do you get Bob on the FOB weekly ?

Thank you for taking care of us over there and kick some butt while there,and take care of all those other guys to.

We are so proud and thankful that you are there. Keep us posted as you know the news is full of media hounds. hahaha Our prayers are with you. Come home soon and see those twins.

Thanks for all you do Bro.

It rarely ceases to amaze about the consistency and continuity of warfare. Newer munitions & technologies, and now you have a drone overhead that will permit your battalion commander to second-guess your every command, while refusing to recognize that he has not been out there as a LT or CPT for a long time, usually an amount of time that exceeds their ability to remember, or at least to remember accurately. That part was truly better in Vietnam. Oh, and this technology now makes it mandatory that you ask a REMF Jag officer if it is legal to shoot back at the nice man in the silly hat who is providing cover fire for this guy that is burying something that looks exactly like an old Soviet (in my war it was an "old French")anti-tank/personnel, whatever, mine on the side of the road with a neat new command detonator attached. My personal wager would be if you took those Jag officers out of the rear and converted them to "hood ornaments" on an MRAP or HUMMER their definitions and decisions as to the Rules of Warfare might be altered somewhat. If that doesn't work perhaps we can make door gunners on MEDIVAC (oops, they probably won't let those poor guys in the UH-60Q's have armament, but that could change too if they were forced to look at, and assist in the medical treatment of the officers and soldiers whose requests for firing authority were "denied in the interests of the safety of the civilian populace in the ..." and perhaps had to help the medic explain to the soldier who had just suffered a BTK traumatic amputation of 1 or both of his legs that it was worth it because he had been so careful to ensure that the soldier did not violate any Rule of Warfare (thst the soldier or LT/CPT may no longer be able to read since he may have been blinded as well) when the naughty little IED that the nice civilian man in the strange hat was placing on the side of the roadway under the protection of that other nice civilian who was shooting at the troops just to keep them away during the arming of the device, which was the most dangerous part of the emplacement of an IED combat (oops, that other nasty word that starts with a "C" but isn't "civilian") operation. The shapes of the funny hats has changed, black pajamas are now something else, but it is still as difficult to identify friendly [if that term is ever applicable, I should have said "less than hostile" (LTH)] populace. LT's & CPT's do not receive enough, if any language training to communicate with the indigenous populations in their own language and thus must (once again, only this time the language and dialect are different from Vietnamese, Laotian or Cambodian but the principle is the same, how many company commanders or platoon leaders have been trained to any level in Arabic, Pashtu or Dhari so that they can at least partially understand the plans and veracity of the translations provided by the locally contracted LTH personnel) remain totally dependent upon those folks to help them decide as to whether or not it is the time of day when the village, hamlet or whatever when the inhabitants or "the enemy" or it is still daylight so that they must at least put on the airs of being LTH's. God bless and keep you, my fellow soldier, regardless of rank, or MOS (as long as it is one of the Combat or Combat Support & not Jag Officer though they should be blessed despitie the fact that their safer locations reduce the need for protection from Him) and despite what "hits" that you may take enforcing our foreign policy and being directed by a CINC, our POTUS with no military experience, except for making sure that the USAF 767 that will take his wife and children on their junkets to Europe, Africa, etc. has a properly trained crew an open-ended, unrestricted fuel cards to that they can buy enough fuel (@taxpayer's expense) to fly them wherever they want to go. In the end, as with warfare, the faces of the individuals who design and implement strategies, and those who have never been tactical now control the tactics and response of our front-line soldiers will change but the rest of warfare will remain the same. At least this time you will be Welcomed Home rather than defiled and disrespected by those whom you serve to keep safe. I used to really hate pacifists and their music, but I am now beginning to understand the "Universal Soldier" and that unfortunately we may have arrived at a time in place in the world in which "freedom means nothing left to lose". In the end, thank you for continuing the process that we simply continued as well, ad infinitum. I do not mean to sound negative, at least in relation to what you are doing where you serve honorably, it is just a reflection of some "letters home" from others. Stay safe while you are there, keep your "short-timer's calendar up to date and carefully look forward to your DEROS.

the truk company want to do best,I know I haven't been around causing havoc in the political forums for a while. It's mainly due to me currently being deployed to Afghanistan. So I'm here to pass on a little bit of insider info in case you aren't keeping track at home

Thanks for keeping us safe.