{"id":143,"date":"2007-06-17T10:39:43","date_gmt":"2007-06-17T10:39:43","guid":{"rendered":"\/2007\/06\/17\/iraqi-railroad-is-back-on-track\/"},"modified":"2013-04-24T18:45:56","modified_gmt":"2013-04-24T18:45:56","slug":"iraqi-railroad-is-back-on-track","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/iraq\/iraqi-railroad-is-back-on-track\/","title":{"rendered":"Iraqi railroad is back on track"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><cite>Detroit News<\/cite> dated 14 June carries a report from Eric English\/Associated Press<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>After years of running railroads in Michigan, Richard Van Buskirk Jr. decided to take his expertise to Iraq and help with a dangerous mission.<\/p>\n<p>The 58-year-old East Tawas executive and Vietnam veteran spent the past year working as a consultant for the U.S. Department of State, helping Iraqis rebuild their national railway system.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Their railroad had been severely damaged when the country was taken over by coalition forces,&#8221; said Van Buskirk, who returned home in April. &#8220;We&#8217;re helping them glue back together the things we destroyed.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<br \/>\nIt was 12 months he&#8217;ll never forget.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll be honest with you, it was a great adventure,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Van Buskirk said he applied for the job in 2006 when he saw an Internet advertisement for a position as a railroad adviser in Iraq.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It sounded incredibly challenging, and it&#8217;s about doing the right thing,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They need our help over there and they need people with experience.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>While overseas, Van Buskirk said he was able to reopen 720 miles of rail lines to allow train shipments to resume.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<br \/>\nVan Buskirk said Iraq is rich in natural resources, and its railroad is modern and well built.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.detnews.com\/apps\/pbcs.dll\/article?AID=\/20070614\/NATION\/706140368\">More at the Detroit News website<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Detroit News dated 14 June carries a report from Eric English\/Associated Press After years of running railroads in Michigan, Richard Van Buskirk Jr. decided to take his expertise to Iraq and help with a dangerous mission. The 58-year-old East Tawas executive and Vietnam veteran spent the past year working as a consultant for the U.S. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/iraq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/iraq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/iraq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/iraq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/iraq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/iraq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2693,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/iraq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions\/2693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/iraq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/iraq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/iraq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}