A phone call from Iraq

It's times like this that I remember why I love being a reporter so much.

Two days ago, I went to a local intermediate school to sit in on a fifth-grade class that was having a special videoconference call with a soldier in Iraq. It was not just special because the videocall came from Iraq, but because the soldier's daughter was in the class and she was turning 11 that day and had no idea she was going to get to see her dad and talk to him.

Truthfully, I kind of didn't want to do the story because I was worried I'd spend the whole hour crying, not because Jasmine got to talk to her father, but because I can't talk to mine. I drove up there wishing there was some kind of videoconference with wherever my mom and dad are, because I'd give up everything to get on that line. My birthday was always special, too, because my parents would call and tell me my adoption story, and I'll never get to hear that again from them. I know, pretty self-involved, right? What can I say? It's where I'm at right now, and will be for some time to come, I imagine.

In any case, when I got to the class and saw how excited the kids were, and more, how excited Sgt. McNiely was to see his daughter, I forgot all about what I didn't have and was so thrilled for what Jasmine had -- a dad who loves her so much he made this happen.

He sat in a common room at an air base outside Baghdad, in his fatigues, answering the kids' questions about how he feels fighting for our country and what it's like to be in Iraq. He told the kids it's hot and he can't eat at McDonald's.

But when the kids left the room at the end and he was getting ready to sign off -- after Jasmine told him she loves and misses him -- he had to get ready to leave that safe common room. He started strapping on guns he had stashed out of the Webcam's view. Big guns.

It made me sick and sad.

Sgt. McNiely called me today from Iraq to thank me for the story. He said when he gets back next August, he wants to come to the office with Jasmine and meet me. I see that an e-mail from him just arrived in my work inbox, too.

I've never for one moment been in favor of this war, for a variety of reasons. Now I have one more: Jasmine McNiely. I know how tremendously awful it is to lose your parents, and I desperately hope this will not be the last time Sgt. McNiely gets to wish his daughter happy birthday.