Phantom
04-12-2004, 11:08 PM
(***PLEASE NOTE: Our Webmasters are aware of some of you getting multiple e-mails of The Secret List... they are working on it****)
Hey...
A couple of quick items…
1-You may or may not be aware-but Thomas Hamill, the man from Mississippi who was kidnapped by Iraqi insurgents on Friday, is a firefighter with the Noxubee County Volunteer Fire Department. I am enclosing an article below... naturally, keep him as well as all Americans (Civilian and Military) in your thoughts.
2- If you use an 800 mhz radio system, please take a moment to read fellow TSL member and Charlottesville, VA FD Deputy Chief Charles Werners article on Firehouse.com. As you may have previously read, there is a significant issue involving 800 MHz public safety radio systems (even those that have gone through full acceptance testing), suddenly and without warning no longer working properly in specific areas. NOTE: Public radio systems outside of the 800 MHz frequency spectrum are NOT affected. Check it out at:
http://cms.firehouse.com/content/article/article.jsp?sectionId=13&id=28909
Take Care,
BillyG
The Secret List 4-12-04
FirefighterCloseCalls.com
Hostage Was Working in Iraq to Aid His Struggling Family
By PAUL von ZIELBAUER
Published: April 12, 2004
Thomas Hamill, a struggling Mississippi dairy farmer, went to Iraq in September to make serious money and to put his family, at long last, back on solid financial footing.
With no news from the Iraqi insurgents who abducted Mr. Hamill on Friday and threatened to kill him, his family and friends were hoping yesterday that he would simply make it home alive.
The kidnapping has left the people of Macon, Mr. Hamill's hometown in eastern Mississippi, despondent but resolved to support him, his wife and their two children, Mayor Dorothy Baker Hines said on Sunday.
"We're all going to get together and pray for the safe return of Mr. Hamill," the mayor said before heading to a prayer vigil at the Noxubee County courthouse. "We're putting out our flags and ribbons. We're turning on the lights in our buildings. We just want people to know that we're rallying together for the family."
She added, "I think people expect to do that in a small community like ours."
Mr. Hamill, 43, went to Iraq to drive fuel trucks for Kellogg Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, which employs thousands of American civilians to supply American troops and to help restore Iraq's oil industry. Gunmen attacked Mr. Hamill's fuel convoy on a highway outside Baghdad on Friday, killing one soldier and a civilian driver and taking Mr. Hamill hostage.
On Saturday, Mr. Hamill's captors threatened to kill him if American forces did not end their siege of Falluja by Sunday morning. A videotape shown by Al Jazeera on Saturday showed Mr. Hamill alive, if wary, and a voice in Arabic quoted him as saying, "I am in good shape." But Sunday in Iraq came and went without further word from Mr. Hamill or his abductors.
There was a wave of kidnappings of foreign workers in Iraq during the last week as United States forces clashed with Sunni and Shiite rebels. A group known as the Mujahideen Group-Kidnappings was behind the abduction of Mr. Hamill, officials said.
Mr. Hamill did not want to leave his family for a one-year hitch driving fuel trucks in Iraq, his family and friends said on Sunday. But he thought the job offered his wife, Kellie, who is recovering from heart surgery, and their two children the best chance of climbing out of what had become a burdensome debt.
Not long before he signed on with Halliburton last fall, Mr. Hamill sold his last few dozen cows, ending a family-owned dairy that his father and uncle started more than 30 years ago, Mrs. Hamill said. The sale did not quite cover his debts.
"With this job he saw a way to help us get back on track," Mrs. Hamill told The Beacon, a Macon newspaper.
"He's seen how bad it can be," Mrs. Hamill was quoted as saying. "An artillery round has landed within feet of him, and he's constantly getting bricks thrown through his window."
Calls to the Hamill home on Sunday were answered by a woman who said the family had no comment. In a message on its Web site on Saturday, Halliburton said the company was "monitoring the current situation in Iraq" and continued "to work closely with coalition authorities regarding the safety and security of all our personnel in the region."
About 30 employees have died in Iraq and Kuwait, the statement said.
Before he decided to head to Iraq, Mr. Hamill had been working two jobs, milking his cows one day, driving a milk truck the next day on a route connecting Noxubee County's other dairy operations, friends said. But it was not quite enough.
"He just got behind with low milk prices and all and high feed prices, had to close the dairy out," said Victor B. Allsup, 69, a dairy farmer who said he has known Mr. Hamill since he was a young boy. "He was a good ol' regular country boy, he loved hunting and fishing, just like good country boys do. I'm sure he knew there was a danger of going to a war zone."
Mr. Hamill's grandmother said that his pride was with the farm, even after he sold the last cow last summer, and that Iraq was a gamble he took for his family's sake.
"He'd say, `Momma, don't worry about me, just pray for me, I'll be O.K.,' " said Vera Hamill, 92, in a telephone interview from Macon on Sunday. "I just hope and pray that he'll be saved."
Mr. Hamill, a member of a Noxubee County volunteer fire department, took a short leave from Iraq to return home a couple of months ago, to be with his wife during her heart surgery, said Jim Robbins, a friend and firefighter in Columbus, Miss. Mr. Hamill did not talk much about the work or Iraq, Mr. Robbins said.
"He was more concerned about his wife at the time," he said. "He's a hard-working man, totally dedicated to his family and community."
