Status report from a Major in Iraq

A google search says that Major Eric Rydbom published this letter in Freerepublic in June, but when you click it on, yiu are told the page does not exist.

So, he's a freeper? Takes away some of the creditability.

I have a sister who was an officer in the Navy during the first Gulf War. She was encouraged to write letters of support for the war to her home town paper and an outline was provided.

I'm just an NCO, and we've received "talking points" a couple of times. And I'm not even deployed.

Eric Rydbom
I just wanted to let all of those non believers know that Eric Rydbom is a real person, that First Lutheran of Richmond Beach is a real church, and that he did write an open letter to the church. How do i know that? Well for starters Eric Rydbom is my step-dad and his letter was recieved by my mom who is a secretary there. The reason for the web-sight not working is becuase my mom is in the process of updating it and is a very busy woman who has been swamped with work. I am not sure if this is the exact letter he wrote the church but i think it is pretty close. For all of those who think he is painting the picture to rosy i would like to say that this may be becuase the news does a good job of displaying all of the negatives (true or not who knows becuase we are not there). It is weird seeing all of these web-sites with his letter on them. He truly didn't intend for this to be sent to anyone other than my mom or the prayer chain at our church. I have strong reason to believe everything he has to say in the letter is true becuase my step-dad is not one to sugar coat things. He is very well educated. strong, and determined and i know that he would never lie especially when it comes to his job and what he is doing at his job. Thank you for you time.

trickyblonde,

Yes it's true. I'd been a doubter but many people have verified it.

Here's snopes: http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/rydbom.asp

trickyblonde18- Thanks for fleshing out the story. Interesting. And welcome to A2K!

trickyblonde

Thanks for that info.

And welcome here!

From the quoted email:


From today's news (one [1] month later, than that email was written!):
.

trickyblonde

Actually I hoped, you didn't join this site just for that single response

Today, Wolfowitz is quoted tohave said (in contrast to that email) following:

tricky, WELCOME to A2K. c.i.

Well, isn't THAT something. Welcome aboard Tricky and thanks. Tell your father thanks as well. I know a few of us appreciate his work.

Major Rydbom is indeed real.
I'd like to back up what Tricky blond is saying. I actually received this email from a friend of mine who is in Iraq. As the version he sent didn't have the "Luthern Church" poriton, and didn't have Major Rydbom's signature blaock I thought it was from the guy that sent it to me. I posted it on another site and was immediately bombarded with the fact that this thing was all over the net and assummed to be a hoax.

I have a way of finding out if this Major Rydbom exists. I'm in the Army myself and there's this cool little site called Army Knowledge On-Line. All soldiers have to have an email account thre. Sure enough, I looked him up in the site's white pages and found his name (someone had pointed my to a Snoop site that had the letter WITH the name on it). Anyhow. I wrote to Major Rydbom and asked him to confirm or deny the letter. He confirms to me that, with the exception of the last sentence about WMD in Syria, the letter is his.
So, Tricky, I've emailed with your step dad several times. A friend of mine from the other web site called the church, and got the church secretary, who is indeed the wife of Major Rydbom. The letter is not a hoax, though apparently it's being added to and subtracted from.

Nothing in the military prevents someone from writing a letter like this. I'd say this guy has a pretty good handle on what's going on there, he's an engineer, and a bit more objectyive, in my opinion, than most journalists.

yerus, WELCOME to A2K. Thanks for ocnfirming the letter from Major Rydbom. c.i.

This from snopes:

Origins: This item is "true" in the sense that Eric Rydbom is indeed an engineer stationed in Iraq with the Army's 4th Infantry Division, and he sends monthly e-mail dispatches such as the one quoted above to fellow members of his congregation at the First Lutheran Church of Richmond Beach in Shorline, Washington. This piece was one of those messages, forwarded to the church's prayer chain and thence to the larger world via the Internet.

