Greg Thompson’s war

A few weeks ago — July 4th — MPR producer Sasha Aslanian produced The Vietnam Tapes, featuring the pictures and audio diary of Dan Kleven of Willmar, Minn., who spent 11 months in combat in Vietnam in 1970.

It resonated from Minnesota to Kentucky, where Greg Thompson, now an attorney, contacted us to share his thoughts of his experiences in a different war. Thompson served in Iraq, mostly in civil affairs, helping to put things back together and establish a relationship with the Iraqis.

He sent me his pictures and we chatted on the telephone for about 90 minutes recently. I’ve edited both down and provided the following presentation to give you an idea of what it was like in Greg Thompson’s war.