Mike Says Hello

Good morning! I got a surprise phone call this morning from Mike Cochran... all the way from Iraq! (He's pictured at left at our Lake Cleanup picnic last October.) Formerly of the Missouri Water Patrol, Mike is spending the next year in Iraq teaching Iraqi police officers "how to be police" and "how to shoot guns," to put it in simple terms, he says. Other than the one-second delay during our phone conversation, he sounded like he was calling from his house in Pontiac. He is doing great. And he feels safe -- he says when he goes anywhere he is escorted by a group of marines, and he travels in an armored Humvee with a 50-caliber machine gun on top. He said he has his own office and his own living space, with heating and air conditioning. The current temp in Iraq, he said, reaches about 70 to 80 degrees during the day and about 50 degrees at night. He is currently stationed about 20 miles from the Syrian border at Al Qaim. He says his only problem right now is that he has a lot of downtime, and he gets bored: "Yesterday I taught a 30-minute class and rode around in a convoy for eight and a half hours."

He sends his best!