9 Wed 09-hi how are you?

I’m sorry that I don’t update our blog more often. When I’m out on the road it takes a while to get caught up again on e-mails and letters. I spent a few days last week up in Adder (Tallil) doing inventories, transferring some property, and helping with container management. FYI – Containers are either a 20’ or 40’ long box that looks like a semi trailer without wheels. With the U.S. downsizing we are working longer hours moving equipment to where it’s needed, or sending it back to port, hopefully to be used in Afghanistan.

Those of you that have sent us boxes of goodies over here should know some of us are putting on the weight we lost. A friend of mine and his wife sent us some rice crispy bars with chocolate. I vowed I would only eat one a day, and then amended it to two a day, and then it was one at a time. The next thing I knew the bars were gone. I suspect that Jacki came back here and ate some of them in my absence. Then there was Harry’s homemade sweets, again Jacki made like a magician and made them disappear!

Last night Jacki and I decorated a Christmas tree in my room that my friends from Camp Ripley sent me. I wouldn’t be surprised if the local reporters don’t come knocking on my door tonight trying to get a picture of it. We worked nonstop putting the decorations on the seedling (I meant tree). It was fun while it lasted and time with my daughter is one of those treasures here that I cherish the most!

Most of you that really know me, would know that I don’t complain much. Last week I moved out of my CHU (Containerized Housing Unit) with indoor plumbing to the plywood palaces. Knowing me you know that my hearing leaves something to be desired and on more than one occasion people have to repeat things. My new roommate snored so bad on the first night that I finally snapped and asked him to roll over. Trust me when I say it didn’t make a difference. I turned the AC on in hopes that the white noise would drown him out. That didn’t work either! The next night he fell asleep right after watching a movie and was louder than a washing machine with an unbalanced load. I tried my ear plugs with a pillow on one side and a pillow on the other side of my head. The only thing that got me was wet hair in the morning from sweating. I feel for him but my own health was at stake. Three nights of sawing wood, crashing trees and the furniture moving inside of the CHU was enough.

Your probably wondering why did I move and not him? Well I’ll tell you I have less than 60 days and he has over 8 months left here. The choice was easy partially because my tote and two duffle bags had already been loaded into a container for the trip home. The other reason was it was the right thing to do in my eyes. Face it I’m down to the bare essentials now (Pictures, Books, and my Crocs).

The next morning I sub leased a room on the other side of the tracks. The room is sectioned off by plywood walls and the door allows the water in from the recent rain. It didn’t matter about the indoor pool, I was in heaven!

For those of you that believe the desert is dry you have another thing coming. The last few months they have spread gravel out here probably 6-8 inches deep. After walking back and forth through it you felt as if you ran a marathon. There was the usual soldier grumbling about why the gravel had to be so thick. Even the locals made fun of the preparation for rain. In years past the elders that I deal with would tell you that if you got over the metric equivalent of an inch it was a miracle. Let me just say that there is an unseasonable amount of rain that has come down the last few weeks. I’m not a weatherman but the ditches are almost full, and the mud is slowly covering the sinking gravel. Like any soldier were now complaining about the lack of gravel and the mud that were tracking into our living quarters. Trust me when I say with my new room I have to get up in the middle of the night and head down the road outside to get to my bathroom. In the mud I am so thankful for my crocs, instead of being cursed with flip flops!

Pictures for Susan to post will be sent home soon. I have more to share with you of my adventure for now let me leave you with this story. I love this story, I must be getting soft in my old age?

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,

I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.

My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,

my daughter beside me, angelic in rest.

Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,

transforming the yard to a winter delight.

The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,

completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.

My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,

Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.

In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,

So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,

But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.

Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know,

Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.

My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,

And I crept to the door just to see who was near.

Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,

A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.

A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,

Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.

Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,

standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,

"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!

Put down your backpack; brush the snow from your sleeve,

You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"

For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,

away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts.

To the window that danced with a warm fire's light

Then he sighed and he said "It’s really all right,

I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."

"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,

That separates you from the darkest of times.

No one had to ask or beg or implore me,

I'm proud to stand here like my father’s before me.

My Gramps died at 'Pearl on a day in December,"

Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."

My dad stood his watch in the jungles of 'Nam',

And now it is my turn and so, here I am.

I've not seen my own son in more than a while,

But my wife sends me pictures; he's sure got her smile.

Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,

The red, white, and blue... an American flag.

I can live through the cold and the being alone,

away from my family, my house and my home.

I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,

I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.

I can carry the weight of killing another,

Or lay down my life with my sister and brother.

Who stand at the front against any and all,

To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."

"So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,

Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."

"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,

"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?

It seems all too little for all that you've done,

for being away from your wife and your son."

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,

"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.

To fight for our rights back home while we're gone,

to stand your own watch, no matter how long.

For when we come home, either standing or dead,

To know you remember we fought and we bled.

Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,

That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."

That is all,

Dave