"conservative American values" at work

[pynchonoid]

<http://nytimes.com/2004/04/12/national/12HOST.html>

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. [...] 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.  [...] 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. [...] 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 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."

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