When all hell was about to break loose in Iraq, Capt. Mansfield was called up to active duty. Suddenly, he went from sitting behind the anchor desk at Akron’s WVPX (Channel 23) to fighting a war...Nearly a year later, Mansfield is home. He’s in the midst of a two-week R&R stint that will last through New Year’s Day.

Mansfield had to spend his own money -- $1,200 round trip -- and fly for 24 consecutive hours, across eight time zones. But he considers that a small price to pay to spend the holidays with his family... he is amazed at some of the stories the media are missing.

Those stories are falling through the cracks, he implies, because most reporters would rather sit around at base camps and use material supplied by the military instead of venturing into the dangerous desert. The biggest story we’re not getting, he says, is the huge number of successes the U.S. military has enjoyed in foiling terrorists. ``We had a small ship try to ram one of our cargo ships right before I left. If it had hit and blown us up like the USS Cole, then it would have made news. But our guys were alert enough and shot the thing 75 meters off the bow. I didn’t see anything (in the news). ``We’ve got this terrorist stuff every day. We’re stopping package bombs, car bombs, people with bombs strapped to them. We’re taking caches of weapons away from people. Is it just me, or isn’t that news anymore?’’

Another story flying under the media’s radar is a technological breakthrough. ``We have this new, fancy technology called a Warlock system. Without telling you how it works, it basically knocks out the systems of the bad guys so they can’t detonate anything when we come by. We’re just now putting them into trucks. That’s a great story!’’

Some of us have heard about something like that. We probably don't want the Bad Guys to notice, though...

Another untold story, he says, is terrorists’ targeting of female soldiers. ``They want to kidnap female soldiers for the shock value of it. (Non-American) females over there don’t speak. When (Iraqis) see a female soldier, they are absolutely in shock.’’