Nov 9, 2009 7:00 pm US/Central
Debriefing After Don Shelby Returns From Iraq
(WCCO)
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The team traveling with Don Shelby and Tom Aviles on the Iraq/Iran border. From left to right: Egyptian-born interpreter Spc. Algohary, Master Sgt. Rich Kemp, Don Shelby, Tom Aviles, Spc. Johnny Angelo.
CBS
Over the weekend, WCCO-TV anchor Don Shelby and photojournalist Tom Aviles returned from a week in Iraq. They went there to report on the Minnesota National Guard's 34th Infantry Division, better known as the Red Bulls.
More than 1,000 Red Bulls are serving a year in Southern Iraq.
Transformative Experience
For Shelby, the trip was transformative -- transformative because he saw so many citizen soldiers working. They aren't there to do the guns and bullets part of the war because the Iraqi Security Forces is now set up to do the work, taking over for the country as the U.S. backing them up.
Shelby and Aviles were all over Iraq, flying over the massive deserts of southern Iraq, up the Mesopotamian Valley and over the Shatt al-Arab.
They took convoys across land that is often spiked with IEDs. Some people have suggested some heroism in going and reporting in Iraq. But Shelby said there was none whatsoever because they were well-protected the entire time.
But Shelby and Aviles were in some extremely interesting areas and it was of great importance to cover the civilian soldiers of the Minnesota-based 34th Infantry Division. There is a special reason why the Pentagon chose Minnesotans to do this job.
Children Of Iraq
Perhaps the most touching for Shelby was the reaction of the Iraqi children to what was going on there. Some of the detachments under the Red Bulls are actually building schools and the children there are children just like anywhere in school -- glad to be back in school, glad to be learning.
As you walk by those school windows, you see high-fives being given to soldiers carrying M4s, no fear on the part of the children.
At Basra Medical College, more than half of the students are women.
One Arab speaker who was with Shelby said, the children's faces are the faces of Iraq, the new, smiling faces. And part of that is because Minnesotans are bringing their civilian skills and maybe their Minnesota Nice to that part of the country.
Walking On History
A lot of people don't understand, unless they've been reading their Bible recently, that the birthplace of Abraham is just outside of Al-Nazariya. Shelby and Aviles flew over the Ziggurat, which is one of the oldest in the world. It's older than the pyramids of Egypt.
They climbed the Ziggurat and just to the south of that you will find the birthplace of Abraham, the patriarch of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, in a city called Ur.
The structures are in incredible shape but the question is can they stay in that shape once they have been excavated. Is there a way to maintain those sun-dried bricks?
Stay tuned to WCCO this week and beyond as Shelby and Aviles continue to report about the lives of our citizen soldiers in Iraq and the people they are helping.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Slideshow: Don Shelby Embedded With Troops In Mideast 
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