Hey everyone,

I wanted to share a front page news article that Kemp's hometown of Thomasville, NC ran over the weekend. Apparently, they decided to run another story yesterday, but I haven't been able to get ahold of it yet.

Also, wanted to ask everyone to continue to keep Kemp and the other soldiers in your thoughts and prayers. Two days ago 20-40 mortars hit their camp killing two soldiers, seriously injuring five, and wounding many others. Luckily, Kemp was not hurt and neither were his closest friends. At this point, they are homeless. Their tents burnt down and their camp is destroyed, considered a "disaster area". Their computer and telephone labs are gone, so it was by a make-shift computer station that I was able to have an instant message conversation with him last night. They now have set up 7 computers for 600 guys. I doubt if I'll hear from him anytime soon.

Kemp's return date is September 15, and I am asking for everyone's help praying for his safe return.

I hope that everyone is doing ok. I miss you all and hope to see you soon.

Love, Sharla

 

the article...


Monday's Internet Edition, July 26, 2004.
Chair City soldier ready to come home
By MIKE DUPREZ
Editor - Spec. Kemp Harvey Jr. is half a world away in Iraq. He has seen plenty of combat.
What the Thomasville native wants now is obvious.
“I’m ready to come home,” he said in an interview conducted Friday morning over the Internet via Yahoo Messenger.
Harvey, the son of Kemp and Barbara Harvey of Thomasville, stationed with the 10th Mountain Division out of Ft. Drum, N.Y., has had a lot happen to him during his two years in the Army.
It’s a career that has also truly come full circle. Harvey had dropped out of the elite Special Forces and took a regular infantryman’s role. Now he is doing scouting and sniper missions, the stuff typically done by Special Forces. He may even make the Army a career.
“I really feel this is better suited for me,” Harvey said. “So I do have some options.”
It goes without saying that Harvey has regrets about dropping out of Special Forces, though returning to that outfit is a possibility when he returns.
“It was sort of out of my hands so that makes it hard to deal with sometimes,” he said. “It would have been different if I wasn’t cut out for it but I feel like I was made for the SF community.”
The war has left some lasting impressions on Harvey, who was just several hours removed from an all-night mission when the Times interviewed him.
The U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein within three weeks last year. That was the easy part. Harvey is involved in the difficult phase — fighting a well-armed insurgency.
And he doesn’t buy into any of the criticism of the war. Not in the least. “I know people are opposed to us being over here, and I know that soldiers have been getting a bad rap over the abuse to prisoners,” Harvey said. “What these people don’t understand is that we are here so they have freedom to be able to protest.
“We are why they can sleep soundly at night and we are the ones dying over here every day.”
Don’t look for sympathy from Harvey, who among other things had to witness 16 soldiers die when a CH-47 transport helicopter was shot down, toward the prisoners.
“The prisoners that all these people are saying deserve better treatment are the ones killing us,” he said. “I wish the American people could see the carnage after an IED hits a humvee. I wish the American people could see the remains of American soldiers after they get hit by a mortar. I don’t think these prisoners deserve any rights at all. They are murderers. They kill people on national television.”
Harvey has seen action in some of the worst places in Iraq, including Fallujah. He has mixed feelings about Iraqis.
“They are a different people,” he said. “They don’t think at all like us. Some of them are really nice; however, but there are still a lot of bad people over here.”
But some aren’t bad.
“The children are gorgeous,” Harvey said. “I really feel bad for them.”
The war is on the news every night. Typically, there are attacks on humvees via roadside bombs or improvised explosive devices (IEDs). There are mortar and rocket attacks. There are snipers.
Harvey has seen all of the above and then some. He has been shot at. He has fired at the enemy.
Of course, actually being in combat is a whole other realm.
“It’s really hard to put into words,” Harvey said. “It’s nothing like I thought it would be. Being in a firefight is the ultimate adrenaline rush.”
Like most people, Harvey has seen war movies — and how different they can be from reality.
“I don’t think most movies do real combat justice,” he said. “Of course in the movies they leave out all of the day to day tasks that aren’t so interesting. As for the actual firefighters, many aren’t as intense as the movies, but some are even more so. It’s a mixed bag.”
Harvey has seen the worst — fellow soldiers dying. He was on perimeter duty in a guard tower last Nov. 2 when the CH-47, ferrying troops for visits home, was downed.
“We saw it get hit,” he said. “It was horrible. We sent a lot of guys to the scene to secure the crash site and piece together the bodies. They said it was unlike anything they had ever seen.”
Then there’s the daily danger of the IEDs which Harvey has managed to survive.
“Well, we really haven’t avoided them,” he said. “We have just been lucky. We have lost only about six guys to IEDs, much less than some other units.”
But there are other factors aside from combat that are just as hard to endure.
Harvey is away from his wife, Sharla, and that is the toughest part.
“Extremely tough,” he said. “Sharla and I are like best friends. We have an amazing relationship, so being apart from her for a day is tough, as for a year ... It’s hard. I never knew it would be quite this difficult, but at the same time the relationship I have with my wife is what keeps me going.”
Harvey, who communicates with his parents regularly via instant messenger, was able to speak to them by phone Thursday night.
“It was incredible,” said his father. “We hadn’t heard his voice in a long time.”
Kemp Jr. credits his parents for helping him get through the tough times.
“It’s really tough being over here,” he said. “I think we are under a tremendous amount of pressure and don’t even realize it at times. Some days it does get to be a bit much. I do have bad days. Many times I try not to convey it to them because it just makes it harder. But I have had times when they have helped boost my morale.”
And just knowing that he is OK boosts their morale.
“My first thoughts when I wake up in the morning are of him,” Barbara said. “I say my prayers and ask God to watch over him and keep him safe. Then at night, the same thing. I just want him to be safe and have a good day.”
Kemp Sr., a cheerful person like Barbara, acknowledges the emotional difficulties.
“There are bad days,” he said, speaking slowly. “It has been a tough year.”
Back in Iraq, the spirits are high even as the troops get anxious to come home.
“We have been very fortunate,” Kemp Jr. said. “As a whole, we have made a difference here. As for morale, everyone is tired and ready to come home. We have been here longer than anyone else in country.”
Harvey said the combat is decreasing to the point where his unit is pretty much conducting counter-mortar missions and seeing less combat.
“Things are winding down and there isn’t as much for us to do,” he said. “So that makes it harder to justify staying sometimes. But we are still motivated and we have a job to do, so we are going to stay the course until our time here is through.”
And each day gets him one day closer to safety and being reunited with Sharla.

This article can be found at: http://www.thomasvilletimes.net/story7.shtml

I did a search for "Kemp Harvey" on the internet. I found the following articles from Charleston.net. They did a 5 part feature on Kemp joining the Army. These are really good articles and include the pictures shown below.  Just click the following link to read about Kemp: http://www.charleston.net/kemp/

PHOTOS:
(Click on each image for a larger photo)