Family awaits news from airborne son

Geary and Dianna Bradke's 29-year-old son Christopher is involved in the ground war in Iraq.

He is a second lieutenant in Army military intelligence with the 101st airborne/air assault, graduating from Officer Candidate School one year ago. Geary Bradke said his son was stationed at Fort Campbell, Ky.

"He went to camp New Jersey in Kuwait until the initial bombing," Bradke said. "One day his group drove straight for three days, only stopping for refueling and to change drivers."

Bradke said not everyone knows that the 101st "splits off," because they are so specialized. Part of the division discovered the alleged chemical weapons in Iraq and some of the 101st soldiers were at the Baghdad airport Tuesday.

"I'd be willing to bet the ranch he's at the airport," Bradke said of his son. "It makes him closer to Baghdad, so that's not good, but it makes him farther away from the chemicals, so that's good," he said with a wry laugh. "There are lots of underground tunnels out there, so you just never know what's up."

Bradke, who teaches math at Conway High School West, said he constantly monitors the news on television.

"My wife wants to know what's going on but can't sit and watch the news. I can't turn it off. I've got to watch it, because reporters will say things to tell me more about where he is. They'll give me inside information that makes me feel good.

"The general public may think it's going slower than expected, but the powers in the Army who really know think it's probably going faster or at least as expected."

When the news broke that a member of the 101st had thrown a grenade into a tent, "there was immediate apprehension, but the reporter said some things that made me know it wasn't him."Christopher's wife Carrie has gotten one letter from him, but it was old.

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"They're more concerned about food, water and bullets," the elder Bradke said. "Mail makes it occasionally, but it's not top priority. The Army takes real good care of them."

Bradke said he is proud of Christopher and his other son Matt, who were both CHS honor graduates and athletes.

"I'd trade places with (Christopher) if I were physically able to or mentally qualified. I don't have the training he has. This was an extra pursuit of education ... he wanted to learn a lot of the military intelligence school things, counterintelligence in particular. The Army has some of the best schools in the world.

"He's assessing everything they know ... positioning locations on topographical maps, anything a commander or general would want to know."

Bradke said he thinks the war in general has not received as much support as Desert Storm because of the apprehension of the United Nations in the beginning. However, he said people have "gone out of their way" to offer prayers and kind words, even "people I haven't seen in years."

(Staff writer Tammy Keith can be reached by e-mail at tammy@thecabin.net or by phone at 505-1238.)