"cali bagby iraq" News

"It’s a long game, it’s still anyone’s game," says convoy commander Lt. Matt Harrison, 27, of Portland, Ore., who came to the Joint Visitor Bureau Hotel for the large TV set and camaraderie of fellow soldiers.

An Oregon man's fiance photographed and scanned every ornament on his Christmas tree back home, and sent the photos to Iraq. The soldier then recreated his tree on a bed sheet on his base-bedroom wall.

No big screen TV. No live stream on the Internet. It is 2 a.m. in Al Asad, Iraq, and with no way to see the Oregon State Beavers play, an Oregon man's friends still manage to bring him to the game.

Executive officer Daniel Cotton, 26, of Beaverton, Ore., graduated from the University of Oregon in 2006. Cotton was a UO cheerleader and spent his last year as the team mascot: the Duck.

Executive officer Libby Smith, 24, of Spokane, Wash., attended the University of Oregon and was a cheerleader from 2003 to 2007. She's now stationed in Iraq.

No big screen TV. No live stream on the Internet. It is 2 a.m. in Al Asad, Iraq, and with no way to see the Oregon State Beavers play, an Oregon man's friends still manage to bring him to the game.

Oregon National Guard soldiers create and distribute official ID cards to the Iraqi police. They take iris scans, fingerprint scans and new photos with the Iraqi flag as a background. The data is key to U.S. security - and job security for the Iraqi police.

Oregon National Guard soldiers create and distribute official ID cards to the Iraqi police. They take iris scans, fingerprint scans and new photos with the Iraqi flag as a background. The data is key to U.S. security - and job security for the Iraqi police.

Soldiers from Oregon have made a deal with Iraqi locals: 10 villagers can dig through the military's trash each day. The treasures of the day are quietly revealed: a carpet, two intact oranges, a pair of socks and piles of half-eaten food.

The soldiers in Charlie Company, 1-186, 2nd Platoon of Oregon’s 41st Infantry are far from home. Their mission: to escort convoys carrying water, food and oil used for U.S. forces in Iraq from base Camp Korean Village to base Trebil, near Jordan’s border.

The soldiers in Charlie Company, 1-186, 2nd Platoon of Oregon’s 41st Infantry are far from home. Their mission: to escort convoys carrying water, food and oil used for U.S. forces in Iraq from base Camp Korean Village to base Trebil, near Jordan’s border.

So you wake up one morning and you think, “Yes, I want to go to war, I want to tell stories of soldiers’ sacrifices. I want to be scared, I want to be lonely, I want there to be something more to life than a desk job and lunch breaks and weekends.” So you pack your bags.

After a year of e-mails, letters, photos and care packages, Candace Zepp and Jason Westlund met for the first time in Frankfurt. Four years later,the two are now stationed together in Iraq, one of two married couples in Oregon's Charlie Company.

Flight medic 1st Sgt. Travis Powell, 39, planned to catch a fight home to Mollala, Ore., to marry his fiancé and enjoy his honeymoon, but his flight was canceled: The flight was reserved for a fallen soldier from Saturday night’s Blackhawk helicopter crash.