Good News!

Today we woke up bright and early to prepare for tonight's concrete pour.  While we were preparing the tools we'd need for another successful pour we received a message saying that some of our company leadership were coming out here...and bringing mail!

We were all dismissed for lunch but chose to wait for the convoy to arrive so that we could see if any of received anything.  We didn't have long to wait before a line of MRAPs arrived along with a tractor pulling a trailer with a skreeter (sp?) for our concrete.  On the back of the trailer was a large container, which we were told had all of our mail.  Some of the troops had as many as four packages waiting for them, and then there was a large bag of letters and post cards, as well!

I was very happy to receive two packages, two post cards, and one letter.  The first package was from my girlfriend who very thoughtfully sent me some detergent to wash my uniforms in.  It's odd that detergent isn't one of the things that you can buy at most of the AAFES PXs that we've encountered during our stay in this country. She also sent me some correspondence, which I've already read and re-read.  The other package was from a retired Marine Captain which contains some really useful information for our stay over here, and I'm very excited to go through it all - thank you, Davis!  My friend Melissa sent me two postcards with scenes from Florida on them - it's hard to imagine so much green vegetation and water in any one place after being here for a few months.  I also received a letter from a family friend offering well-wishes and prayers, and it was wonderful to receive it - my thanks to all of the Roeder family back home; just seeing the name on the return address before opening it brought back all sorts of fond memories of service projects with Bubba, and days spent at youth group with Maggie and Eileen.

I've heard through little birds that our CO has been working days on end often without sleep  making sure that all of us are taken care of, and that the SSI-FWTS patches are a priority.  It probably isn't something that he hears enough of, but thank you for doing your best to take care of us all, Sir.  When you showed me the tattoo on your bicep of your rank as an NCO before going mustang and said that it was a reminder to never forget where you were before going green to gold, that meant a lot to me, and we're lucky to have an officer of your caliber.

It was a huge morale boost to receive mail after weeks without, and though we're all a bit skeptical of pouring concrete on ground that isn't yet totally dry tonight, we're all in much higher hopes than we were.

On separate note on this blog, I've now enabled comments from people who don't have google or Open ID accounts - I figure this is a much better way to hear from more of you.  More later, as always.