Monday, November 01, 2004

I + H + Scary as Hell -- Update from Iraq

Forwarded message:
 

Hello everyone,
I hope this letter finds all of our families and friends in good health and spirits. We continue to conduct operations in the Mayhem Area of Operations with resounding success. The Marines are in harms way on a daily basis. They are doing a superb job finding the enemy prior to him finding us. Their success is causing the enemy to react hastily which makes them less effective.

With everything going on, most Marines don't like sitting back here and want to get out and hunt the enemy. Just the other day, one of our teams detained an Iraqi emplacing an IED. That was the first detainee of this sorts for the Battalion. The first question everyone asked is "why didn't you shoot him?" With all the machismo aside, the MST did everything exactly right by not harming the detainee and turning him over to the proper authorities who can gain more information from him. With that said, the Marines are staying busy and they don't have a whole lot of time to phone or email home. If you don't hear from them for a week or two it is because they are out disturbing our enemies sleep and operational patterns. We are living up to the name of Mad Ghosts.

If you want to get a Christmas package to your Marine, please mail it by November 15 in order to ensure it gets here in time. I think 2/24 is keeping the US Postal system in the black by the amount of letters, cards, and packages coming for our Marines. When the mail truck rolls up with our mail, there is never an issue of finding Marines for the working party. They look like children on Christmas morning. I appreciate all the support of the families and friends have provided to the Marines. Your efforts have enabled these great men to concentrate on the business at hand and not have to worry about what is going on at home.
Maj Porter


PS - Donna reports: "FYI: Thanks to all of you, some of the Marines have started calling Phil the "mail king.'"

Keep it up, y'all.


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