Firefighter home from Iraq happy to be out of hot spot

[SHRED]

Firefighter home from Iraq happy to be out of hot spot

By Mike Belt, Journal-World

Monday, September 20, 2004

A Lawrence native who spent nearly a year fighting fires in Iraq as a private contractor has returned home with concerns about the war and the future of U.S. involvement there.
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"It's a mess," said Rick Morris, summing up his take on the situation.

Insurgents have stepped up their attacks, lately targeting Iraqi police. Entire cities, such as Fallujah, have been given up to the insurgents. The United States doesn't have enough troops to secure the entire country, Morris said.

"I think we made a mistake going in there," he said of President Bush's decision in March 2003 to invade Iraq and oust Saddam Hussein. "I think Bush Jr. wanted to do what Bush Sr. didn't."

Morris, 51, ended his career in the summer of 2003 as a firefighter in the Air Force and signed on as a contractor with Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root. He was sent to Iraq as a firefighter and became the chief of American firefighters in Baghdad's Green Zone, the fortified sector where many Americans live and work and where the former Coalition Provisional Authority had its headquarters. He also supervised firefighters in other nearby cities.

A 1971 Lawrence High School graduate, Morris stayed in Iraq until last spring, when he asked for a transfer and was sent to an American air base in Turkey, where he stayed until returning to the United States about a month ago. He now lives in Knob Noster, Mo., but was in Lawrence recently visiting friends.

More....http://www.ljworld.com/section/stateregional/story/182022