Merry Christmas,
I hope this day finds you all doing well. Christmas Eve was a good day with another convoy completed without any incidents. After completing our convoy four of our soldiers received awards for their efforts with the Afghan Army during a six week mission in Wardak Province (which is southeast of Kabul) in July/August 2007. I finished the day by attending Mass, which was performed by Father Benedict who is stationed at Phoenix . After Mass I attended the Protestant Christmas service with those who I attend church with here. Both events made the evening festive and joyous.
Today we are having a lazy day watching Christmas movies and organizing items for a trip to the bases we will be deploying to. We ( U.S. and Afghan) will be leaving shortly to visit the units we will be relieving in order to learn more about our area of operation, responsibilities, and the lay of the land that we will be operating in.
December has been a busy month getting ready for the trip. The Afghans just finished celebrating the Muslim Holiday Eid al-Adha (the Festival of Sacrifice). The Afghan’s had officially four days off, but with travel and a different value system many are still returning. The official four days were used by the U.S. 2nd brigade to go to the rifle range and re-familiarize ourselves with our weapons, perform maintenance on vehicles and weapons, an refresh ourselves with medical, communication, and other basic skills.
I need to return emails to many of you. Once we return and the days return to a more normal pace I will catch up with all of you.
On Friday 2nd brigade had a Christmas party with its three Marine ETT (Embedded Training Team) teams, its Army ETT Combat Service Support team, and the 2nd Brigade staff. This was also a fun and festive event. Cristina brought to my attention that there was a Navy Corpsman with the Marines here at Blackhorse who grew up in Lilburn, went to St. Stephen (our parish), and his parents still attend St. Stephen. I met him at the party. His name is James Holbrock and he is with the 2/2/201st (2nd Kandack/2nd Brigade/201st Corps). What a small world.
People have sent me the two following inspirational writings. I will leave them with you. The first was composed by a Marine a few years ago. The second was written by Erma Bombeck and is for Cristina and my mom. After I have completed my tour here I will have only been away from my family and normal life for sixteen months – hardly a drop in the bucket in comparison to what many soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines have served. Most of the people I am working with have already completed two deployments to Iraq or Afghanistan . Some are on their third and forth deployments. The good things in this world, especially here in the United States, are the result of the countless ordinary people doing many amazing, often anonymously, things to make this world a better place. I find the following to be a good tribute to some of these folks who happen to now be in the spotlight for their efforts here in Afghanistan , Iraq , and around the world.
Attached is a picture of the 2/201st staff and some misc. pictures. On December 22 and 23 we had snow. As of last night the sky cleared and today it is clear and approaching fifty degrees.
Merry Christmas, and may 2008 be a joyful and prosperous year for all of you.
Peter
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