It’s over

August 19, 2010 | Jim Vicevich | | ,

The last combat troops have officially left Iraq, leaving behind 50,000 advisers. I just wanted to mark this moment by thanking the following soldiers and groups that helped make us victorious, not by conquering Iraq … but by liberating them. Freedom is not free. The Iraqis have discovered this, sometimes the hard way. It is something most Americans know instinctively. God bless them all.

AT the top of the list, all of the soldiers, marines, sailors, airmen, etc who gave their lives so this mission would be successful including Sgt Felix Del Greco Jr CTANG, and Lance CPL Lawrence Philippon. Felix played on my Little League Team. What a kid. And Larry played high school hockey for Conard against my son … and then with him during the summer league in West Hartford. You can read more about each at the link.

Time to thank the members of the CTANG 143 MP Co. who served in the heart of the heart at the start of Iraqi Freedom including my friend Sgt Melissa Weaver, Sgt Marc Pucinski, Sgt Jess Walsh, Capt. Donald Chiverton, Sgt Sean Young, and so many more.

Also to the CTANG 192 MP Battalion, the CTANG 101st, 1109th AVCRAD unit and all the the units that served over the last seven years.

I am so sure I left some units out, numbers I can no longer remember … so please forgive and feel free below to remember the units I have forgotten or designations I have gotten wrong.

Also please leave the names of Iraq veterans I may have forgotten below. People do read the comments and it will be a good historical record as well.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Posted in ,

Jim Vicevich

Jim is a veteran broadcaster and conservative/libertarian blogger with more than 25 years experience in TV and radio. Jim's was the long-term host of The Jim Vicevich Show on WTIC 1080 in Hartford from 2004 through 2019. Prior to radio, Jim worked as a business and financial reporter for NBC30 - the NBC owned TV station in Hartford - and as business editor at WFSB-TV in Hartford for 14 years while earning six Emmy nominations and three Telly Awards.

11 Comments

  1. Anne-EH on August 19, 2010 at 4:40 am

    Good Morning Jim, SOS, Dave, and Steve! :)=^..^=

    I just want to give a THANK-YOU shoutout, using the Sean Hannity phrase for my nephew-in-law Richard Labre, who not only is at present serving in Afghanistan, but had also had served in Iraq, to thank Richard for his service to the USA.

    God Bless Richard and ALL our service men and women who have had or are at present serving in both Iraq and Afghanistan as well as ALL our service people. PLEASE keep Richard and our service people in your PRAYERS.



  2. Trawlerowner on August 19, 2010 at 4:41 am

    Thanks to all of our military who served in Iraq. Our thoughts are with all who gave their lives for this wonderful country, especially Felix & Larry. Cmdr. Charles (& Janet ) Kepner, USNR-Ret. 



  3. Trawlerowner on August 19, 2010 at 4:44 am

    We also think of those serving in Afghanistan – especially the son of our mail lady – and in other areas are around the world. We have friends in the CT Army AVCRAD unit in Groton who deploy regularly as helicopter pilots & mechanics. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE!



  4. BEA on August 19, 2010 at 5:23 am

    To the men and women who have served and continue to serve…THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! You'll never know how much your courage, bravery, committment, dedication, perseverance, sacrifice, and service mean to us.

    I would also like to thank the sons of my friends that have just enlisted because they love their country and feel called to serve:

    TAYLOR, LANDON, ERIC, JORDAN, SAM, JAMIE, JEFF, JOSH, PETER, BRIAN, NIC



  5. Dimsdale on August 19, 2010 at 5:26 am

    True heroes, all of you.  Thank you.



  6. weregettinghosed on August 19, 2010 at 5:27 am

    A BIG SALUTE to all the men and women that served so courageously to make another country experience the same freedom we enjoy.

     



  7. Dottie on August 19, 2010 at 5:42 am

    Just a Thank You!!! and Welcome Home!!!



  8. winnie888 on August 19, 2010 at 11:18 am

    A huge thank you for all those who served and who are still serving.  I know that without our military's protection, my God-given freedoms would be severely impeded or, worse yet, non-existent.

    Big thank you to my childhood friend, Andrew Austin who is a PA/medic with the Army and is responsible for the health needs of our troops, as well as our family friend in the Nat'l Guard, Nick Dorso–working on the BIG trucks in Afghanistan, and in memory of CIA's Scott Roberson, a high school classmate of mine, who was killed along with 7 other CIA agents on 12/30/09.

    Jim, thank you for this morning's show.  It was important to mark today as momentous, and you did it with class.



  9. PatRiot on August 19, 2010 at 4:01 pm

    THANK YOU TROOPS !!! 

    And a thank you to your parents for raising such fine Americans.

    My prayers continue to go out to the troops in harms way in Afghanistan, the advisers left in Iraq and the troops in Bosnia and especially Korea.



  10. Lynn on August 19, 2010 at 4:15 pm

    A special thank you to all the troops and their families. I hope you will all be home soon.



Bush greets woman soldier

The website's content and articles were migrated to a new framework in October 2023. You may see [shortcodes in brackets] that do not make any sense. Please ignore that stuff. We may fix it at some point, but we do not have the time now.

You'll also note comments migrated over may have misplaced question marks and missing spaces. All comments were migrated, but trackbacks may not show.

The site is not broken.