-----
To visit Firefighter Close Calls home page, click here:
http://www.firefighterclosecalls.com
Hey...
A couple of quick items…
1-You may or may not be aware-but Thomas Hamill, the man from Mississippi who was kidnapped by Iraqi insurgents on Friday, is a firefighter with the Noxubee County Volunteer Fire Department. I am enclosing an article below... naturally, keep him as well as all Americans (Civilian and Military) in your thoughts.
2- If you use an 800 mhz radio system, please take a moment to read fellow TSL member and Charlottesville, VA FD Deputy Chief Charles Werners article on Firehouse.com. As you may have previously read, there is a significant issue involving 800 MHz public safety radio systems (even those that have gone through full acceptance testing), suddenly and without warning no longer working properly in specific areas. NOTE: Public radio systems outside of the 800 MHz frequency spectrum are NOT affected. Check it out at:
http://cms.firehouse.com/content/article/article.jsp?sectionId=13&id=28909
Take Care,
BillyG
The Secret List 4-12-04
FirefighterCloseCalls.com
Hostage Was Working in Iraq to Aid His Struggling Family
By PAUL von ZIELBAUER
Published: April 12, 2004
Thomas Hamill, a struggling Mississippi dairy farmer, went to Iraq in September to make serious money and to put his family, at long last, back on solid financial footing.
With no news from the Iraqi insurgents who abducted Mr. Hamill on Friday and threatened to kill him, his family and friends were hoping yesterday that he would simply make it home alive.
The kidnapping has left the people of Macon, Mr. Hamill's hometown in eastern Mississippi, despondent but resolved to support him, his wife and their two children, Mayor Dorothy Baker Hines said on Sunday.
"We're all going to get together and pray for the safe return of Mr. Hamill," the mayor said before heading to a prayer vigil at the Noxubee County courthouse. "We're putting out our flags and ribbons. We're turning on the lights in our buildings. We just want people to know that we're rallying together for the family."
She added, "I think people expect to do that in a small community like ours."
Mr. Hamill, 43, went to Iraq to drive fuel trucks for Kellogg Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, which employs thousands of American civilians to supply American troops and to help restore Iraq's oil industry. Gunmen attacked Mr. Hamill's fuel convoy on a highway outside Baghdad on Friday, killing one soldier and a civilian driver and taking Mr. Hamill hostage.
On Saturday, Mr. Hamill's captors threatened to kill him if American forces did not end their siege of Falluja by Sunday morning. A videotape shown by Al Jazeera on Saturday showed Mr. Hamill alive, if wary, and a voice in Arabic quoted him as saying, "I am in good shape." But Sunday in Iraq came and went without further word from Mr. Hamill or his abductors.
There was a wave of kidnappings of foreign workers in Iraq during the last week as United States forces clashed with Sunni and Shiite rebels. A group known as the Mujahideen Group-Kidnappings was behind the abduction of Mr. Hamill, officials said.
Mr. Hamill did not want to leave his family for a one-year hitch driving fuel trucks in Iraq, his family and friends said on Sunday. But he thought the job offered his wife, Kellie, who is recovering from heart surgery, and their two children the best chance of climbing out of what had become a burdensome debt.
Not long before he signed on with Halliburton last fall, Mr. Hamill sold his last few dozen cows, ending a family-owned dairy that his father and uncle started more than 30 years ago, Mrs. Hamill said. The sale did not quite cover his debts.
"With this job he saw a way to help us get back on track," Mrs. Hamill told The Beacon, a Macon newspaper.
"He's seen how bad it can be," Mrs. Hamill was quoted as saying. "An artillery round has landed within feet of him, and he's constantly getting bricks thrown through his window."
Calls to the Hamill home on Sunday were answered by a woman who said the family had no comment. In a message on its Web site on Saturday, Halliburton said the company was "monitoring the current situation in Iraq" and continued "to work closely with coalition authorities regarding the safety and security of all our personnel in the region."
About 30 employees have died in Iraq and Kuwait, the statement said.
Before he decided to head to Iraq, Mr. Hamill had been working two jobs, milking his cows one day, driving a milk truck the next day on a route connecting Noxubee County's other dairy operations, friends said. But it was not quite enough.
"He just got behind with low milk prices and all and high feed prices, had to close the dairy out," said Victor B. Allsup, 69, a dairy farmer who said he has known Mr. Hamill since he was a young boy. "He was a good ol' regular country boy, he loved hunting and fishing, just like good country boys do. I'm sure he knew there was a danger of going to a war zone."
Mr. Hamill's grandmother said that his pride was with the farm, even after he sold the last cow last summer, and that Iraq was a gamble he took for his family's sake.
"He'd say, `Momma, don't worry about me, just pray for me, I'll be O.K.,' " said Vera Hamill, 92, in a telephone interview from Macon on Sunday. "I just hope and pray that he'll be saved."
Mr. Hamill, a member of a Noxubee County volunteer fire department, took a short leave from Iraq to return home a couple of months ago, to be with his wife during her heart surgery, said Jim Robbins, a friend and firefighter in Columbus, Miss. Mr. Hamill did not talk much about the work or Iraq, Mr. Robbins said.
"He was more concerned about his wife at the time," he said. "He's a hard-working man, totally dedicated to his family and community."
-----
To visit Firefighter Close Calls home page, click here:
http://www.firefighterclosecalls.com