Brennan’s Blog

Just under a month ago a couple of my brothers left to the Middle East to serve with the Air National Guard. They are on some base in some country but as a civilian I am not supposed to know exactly where they are located. They can still use email occasionally and they just sent me this photo. A couple of weeks back Steve sent me a copy of a press release one of his commanders had released about these new 500lb bombs they rushed to Iraq. The press release explained that ironically these bombs were designed to minimize civilian casualties as they take out insurgent fighters who routinely attacks innocent civilians. Typically these strikes are at locations they believe they will hit
Al Queda leader Al-Zarqawi and his commanders who plans car bombs in public places and lofts mortars into populated areas.

I am told that Steve is largely responsible for assembling various types of bombs while my other brother Nick loads them onto the jets. I am sure that they were both anxious to see how this new bomb would work out.

The other day when I was driving home from work I was listening to an NPR interview with a reporter who is over there. One of these bombs was dropped onto a building they intended to destroy and were able to take it out without damaging the surrounding buildings or any civilian deaths. This reporter witnessed it and seemed rather surprised and pleased that the military is able to achieve such precision. I can see why they chose to rush the new bomb there. And hopefully they will soon be able to get al-Zarqawi and his commanders in one of those drops.