Active Unit News

What Our Families Are Hearing From their Soldiers:
Bob Babcock - "Deeds not Words"
President, Americans Remembered, Inc. - http://www.americansremembered.org
President, 22nd Inf Regt Society - http://www.22ndinfantry.org
Past President/Historian - Nat'l 4th Inf Div Assn - http://www.4thinfantry.org
babcock224@aol.com

1) Task Force 1-66 continues to conduct Stability and Support Operations in and around the town of Samarra, Iraq. The town is in good shape, relative to other towns and cities in Iraq. The only major casualty of the war was the town's telephone switch building, which was destroyed by a JDAM bomb (as a testament to the technology with which the air war was fought, the buildings immediately surrounding the telephone building are almost completely unscathed). Looting was Samarra's biggest problem, and even that wasn't on scale with what we saw in Mosul. Aggressor (Company A), Condor (Company C), and the Scouts are with the Battalion Headquarters element in our compound, which is an abandoned Iraqi military post. Bandit (Company B) is located in a chicken farm just south of town, and doesn't enjoy many of the luxuries of the Battalion HQ. The mortars and part of the Fire Support Element (the Company FiST teams were returned to 4-42 FA) are operating out of the Civil Military Operations Center (CMOC, a renamed RIC). We've had 4th Platoon of the 401st Military Police Company attached to us, and they also operate out of the CMOC. The MP platoon is hard at work trying to get the local police established in town, conducting joint patrols and arming them with weapons confiscated from local civilians. In general, our quality of life is greatly improved from our first month here. Mail is starting to flow more quickly, and the CMOC and Battalion Headquarters compound both have running water and electricity. Bandit's area is much more sparse, but they will switch back and forth with Aggressor. The heat is sometimes debilitating, but there is an ice factory across the road that delivers blocks of ice every morning for the entire Task Force (even Bandit). The commo section worked through some issues and got our TV and telephone working again. The telephone is still not a sure thing, and very few soldiers have been able to get through to home. Brigade is still our only source for the internet. We have several personnel changes coming up at the end of the month.....(omitted) There is more information forthcoming from Division and Brigade in regards to the lifting of Stop-Move and Stop-Loss. The important thing to remember is that the lifting of stop-move and stop-loss does NOT necessarily mean that soldiers who were on PCS (Permanent Change of Station) orders prior to deployment, or were preparing to ETS (Estimated Time of Separation), will be coming home immediately. We'll get the details out on that as they become available.
2) I just wanted to give an update. My husband is with the 3/29 FA out of Fort Carson. He called me yesterday at 4pm our time, which was 2am his time. He sounded in great spirits. He said he is getting my letters slowly. He has gotten 4 packages out of the 8 I have sent. He told me to just hang tight on the mail situation. He said he has mailed 10 letters, that the commanders there are working very hard to try to get the mail problems solved. He also made a comment that if I could please send him some deodorant that is scentless. He said that the scented kind is attracting bugs bad. He didn't say much as to what he was doing as we were just trying to get caught up with everything. But he did say that things are going well.
3) My understanding of the phone cards is they should be AT&T, you can buy them online at a special military rate. Also can be obtained at Sam's Wholesale Club. At both places minutes can be added on at any time. This is site for AT&T, I notice Iraq is not listed but I have been told by several people this is what they use. http://www.usa.att.com/military/resources/camp.jsp My grandson's wife replaces his minutes at Sam's. (I can not verify the accuracy of this - am just passing on what one of our family members told me, I assume it is accurate).
4) I just want to let you know I have heard from my son. No letters for 4 weeks, but better yet a phone call at ll:00 am est time, on Sat May 24th. He is somewhere on the Iran/Iraq border and that was their first time in town. He sounded really up beat and said he was sure glad to finally hear a voice from home. He is enjoying his packages and letters. Oh, he said let everyone know nothing with chocolate, is 130 degrees there.(smile) (Ed Note: Before you parents and wives take this too seriously, remember that we soldiers have been known to exaggerate at times. I remember saying it was 130 when I landed in Vietnam in August 1966 but never had a thermometer to prove it - probably just seemed that hot at that point in time).
5) Thank you so much for doing this, it seems like a lot of work but you are putting light back in the hearts of countless families by compiling this information and distributing it to all of us. I am an FRG leader for the recon troop in the 1BCT, and I personally forward your emails to about 100 families and friends on our troop's email list. Here are some of the things I've heard from our families and friends: Wife of SGT in G Trp 1BCT said she received an email last week from her husband, who said mail getting to them is taking about 10 days, packages about 2 weeks. Wonderful! Received an email from my husband who is the commander of the troop Ed Timms is embedded with, Mr. Timms flies out on 30 May. Very sad, but maybe we can convince him to pay us a visit here at Ft. Hood and share some war stories? It is not fully his choice, the Dallas Morning News has chosen to return him and may not replace him in Tikrit. (Ed Note: In the absence of embedded reporters, we'll just pass out information we hear from our soldiers among ourselves - keep sending it to me and I'll keep forwarding it in these updates). From various wives, the letters and emails they've received their husbands ask for Army t-shirts and socks, drink mixes, razors, baby wipes (of course), junk food.
6) Finally heard from my son with the 3/66, 4th ID. The letter was dated May 1, postmarked May 14 and received on May 27. He said they understood that there was a conex box in Kuwait with mail and packages for the unit, but no way to get it north (at that time he was near Baiji, but have news that they are in Mosul now). First Sgt was going that day to Kuwait to get box moving north. He had not received any packages - only 1 letter from me, his Mom. Then last night we had an email from a military address from my son. He was needing his college transcripts emailed to another military address immediately so he could get promoted to Sgt. Really thought the military had that information in his military records, but we accomplished the mission last night. He said it was impossible for us to email to him at the address he was emaling from, so now we wait for news of promotion and his whereabouts. 7) Thanks for the update about mail - with our guys still facing hostilities, it seems like the least we can do to get support, news and chapstick to our kids. It makes me crazy that we can drop a bomb on Saddam's dessert plate, but can't get mail to easily identified brigades. Perhaps we should laser target a drop site and airdrop the mail, attach it to deactivated smart bombs with parachutes....we are too smart for this to be a problem......we do hi-tech well and fail at lo-tech? grrrrrrr No reply necessary, I'm letting off steam. Thanks for the other news. Grumpy Mom (Always good to let off steam, and this one brought a smile to my face).
8) As far as mail - I got two letters back on May 1 and 2 and that is all I have gotten, no emails no phone calls etc. But from what I hear from other wives that have seen my husband he is soooo stinking busy. They are in Tikrit - and there are only 12 Arabic Speaking soliders there and he is one of them. All the other MI soliders are Russian. SO I know he is busy but I did hear that he was walking around camp eating a bag of M&M'S! So he is getting our packages. Thanks.

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