Greg Thompson's war

Posted at 3:52 PM on July 24, 2008 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)

A few weeks ago -- July 4th -- MPR producer Sasha Aslanian produced The Vietnam Tapes, featuring the pictures and audio diary of Dan Kleven of Willmar, Minn., who spent 11 months in combat in Vietnam in 1970.

It resonated from Minnesota to Kentucky, where Greg Thompson, now an attorney, contacted us to share his thoughts of his experiences in a different war. Thompson served in Iraq, mostly in civil affairs, helping to put things back together and establish a relationship with the Iraqis.

He sent me his pictures and we chatted on the telephone for about 90 minutes recently. I've edited both down and provided the following presentation to give you an idea of what it was like in Greg Thompson's war.

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Comments (6)

thank you for sharing this..

Posted by brian hanf | July 24, 2008 4:56 PM

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I really enjoyed that, thank you Bob for making this available, and thank you Greg for sharing and more importantly serving. I'm curious to find out how available this type of military position is and the prerequisites.

Posted by Tyler Suter | July 24, 2008 11:23 PM

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Very interesting. Some of the pictures seem surreal.

Soldiers who serve during war share the common bond of having performed their duties under difficult and contradictory situations. It looks like Greg performed well.

Thanks to Bob for putting this together and thanks to Greg for being a good representative of our country.

Posted by pete mcmaster | July 25, 2008 3:56 PM

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I just got a chance to view the entire show. What a wonderful statement regarding putting shoes on a child.

The world needs more big hearted people.

Thank you Bob and Greg.

Posted by David Lee | July 28, 2008 9:49 PM

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Thank you Greg for sharing and for serving our country. No matter how we leave Iraq I am sure the lives you touched by your presence will be forever changed.

Posted by Robert Lansing | May 14, 2009 11:26 PM

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I pray with the draw down of troops that all those that Greg helped will be safe without American protection. Mosul is still one of the most violent areas of Iraq.

In any event, thanks to Greg and all like him for taking on such a dangerous job.

Posted by Jessica Summers | July 27, 2009 5:41 PM

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