LEtters from the Fallen

[John Adams]

Newsweek ran a story this week that features letters from fallen soldiers. It's broken into several chapters of the Iraq war. At the end are some of the actual handwritten notes that soldiers wrote to loved ones in case they died.

 

In some ways, it's easy journalism to know how rivetting these letters are. But still, they are all a must read. They don't change my mind one way or the other about how I feel about Iraq. They do, however, make me thankful for the men and women who have served and still do.

 

 

The below link has all the letters, including the handwritten ones. If you can read them with a dry eye--especially the handwritten ones--you're unlike me.

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17773304/site/newsweek/

[John Adams]

Army Maj. Michael Mundell

Sept. 1, Fallujah

 

The question has been asked, by many of you, what [this place]is like. Try to imagine this: If you go out in your front yard, take a weapon with you and stare REAL careful at all the neighbors' houses. One of them may be on the roof, trying to snipe you. Also, don't stay out too long—someone down the road just might lob a few mortars at you, or drive by and fire some machine guns, or perhaps shoot an RPG rocket. So, if you are outside, be armed and know where the closest cover is—all the time. If you get in your car to go to the grocery, you can never ever go by yourself—you gotta have at least two cars and at least three people in each one. And make sure that at least one of your passengers is a medic. [ ... ]

 

The very second you leave the driveway, everything that is not immediately recognizable is dangerous. Is that a trash bag? An empty box? Or is it a command-detonated bomb. [ ... ] Never let any other car get close to you—EVER. Check them out closely. Is it another grocery-bound traveler? Or a car bomb. Maybe they have a machine gun sticking out the back. If they get too close, wave a flag at them, shoot a flare at them, honk the horn and blink your lights. If they don't move, or keep driving at you, you kill them. Period. Because if none of that works, they are certainly going to try to kill you. That is what it's like here.

 

In September, as sectarian killings continued to mount, thousands of troops were sent to Baghdad in one more failed attempt to quell the violence. Among them were the members of the 172nd Stryker Brigade, whose tours were abruptly extended.