Announcing “Dragon Soup”– GraniteGrok welcomes milblogger to the fold!

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Skip and I are honored to be able to offer ‘Grok readers a very special addition to our team of contributors: Major Kirk Luedeke. Regular readers might recall that we posted a letter he had written to his mother in which he reported on some of the good news happening on the ground in and around Baghdad. That is because he is, in fact, there right now, helping the US win the new world war against radical Islam. After we published the piece, and an exchange of emails, "Major Kirk", a Public Affairs Officer in the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division– The Dragon Brigade, currently on active duty in Baghdad, Iraq, has agreed to do some Blogging for us, or, as it is called, "MilBlogging."

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Starting tomorrow, the first of his reports straight from the battlezone will appear. We have left the subject matter entirely up to the Major, and asked him to write at HIS convenience, given the importance of his daily mission. That being said, we encourage all of our readers to feel free to either email us with questions or topics that you might like Major Kirk to write about or simply drop them in the "comments" area– we are sure he will try to accomodate as much as possible.

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I know I speak for everybody hanging out here at the ‘Grok when I thank the Major for offering to share his thoughts with us, and above all, for his service in our armed forces….

Check out Major Kirk’s bio. As you can see, he is the real deal. It is reassuring to know that our Nation has such fine people defending us:

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Major Kirk Luedeke was born in Austin, Texas and was a military brat, living in the Panama Canal Zone before moving to Hudson, NH, where he attended elementary school. After being stationed in Lima, Peru while his father served as the US Army Attache to the Embassy, the Luedeke family returned to Hudson in 1987, where Kirk graduated from Alvirne High in 1990.

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He attended The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina in Charleston, graduating in 1994 with a BA in History. He was a Distinguished Military Graduate of The Citadel’s Army ROTC program and was commissioned in the Armor Branch as a second lieutenant.
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He was stationed at Fort Riley, Kan. from 1995-98 where he served with the 3rd Badttalion, 37th Armored Regiment and later the 1st Battalion, 13th Armored Regiment as an M1A1 Abrams Tank platoon leader, and company executive officer. He commanded Company A, 2nd Battalion, 10th Infantry Regiment at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. from 1999-2002. After serving as a tactics instructor at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation at Fort Benning, Ga. from 2002-04, he transferred to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, "Sledgehammer Brigade" where he served a combat tour as the brigade’s deputy operations officer in Baqubah, Diyala Province in 2005. After completing the Public Affairs Officer Qualification Course in 2006, he returned to Fort Riley to be the Public Affairs Officer for the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, "Dragon Brigade" of the 1st Infantry Division.

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The Dragon Brigade deployed to Southern Baghdad in Feb., 2007 and is expected to complete a 15-month tour serving in one of the Iraqi capital’s most dangerous areas.

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Major Luedeke is married to Suzanne, and has two daughters, Kalen and Kendal (Kiki).

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His awards and decorations include: the Bronze Star Medal, Meritorious Service Medal w/ oak leaf cluster, Army Commendation Medal w/ three oak leaf clusters, Army Achievement Medal w/ three oak leaf clusters, the Iraqi Campaign Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary and Service Medals, Combat Action Badge, Army Parachutist Badge and Chilean Army Parachutist Badge.

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He is also a freelance journalist, whose work has been published in Armor Magazine and the New England Hockey Journal.

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