This is from a friend of mine...
.....
This is from my wife's older brother who has been in Afghanistan since last December. He is an officer in the Army Reserve. There are some grammar and spelling mistakes but I did not feel it was right to correct them. In the last paragraph where Pat talks about the mother and her son that was killed he is referring to Farenheit 9-11. He and some of the other soldiers there have now seen this movie and that was his reaction to it. I pray he makes it back safely.
The e-mail follows:
"I should be done here in about a month or so, then back in the states. I think that by early Sept I will be off active duty. It will be good to get home. Matt, I could not open the pics of your kids, due to the small band width of the connection we have. It is a portable internet system the size of a laptop that will work anywhere in the world, pretty cool. The down side is, it has a relatively small amount of band with, so large files (like pics) take too long to down load. I will save the e-mail, and check them out when I get access to a better connection. I am still in Northern Afghanistan. Mazar-E-Sharif is the city we are close to. We are just down the road from where Mike Spam was killed, if you remember he was the first American KIA in Afghanistan. He worked for the CIA. Remember when they found "Johnny Taliban" then that big revolt of prisoners in the Fort that was being used as a temporary prison camp. Anyway there is a marble monument to him, pretty cool, plus you can see where the Taliban prisoners were "holed up" in the basements of the building in the compound. We do patrols mostly, and buy needed supplies in town for the ANA, and nothing ever happens when we are around. I am tired of nothing, and wish for something, anyway be careful what you wish for right, lol. As all recipients may have noticed, this is kind of a blanket e-mail to relatives, so don't be offended that I am too lazy to write each and everyone a separate e-mail."
"I know one think in my heart and my bones, I am so lucky to be born an American, our beautiful country, educated people, work ethic, desire to do the right thing, our basic freedoms. I know it sounds corny, but till you experience complete opposite of what we have, only then can you really appreciate the wealth, freedom, , education, and open mindedness of America and Americans."
"I still believe what I am doing is just and right, and that training the ANA is one of the only hopes for a real future for Afghanis. Security MUST come first before you can have everything else, and the Officers and Soldiers of the ANA understand that. Next Friday we will be doing a live fire exercise with the ANA. Conducting a mock assault on a few deserted buildings out in the middle of the desert. I am the Operations officer, and I am making it as realistic as possible. Live 82mm mortar fire and Anti-Tank recoilless rifle fire on the objective, then our ANA Infantry will move up closer to the OBJ, and and set up another support by fire position with machine guns, and then close and assault the buildings. Anyway, it should be good training, and realistic. Which in my opinion, is the best way."
"If I got killed over here, (which I think highly unlikly), I would hate to think that my family would laminte my loss by condeming the very cause I died for, which I saw one mother who lost her son, and then became against the war. Instead of pride in her son and nation, she turned her back on the both. If I die here, then it will be trying to help a very poor people try and move into the twenty century, so their live will be better, while at the same time making America more secure from terrorist attack. Thats how I feel about it anyway."
Take care all.
Top
