Unfortunately, there are not a lot of good stories that have come out of the war in Iraq, but this is one of them. I was sent to High Point Regional High School, in Sussex New Jersey, to Photograph Lt. General Ray Odierno with a class of special education students. As their annual philanthropy project, the class had chosen to raise money to buy and send phone cards to soldiers in Iraq. The class’s teacher, Joan Smith, could not find an Army contact to send the cards to and then she remembered that the General’s niece was a teacher at the school. She decided to go straight to the top. In addition to all of his other duties, General Odierno became the point person for the cards to be sent to and made sure that they were distributed. This was the first of many things that impressed me about General Odierno; after thirty months in Iraq he took time away from his leave to attend the shoot, signed every autograph, answered every question, spoke one on one with a student considering a career in the military, posed for every picture and seemed to be ready for the job from hard learned experience and not the view from a desk.Until recently General Odierno was the commanding general in Iraq under General Petraeus and was awaiting senate confirmation hearings for his next post as Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Army. In an about face, It was announced today, that General Odierno will now be heading back to Iraq to take over command from General Patraeus. Regardless of how you feel about the war, I am happy to report that from my brief experience with General Odierno, we are sending our best officer for the job.
