship. The next year when I was a Senior, we repeated the task.

While on the sidelines during a play in Dan's Senior year, there occurred one of the few plays I ever winced too. I will always remember Coach Crummey's comment to his Assistant Coach regarding that hit to an opponent player dished out by Dan. "Good God, Jack..., did you hear Hookstead's hit; you could hear that other kid's bones crack throughout the entire stadium." Here's to you Dan. We chewed some of the same Wisconsin dirt.

http://www.gazettextra.com/20140903/dan_hookstead_whitewater_1955_2014

Dadio's Lunch Bucket Radio Clinic signs with, "Hey Ya' Big Jerk," Productions

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Dadio's Lunch Bucket Radio Clinic signs lucrative media deal with savvy, "Hey Ya' Big Jerk," Productions.

Another Labor Day in an American economy slow boiling its workers and people

Another Labor Day in an American economy slow boiling its workers and people.  

I popped into the Labor Fest in Janesville, Wisconsin, on Sunday.  It was once a huge affair. And, it's always free to get in.  Always free bands. Of course, beer and chow is always a la carte - got to keep the lights on some how.  But, even a couple years ago, well into the throes of the Great Recession,  the event was a multi-day vibrant laid-back fellowship.  It is always held on the grounds of the Labor Temple on the south side of Janesville off Center Avenue.  

But this year I was shocked.  The event was relegated to one day.  The huge food tent was gone. The hugh main stage was gone.  There was a beleaguered beer tent, and a couple taco wagons.  Beer was three dollars a 12-ounce can.  I passed and headed to one of my haunts that serves up 16-ouncers for a buck.   

I wanted to participate. I wanted to have a good review to report to the banal reader.  But, I can't paint lipstick on this starving pig.  The collective new-norm American mission to destroy the American worker and the Middle Class has been a resounding success - jobs sent to China; a culture of underemployed; and, an American work force relegated to scratching for low-paying service and part-time jobs.

Right under everyone's noses, the simple celebrations and once reliable American middle class that enjoyed them, have both been nuetered.  Mission accomplished.  We are in trouble peeps...., 

..., peer past the social media blur and just look at what is left of your own town and neighbors. 

Iraq III - The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria - Dragged into a war ensemble we insisted we would not play

Events moved fast over the last couple months in Iraq and the Middle East.  The Israelis are a war again in Gaza; an American journalist is beheaded in Syria, a capstone to their two-year civil war; the same be-headers of the aforementioned journalist have taken over a third of Iraq to compliment their already occupation of a third of Syria; President Obama sends a contingent of troops to Iraq; President Obama orders the fighter jets to rain hell on the bad guys; as, said bad guys kill everybody and anybody.  

I was asked to be on the radio the other day; now twice.  I was in Iraq in 2006 and again in 2008 as an independent journalist.  I never felt safe.  A guy like me could be sent right up the kidnap network, sold to one bad-guy group after another.  Anyway, 1380 AM out of Monroe and Janesville, Wisconsin, asked me to pontificate on my experience over there.  I was interviewed on Thursday the 14 of August and again on Monday the 18th.  No one wanted to here my Iraq shtick for six years, until just recently as Iraq goes up in flames.  Media is fickle; a subject for another post on another day.  

So..., we are back in Iraq for round three.  President Obama inherited Iraq and finally got all the American troops out of there at the end of 2011.  It was a short-lived hiatus.  The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) rose out of the ashes of the Syrian Civil War, fragments of Al Qaeda, and marginalized Sunnis from Saddam Hussein's era. They are as bad a rabble of guys as Pol Pot was in the Cambodia Killing Fields in the '70s and '80s in the aftermath of our Vietnam War. 

For all ostensive purposes we have been in or near Iraq since 1990 and the first Gulf War. We have never left Kuwait and Turkey. Before that our navy guarded ships in the Persian Gulf during the Iraq-Iraq war of the 1980s. After the first Gulf War we guarded the Kurdish region of Iraq from their own leader Saddam Hussein by allowing no flights over the region.  So..., like the American Vietnam War era, we have been in Iraq or its vicinity for 25 years. Trillions and trillions of dollars, thousands of American deaths. 

Poetically, I was operating in the same area of Iraq that has caught so much news in the last few weeks.  I visited the Yazidi people and their temple in Lalish, Iraq.  The temple is in the mountains near Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq, and under ISIS control. The Yazidi are an ancient peoples that are pre-Christian and Islam.  And like they did with the Christians in Mosul, the ISIS bunch went after the Yazidi with a vengeance tagging them, "heathens."  The Yazidi are a peaceful ethnic group within the Kurdish people, a persecuted ethic group in their own right.  I always new I was safe in Iraq when I saw the conical roofs which are a signature of Yazidi architecture. 

It looks like we intervened at the very last minute to stop some of the destruction going on in northern Iraq. The autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq has its own army, the tough Pesmerga.  They kept me safe in Iraq. They are basically a uniformed army in pickup trucks.  They have had to fight ISIS forces who stole our old military equipment from the failed Iraqi Army they overran with ease. 

The Kurds, along with Israel, are our only friends in the Middle East.  The former being Sunni Muslim and the later being Jewish. Unlikely bedfellows arrive in war.  We are also now in the uncomfortable position of having to ally with Iran and Syria, two countries we have been at quasi war with for decades, to fight ISIS. This ISIS bunch is so violent they sour Al Qaeda, Syria, and Iran and ISIS has no compunction about destroying any one of them. 

We are going to need a lot of luck.  Nowadays we fund our country with taxes from a population of beleaguered workers whose incomes and futures are far bleaker then the generation prior. As my neighbors in Janesville, Wisconsin, move out of their houses due to unemployment and the misery that comes with it, 

America is mired in a non-benefit, part-time job economy inspired in some part by spending trillions of dollars on two perennial wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Coupled with jobs hemorrhaging to China and  and corporate offices fleeing to the third world for two decades, draining tax coffers...,, is American "even" capable of funding the fighting of a third war in Iraq? 

