Tikrit-Kyiv-Parsippany connection brings news of U.S. Army doctor

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - To his family, relatives and friends, his wife and three children, his brother and sister, his fellow Siromantsi in the Plast fraternity, his fellow graduates of Newark's Ridna Shkola Class of 1982; his friends in El Paso, Texas, where he now lives, in New Jersey, where he was raised, and in Chicago, where he was born: Lt. Col. Roman Bilynsky is healthy and doing fine. Or, as he put it, he's "wonderful."

Lt. Col. Bilynsky is currently stationed in Tikrit, Iraq, one of the more searing "hot spots" on the globe, as part of the U.S.-led international stabilization force. He is an Army medical doctor with the 4th Forward Support Battalion, but is currently assigned to the I-22 Infantry Battalion. He has been in Iraq since July and, while he has not faced daily combat, he has seen his share of firepower.

"I've been shot at with mortar and with rocket-propelled grenades while part of a convoy," explained Lt. Col. Bilynsky. "Our base gets rocketed regularly," he added.

As a result, Lt. Col. Bilynsky doesn't get out much nowadays. He has, however, been to Kirkuk in the safer, northern, Kurdish area of Iraq. He said the city and the residents "are very nice."

The way The Ukrainian Weekly stumbled upon Lt. Col. Bilynsky - or more accurately, how he bumped into us - in desolate and dangerous Tikrit would make a worthwhile addition to any book written on unexpected circumstances and strange coincidences, especially for the chapter "What a small world."

Lt. Col. Bilynsky explained that, had he not agreed to replace a fellow doctor at one of Saddam Hussein's palaces in Tikrit, which U.S. troops often use as bases, he would never have met a photojournalist affiliated with The Weekly - a newspaper he has read since childhood - who put him in touch with the newspaper's Kyiv Bureau.

Already stationed at the palace in Tikrit at the time was Efrem Lukatsky, a photojournalist for the Associated Press in Kyiv and a regular photo contributor to The Weekly. The AP had sent Mr. Lukatsky to Tikrit on assignment only a few days earlier. He was staying at the palace and hanging out on a balcony with fellow journalists the day Lt. Col. Bilynsky was taken on a tour after having recently arrived.

Mr. Lukatsky was introduced to the Ukrainian American lieutenant colonel as a journalist from Kyiv and as happens when two Ukrainians get together, they began throwing out names of people whom they might both know. The rest, as they say, is a paean to the hi-tech age.

During a short telephone conversation via cell phone between Kyiv (i.e., this correspondent) and Tikrit, the 39-year-old career officer had but one gripe: the extreme weather during his four-month stay in the combat zone. He said that in July and August temperatures hovered at 130 degrees Fahrenheit, but noted with relief that the weather had finally cooled off and was now a much more reasonable 70 degrees during the day and around 50 degrees at night.

Lt. Col. Bilynsky said he had not met any other Ukrainian Americans during his time in Iraq, but knew for a fact that others had been assigned to the combat zone, including the Rev. Ivan Kaszczak, a former Plast chaplain from New York.

Asked how he felt about serving in Iraq, his first tour in combat, Lt. Col. Bilynsky answered quite professionally: "It comes with the job."

The Ukrainian American asked us to convey warm greetings to his wife, Tamara; his children, Lesia, Maria and Dmytro; his brother, Paul; his sister, Lydia; and everybody else who might like to hear from him. He threw in a greeting to Martha Lysko, a longtime family friend and the first vice-president of the Ukrainian National Association, The Weekly's publisher.

Lt. Col. Bilynsky said he plans to be home in February or March. That ruled out having Thanksgiving turkey or Christmas kutia with his family this year, but left hope that on Easter they would decorate pysanky and eat paska together.

Good luck, Lt. Col. Bilynsky, and Gods speed!

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, November 30, 2003, No. 48, Vol. LXXI

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