European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 21, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse Of sgt. 1st class Robert Blevins and water system official Matt Blackburn disconnect a Hose from a bladder. A Soldier who flows with the Job not the publicity Twenty six year old spec. Daniel Meacha Hung his head and tipped his uniform Cap Down Low. A news team had just walked into his makeshift dining far As he was concerned reporters invaded his space. He hated the Media circus. He did t like being part of the show. He asked that his photo not be taken. Meacham had found a place out of the dust and away from the noise of generators and water pump ing machines. His dining table was a tin Box set be tween tents where hand washed uniforms Hung on ropes to dry. He sat on the Edge of a zairian sewage canal that wound its Way from the squalid City of Goma. It was a reminder that the Rainy season would come in a few weeks. The Media inhibits you. Can t get your Job done. Look what they did to those Guys in Somalia. Imag Ine How you d feel if you were one of those marines he said of the december 1992 Landing in Mogadishu. Meacham was with task Force 51 at the water purification site on the equatorial african Lake Kiyu. The task Force s Mission was to pump lifesaving water for the hundreds of thousands of dying Rwan Dan refugees who had fled to the Region. The july 25 arrival of Meacham s unit on the Edge of the Lake was not without its own carnival Atmo sphere according to reporters on the scene. Zaire soldiers billeted in a ramshackle Villa near by rushed at the americans the night they arrived and told them they could not Camp there. French Soldier and pal at Camp mum Mega. Colonels flushed m-16 Rifle bolts clicked and cameras flashed. In the end the americans stayed. They were pumping clean water out of the diseased Lake by 10 48 the next morning. Not 10 49 As earlier reported because one minute meant a life one task Force officer pointed out later. The soldiers were so Busy with the water project that they did not get around to raising the american Flag until the third Day. Goma Zaire was Meacham s third deployment in continued on Page 8 Hillside is a human being. Until one of them approached out of the crowd. Do you have a Job a teen age boy asked in the midst of the smoke and the dust. I need to have a Job to have a the 16-year-old said he wanted to be a radio broadcaster soms Day. He had Learned his English at school. Why did he go to Zaire everyone told me to come he answered. The Tutsi s will kill who was the first to Tell you the teen Ager answered after a Long silence. There was no first he said. As he spoke it began to rain. Large slow drops. The woman with the two babies unfastened her skirt. One child Hung to her in an animal skin. She tied the skirt up High to cover his head. Then she picked up the other by his Bare Bottom and covered him with her Scarf. A few Steps a Evjy the boy with the Bow watched As the lain turned his food to mud Effi Bathen Relief workers carry a dead child s body toward a mass grave in Goma. August 21,1994 sunday Page. 7