Last updated: 22 July 2003

I'd really liked, trickyblonde18 hadn't just joined here for this single response. And yerusalyim gave his single repsonse here, too.
But since someone must have told them about this thread here, she/he will certainly tell them that we would like to hear more good news.

These following sound rather desperate:

"Most soldiers would empty their bank accounts just for a plane ticket home."
-Anonymous Army soldier in a letter to Congress, Christian Science Monitor, July 7, 2003

"Make no mistake, the level of morale for most soldiers that I've seen has hit rock bottom."
-Unidentified officer from the Army's 3rd Infantry Division in Iraq, Christian Science Monitor, July 7, 2003

"The way we have been treated and the continuous lies told to our families back home has devastated us all."
-Unidentified soldier in a letter to Congress, Christian Science Monitor, July 7, 2003

"U.S. officials need to get our [expletive] out of here…I say that seriously. We have no business being here. We will not change the culture they have in Iraq, in Baghdad. Baghdad is so corrupted. All we are here is potential people to be killed and sitting ducks."
-43-year-old reservist from Pittsburgh, who arrived in Iraq with the 307th Military Police Company on May 24, Washington Post, July 1, 2003

"What are we getting into here? The war is supposed to be over, but every day we hear of another soldier getting killed. Is it worth it? Saddam isn't in power anymore. The locals want us to leave. Why are we still here?"
-Sergeant from the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division, The American Cause (founded by Patrick Buchanan), June 30, 2003

"This duty is absolutely ridiculous… We are combat troops. We are trained in combat. We are not trained in peacekeeping. We should all be home by now. It's like we won the Super Bowl, but we have to keep on playing."
-Sgt. 1st Class Richard Edwards, Los Angeles Times, June 29, 2003

"At night time you think about all the people you killed. It just never gets off your head, none of this stuff does. There's no chance to forget it, we're still here, we've been here so long. Most people leave after combat but we haven't…Some soldiers don't even f****** sleep at night. They sit up all f****** night long doing s*** to keep themselves busy - to keep their minds off this f****** stuff. It's the only way they can handle it. It's not so far from being crazy but it's their way of coping. There's one guy trying to build a little pool out the back, pointless stuff but it keeps him busy."
-Cpl. Richardson, The Evening Standard, June 19, 2003

"For me, it's like snap-shot photos. Like pictures of maggots on tongues, babies with their heads on the ground, men with their heads halfway off and their eyes wide open and mouths wide open. I see it every day, every single day. The smells and the torsos burning, the entire route up to Baghdad, from 20 March to 7 April, nothing but burned bodies."
-Sgt. Meadows, The Evening Star, June 19, 2003

''Little kids wave at us and their parents slap them in the back of the head and make them stop…It makes me feel like I wasted my time over here and they don't appreciate what we did…''
-Spc. Anthony Combs, Associated Press, June 17, 2003

Now it has changed once again:

The letter was also verified as real by Snopes.com (it was E mailed to me from a friend in Ft. Lauderdale). It still amounts to opinion based on one locale in a country the size of California. Of course the news has always dwelt on death and tragedy and it's not difficult to assume there is some progress being made. But if the present situation in Afghanistan is the model, we're headed for what could be a dead end in Irag. I feel that even if we do get some semblance of a democracy started in their political milieu, it won't take long for the Muslim religious beliefs to turn it into some kind of fish nor fowl type of democracy. Why do people keep using the word -- the U.S. is a constitutional Republic and the forefathers based the original concept not on Athens but on Sparta.

I don't know if it is a question of consider if the glass is half empty or half full. More like there was a glass, we shattered it and we have to put the glass back together.

and, one person with their biases!



Instead, we seem to be pulverizing the shards!

Thanks Lightwizard.

Lightwizard - I think it's interesting that snopes says the item is "true" - see the exact quote from snopes in my post above. Why the quotes around "true?"

Because "true" to some means the letter's content and opinion therein is true (which snopes does not attempt to verify) while snopes is just reporting that it's "true" that the purported author exists and did indeed send the letter.