I personally knew six people before they went to Iraq in the last couple of years.  Greg and John were over and back without me knowing they were headed that way.  Both made it home safely. Adam and Walter went over about a year ago.  Adam came home in a body bag and Walter was seriously and permanently injured (initial reports were overly optimistic about his recovery).  Our nephew Jason lost an arm, vision in one eye and other injuries.  That leaves one person unaccounted for.

Boomershooter Scott, who I worked with at Microsoft in ’98 and ’99, was headed over in 2004 and after all the bad news about the other guys I knew I dreaded even trying to check up on him.  Finally I got a hold of his Microsoft email address and sent him a message a couple weeks ago.  No response.  That could mean anything.  My old email address at MS didn’t bounce so it could be he wasn’t working there anymore either.  Yesterday I called him at his old MS number.  There was no answer so I left a voice mail message.  Again, that didn’t mean much–my old number went to voice mail too.

Four hours and 35 minutes later Scott called me.  He’s back at Microsoft and in one piece.  He lost friends and others that went with him to Iraq were severely injured but Scott is okay and planning to attend Boomershoot 2006 with another Iraq war vet.  While in Iraq they had Internet access and spent time looking at Boomershoot.org.

I’m very relieved.