Former WWE / WCW Wrestler Diamond Dallas Page & ESPN Visit US Troops In Iraq Last Week, And Are Met By Enemy Fire
The Press Telegram has posted an article regarding a recent visit to Iraq by ESPN & former WCW / WWE wrestler Diamond Dallas Page. Last week they went to Iraq to visit the American troops, although I don't believe DDP was there as part of ESPN (probably thru ISO).
As you will read, DDP & Rob Dibble (former Reds pitcher and now ESPN analyst) had an experience that will probably affect their lives forever. I know DDP hasn't posted anything on his website yet. He will.
Here's the article courtesy of the Press Telegram:
While most members of the ESPN SportsCenter crew settled in Kuwait, the country due south of Iraq, for last week's well-received visit to America's troops, one ESPN sportscaster instead headed north for an adventure he'll likely wear forever, like a tattoo on his soul.
Rob Dibble, the former Reds pitcher who is Dan Patrick's sidekick on ESPN's popular weekday radio sports talk show (10 a.m.-1 p.m., KSPN 710 am), and pro wrestler Dallas Diamond Page went inside Iraq and hop-scotched to U.S. bases for meet-and-greets with American soldiers in places where the war is not an abstract on your TV screen or fodder for talk shows.
What he didn't expect was for every camp he visited to come under attack by Iraqi insurgents. He did not know that cities, which weeks ago were just names on a Time Magazine map, were the sites of some of the most vicious fighting in the country.
He didn't know he would be shuttled from camp to camp in a Black Hawk Helicopter because the military decided the insurgents' IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) along roads made them too dangerous to drive, even when the vehicles were Bradley Tanks and metal-plated humvees.
He didn't realize how devastating the images and atmosphere were and that he would return home with the tissue of his soul scratched and bruised and a hunger to tell as many Americans as possible that have no idea what's truly going on in Iraq, and how dangerous things are for our military and the Iraqis its trying to protect.
"We went everywhere Baghdad, Sadr City, Balad, Ba'qubah the worst places in the country," Dibble said by phone. "We went to outward locations, and many soldiers were amazed that we ventured that far out.
"Every camp we visited was targeted or bombed by mortars or grenade launchers. There was no safety of any kind. When we went to Baghdad, 11 rockets were fired at our complex in a single day.
"We were at the base where a suicide bomber rammed a Bradley. We met the four young Americans who were inside, and they shook it off. They didn't want to take a few days off. They just wanted to get back out there.
"I never, for a second, thought that my life would be in danger, and on the second day, eight rockets landed less than 1,000 yards away. I was there on Sept. 11, and on that day, every American base was attacked."
During his trip, Dibble phoned in 30-to 60-second taped reports that were replayed on Patrick's show, and several of them tore at your heart. A man's man who grew up in clubhouses and is familiar with the sporting world's notions of competition, commitment and courage, Dibble was emotionally raked by the experienced.
He was not just raked by the bombs going off, but by the exceedingly angry sense that this story of young American volunteer soldiers dealing with hostile, dangerous and unforgiving situations, losing lives, limbs and friends, has been pushed to the margin of the war and presidential dialogue.
The raging debate over what John Kerry and President Bush did or did not do 30 years ago during Vietnam and all the political spin feeds Dibble's ire that the country and the media is missing the points that matter most.
"Kerry says this. Bush says that, and these guys are fighting for their life," Dibble said. "The media has been playing up things that are stupid, trivial and insignificant and missing the fact that our military is fighting a chaotic, dangerous war.
"The media talks about the death toll but haven't put a face on the deaths, or the 7,000 or so wounded American soldiers. They're not just flesh wounds. They're often devastating loss of limbs.
"Whether you support the war or Bush is meaningless. I went to support the troops, not the war, and that's the experience that affected me wonderful, nice young men and women, with families at home, fighting and dying for us. Whatever your politics, these are our sons and daughters."
Dibble comes from an active, strong-willed family that understands simple core values. One brother is in the Navy, and another is a fireman. His father Walter was an award-winning, respected radio reporter in New England for a half-century who interviewed presidents and covered major stories.
"If I hadn't been a jock, I would probably have worked somewhere in the media," Dibble said.
Dibble's visit also gave him a view of the typical life of an Iraqi during this war.
"Living conditions are horrible," he said. "There's some plumbing and electricity in Baghdad, little on the outskirts. There are no schools or sanitation. Some people live in homes without a roof. I saw kids walking around who looked like they had just left a concentration camp'
He didn't ask many political questions of the young soldiers he met, but came home with a consensus response to the nature of this war to them.
"They would much rather fight terrorism and aggression there than here in America," he said. "They all believe that over the course of this war, they will win, and they will find and eliminate the bad guys, and they will help people who have been beaten down. And they believe our country will appreciate it."
After it was over, after two weeks of images he'll never get out of his head, after all the grenade attacks, after meeting hundreds of American soldiers who somehow managed to smile and find humanity in an inhuman situation, Dibble was left with one over-riding emotion.
"Guilt," he said. "Guilt that I was coming home and would be safe, knowing that the soldiers I met still have more fighting to do."
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