Some journalists dismiss them as press releases. Others describe them as canned news, geared for hometown newspapers and post gazettes, written through the prism of the Department of Defense.

I see them as wartime dispatches, assembled not by civilian journalists but from the unique perspective of military personnel.

Every day I get five to 10 such dispatches, e-mailed via nearby Fort Hood but written from cities and countrysides in Iraq, usually concerning men and women charged with securing a volatile nation-in-the-making.

These dispatches mirror the everyday triumphs I’ve heard personally from National Guard personnel and Fort Hood soldiers returning from Iraq, many in the 4th Infantry and 1st Cavalry divisions. The two divisions have carried much of the burden in Iraq.

In times of war, Thanksgiving has been an occasion to focus on our armed forces and their accomplishments, trials and joys in faraway lands. Here then are a few excerpts from dispatches received recently.

* With help from U.S. soldiers in the Multi-National Division in Baghdad, Iraqi soldiers presided over the reopening of the iconic Al Aima Bridge, closed since 2005 after a stampede sparked by rumors of a suicide bombing attack left nearly 1,000 Shiite pilgrims dead.

“The opening of this bridge is symbolic of the unity in Baghdad,” Army Lt. Col. John Vermeesch said. “Opening the bridge also indicates sectarian relations and security have improved due to the hard work of local leaders and Coalition forces.”

The bridge links the Sunni district of Adhamiyah with the Shiite district of Kadhimiyah. Highlights of the day: music by an Iraqi army band and a ceremonial sheep sacrifice.

* Baghdad-based Iraqi security forces got paid, on time, by their own government for the first time this month. The transition from getting pay from the United States to getting it from the Iraqi government was marked by some anxiety.

“When the transformation from the Coalition to the government of Iraq took place, we thought we would never get paid after that,” Abdul Hadi Fathallah Mahidi said.

Before the war, Mahidi supported his wife and children as an auto mechanic. He lost his job in the war, then joined the 26,327-member neighborhood security group, Sons of Iraq.

“There were no jobs because of the violence,” he said. “This was a good opportunity to get rid of the bad guys, to make security for the area and to find a job.”

Soldiers from the 4th Infantry watched over the transaction, double-checking to see that their former charges were properly paid.

* Soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division remembered Maj. Mark Rosenberg by naming a new dining facility for him.

Rosenberg, a native of Fort Carson, Colo., was chief of a military transition team with the Iraqi Army’s 11th Division when an explosive device struck his vehicle last spring.

Among those paying tribute: a man identified only as “Eminem,” Rosenberg’s interpreter, who lost a leg in the explosion. Rosenberg was Jewish, Eminem is a Sunni Muslim.

“He (Rosenberg) tried to do his best, and he respected the Muslims,” his interpreter said. “He was a very good man. He had a big, big heart.”

* Army Sgt. Lori Cortner, of Portland, Ore., and Sgt. Joshua Klassen, of Pocatello, Idaho, both assigned to the 18th Military Police Brigade, exchanged name tags and wedding vows before comrades and the unit chaplain.

Col. Mark Spindler, brigade commander, walked the bride down the aisle — in this case, the motor pool.

The couple was actually wed through what’s known as a double-proxy marriage, performed if one or both participants can’t be on hand for the legal ceremony back home. In this case, Sgt. Klassen’s parents stood in for both bride and groom at a courthouse in Montana while the couple served their final weeks in Iraq.

“We were in a hurry to get married so that we could make sure we stayed together when we redeployed in the upcoming weeks,” Sgt. Klassen said.

So it goes. Amid routine news reports of political dissension and violence in Iraq, mere tales of love, accord and war with dashes of patriotism and pride tossed in.

Bill Whitaker’s column appears Fridays. E-mail: bwhitaker@wacotrib.com.