Wisconsin Weekly War Casualty Data - week of 27 August 2014

Wisconsin Weekly War Casualty Data - week of 27 August 2014

This entry was posted on 8/27/2014 1:30 AM and is filed under War Casualty Data.


 (Each week Cool Dadio Media collects and updates Weekly War Casualty Data from various sources)

                                        As of this blog entry's posting date:

127,892 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003 (actually documented). 

16,623 Iraqi Security Forces were killed in Iraq since Spring 2003. 

4,489 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003. 

2343 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.

318 Coalition soldiers were killed in Iraq from Spring 2003 to December 2011. 

1125 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001. 

5 American/Coalition/State-Department deaths in Libyan "Operation Odyssey Dawn" since March, 2011.

32,242 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring 2003. 

592 Wisconsin military service persons have been wounded in Iraq since Spring 2003.

19,952 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001. 

192 Wisconsin military service persons have been wounded in Afghanistan since October, 2001.

107 Wisconsin military service persons have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003. 

42 Wisconsin military service persons have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.

4 Wisconsin military contractors have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003. 

1 Wisconsin military contractor has been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001

3 Wisconsin military service persons have been killed in the U.S. related to "The War on Terror" since September, 2001.

166 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.

24 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since September, 2001.

7 journalists (regional and independents) have been killed in Libya since March, 2011. 

67 journalists (Syrian, American, French, UK, freelance) have been killed in Syria since January 2011.

War casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; Brookings Iraq Index; iraqbodycount.org; www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf; and, icasualties.org .

Dadio's Lunch Bucket Radio Clinic - Show 46 - 26 August 2014

Show 46 podcast - Tuesday, 26 August 2014

Army Specialist Robert Michael Rieckhoff - Wisconsin Military Casualty Compilation - Afghanistan / Iraq

Army Specialist Robert Michael Rieckhoff, 26, of Kenosha, Wisconsin was killed on Thursday, March 18, 2010 in Baghdad, Iraq. His unit had been attacked by rocket-propelled grenades. He was assigned to Battery Brovo, 2nd Battalion, 15th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), out of Fort Drum, New York. 

The Kenosha News via their Website related that Specialist Rieckhoff was at guard duty in a watchtower when attacked. He had typically done artillery work, but was on guard duty because his group was waiting to return home in June. Rieckhoff was on his second tour of duty in Iraq. He had also served in Kuwait. The paper went on to note Rieckhoff had just re-enlisted for five more years in the Army. Specialist Rieckhoff also had been promoted to sergeant which was just about to take affect.  The family was quoted as saying Robert had helped train the Iraqi Army. He was due to come home in June of 2010 around the time of his 27th birthday. He had just bought a Dodge Charger.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel mentioned that Robert was nicknamed "Bubba" as a kid. Rieckoff had joined the military when he was 18 years old. Robert was remembered as a practical joker and someone who could make people laugh, and Robert also frequently reminded everyone he had sidestepped trouble by joining the military. Rieckhoff had joined the Army Reserves in 2002 after graduating from Tremper High School in Kenosha, Wisconsin. At a later date he went on to join the Regular Army. The Journal Sentinel also said that while in the Reserves, Robert worked at a Pizza Hut in Kenosha. While in Iraq, he constantly communicated with his family by telephone and e-mail.

The Web site findagrave.com notes that Robert Rieckoff was born on June 6, 1983. The obituary posted on the site made reference to Robert's ability to, "...always there for his fellow soldiers if needed and during tense times he could quickly liven everyone up with his quirky sense of humor."

The Web site militarytimes.com using information from the Associated press notes that at the time of his death Robert Rieckoff's had an 8-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter.

At the time of his death Robert Rieckoff was survived by his children Tyler, and Katrina, of Tennessee; sisters Sheila Sartorius, Kaszaray Rieckhoff , Jolene Garwood, and Cathy Garwood; brothers Roland Garwood III and Bobby (Becky) Garwood; father Scott Rieckhoff; mother Barbara Garwood; stepfather Roland Garwood; maternal grandmother Judith Nelson, his paternal grandmother Sue Rieckhoff, maternal grandfather Wayne Anderson; uncle Bruce Anderson; and, nieces, Alexis and Jasmine Sartorius. 
Army Specialist Robert Michael Rieckhoff was laid to rest at Sunset Ridge Memorial Park in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Information for this short biography about Army Specialist Robert Michael Rieckhoff was pieced together from the following sources: kenoshanews.com, "Local soldier dies in Iraq,";Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Family honors memory of 'Bubba,' soldier killed in Iraq," March 20, 2010; findagrave.com, "Spec Robert Michael Rieckhoff," March 20, 2010; projects.militarytimes.com and Associated Press, "Army Spc. Robert M. Rieckhoff," AP articles, "Kenosha soldier killed in grenade attack in Iraq," "Soldier ‘became such a man’ in the Army, "Flags lowered in memory of Rieckhoff," "Friends, family say final goodbyes to fallen soldier"; Wisconsin Department of Veteran Affairs “Fallen Heroes Page”; and, CNN.com “War Casualties Page.”

Note: This “Wisconsin Military Casualties Afghanistan Iraq Compilation” Daily Dadio blog Category is under construction. Go to the Cooldadiomedia Web site and the Wisconsin War Casualties Page for a list of names noted by date of death. 
[ If readers know of other military service persons with Wisconsin connections that are not on the Web site comprehensive list of fatal casualties, or notice errors, please email Bob Keith at keithrg13@cooldadiomedia.com ]