Question for the New York Times: Who Saw the War?

In the August 19 Editorial, The War as We Saw It, The New York Times publishes the viewpoints of seven soldiers from the 82nd Airborne. Their outlook is as grim as their apparent dedication to duty is strong.

However, I can't find this group of soldiers anywhere on the innernets. Maybe these guys really are soldiers with the 82nd and have elected to keep a low profile out here in cyberspace (unlike the Baghdad Fabulist, Scott Beauchamp). Maybe the NYT, anticipating that right-leaning bloggers might do a little fact-checking and investigate who these soldiers might be, warned the authors to get their heads down in advance of the inevitable scrutiny.

My weak google skills have turned up two matches to the names of the authors. The first is SGT Wesley D. Smith, who military.com says could be a 52 Bravo (Mechanic). The other is Edward Sandmeier, who turns up in old news reports (circa 2003) as a mortuary services specialist. Granted, career paths change and soldiers' original MOS are rarely the same they're discharged with.

It just seems odd to me that of the seven, none turn up as combat troops on military.com and only two actually google out to be soldiers at all.