Michael Yon with Command Sergeant Major Mellinger in Iraq
Michael Yon is in Iraq telling true stories about the HEROES in Iraq.
As I approached, one soldier in particular took a step toward me in a way that spoke loudly and said, Alpha. In a synchronicity that still registers as bizarre to me, the soldier was Jeffrey Mellinger, the Command Sergeant Major for Coalition Forces in Iraq, the very man I most wanted to meet.
In the service there is always a saying “be carfull of what you ask for” you just might get it.
Finally, while I was eating lukewarm food on the hood a Humvee in Mosul, all of a sudden . . . grace my eyes . . . I looked over my shoulder and saw CSM Mellinger again. I wasted little time making a personal request, and after LTC Kurilla, who was also standing there, vouched for me, I got a “maybe.” More emails and more “maybes,” until the day came . . . about five days ago . . . when CSM Mellinger had driven just near Mosul to Tal Afar-in his Humvee for chrissakes-to check out his soldiers who were fighting in the area. He happened to be passing through Mosul on the way back to Baghdad, so, finally, after six months of asking, he allowed me to tag along.
Sometime after getting that news, I learned that while I am the first “journalist” to travel with CSM Mellinger, I am not the first he invited. Two reporters to whom he extended similar invites around election time, both backed out when they realized they would be traveling in a Humvee.
And so, he picked me up and we drove to Baghdad, and now we are headed to Kuwait. I’ve had six months to put a list of questions together. Some of his answers, along with my observations from “walking the line” with CSM Mellinger, will be included with subsequent posts. But for now, we are driving the roads of Iraq in a Humvee, and walking the line.
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He will have more reports soon of his time hitching a ride with CSM Mellinger.
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