Active Unit News

What our families are hearing:
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


What Our Families Are Hearing from Their Soldiers in Iraq:
1) Received my first phone call from my son who is with HHC of 1-8 Infantry 3BCT 4!D out of Fort Carson, CO. He is well. They are near Samara. Morale is good.....packages are greatly appreciated!!! I was so happy to hear his voice that I couldn't say much except I love you and we are all so very proud of you! What an amazing thing to hear his voice after so long. I will never take the telephone for granted again!! God Bless all our service men and women........
2) I got a phone call from my husband today (JUNE 15 6:30 CST) He is with 4TH ID 1-4 AVIATION REGT. B-CO in Balad.I greeted him with Happy father's day & it is so funny he did not know what date it is so he did not know that it is Father's day. Anyway overall they are okay. He did not ask for any stuff besides a DVD player. He said that they were all busy all the time because he is a longbow helicopter mechanic and has to fix the helicopter after their missions.
3) To the mother who heard from her son (4th ID, 1-22 soldier in Mosul): My soldier (1-22) is currently in Mosul also. I was so glad to see your message. It feels a little closer to home when there's specific information regarding a particular troop, their whereabouts, etc. I got a call last night, got to talk for almost 45 minutes! It was nice to hear his voice again (it had been a long while)! He indicated there are very few (about 30) soldiers left in Mosul. He said they are still dealing with some action/fighting, mostly at night. They are talking October - for a time frame of returning home. Take care and God Bless Our Soldiers!
4) Also heard from my son who is with the 4ID 1-68Armor C company, also tank mechanic, Tuz is the place! He also commented on the heat. Says they are involved in sentry work checking cars and vehicles at check points, lots of different types of insects he is not used to Scorpions, camel spiders. Doesn't think he will be home till October, but only speculation. Still needing Babywipes and cigarettes. Otherwise all is well, just extremely hot.
5) Ed Note: Got two answers to my question in yesterday's update): MWR is Morale, Welfare, and Recreation. (My husband is retired Air Force . . . ours switched to Services Squadron a few years back, but I still remember when it was MWR). And the other response was simply, "Morale Welfare Recreation" - so now we know.

6) ) My son is a 24 yr old helicopter mechanic with the A CO 1-4 AVN REGT - Longbow Apache unit from Ft. Hood. They are based in Tikrit. I have received sporadic mail from him. The latest one received was dated May 11th to his sister. He has called 3 times - the latest last Thursday. He has access to email and has been writing letters each day, then saving to disk to email to me. Some of these are 4 to 5 pages long. Along with this his 1SG has begun a newsletter of sorts to let us know how things are going over there. His biggest complaint is the flies-says they are mutants (Xmen fan). A fly trap company has sent them 2 cases of traps (took 9 days to get them-fast). These traps begin to smell after a few days or as my son says: They REEK! but they help. He has received all of the packages that I have sent and they get to him in about 2 weeks time. The last package contained kites (purchased at Wally World for 15 cents each) and he flew his so high that he had to be told to bring it down some to get it out of the helicopter flight line. He requested a new cheap DVD player and a memory stick as his laptop DVD is dead and now his A drive is acting up too. Sand and dirt are not good on these items. I have sent a few cans of compressed air which are in high demand. He also has requested more oatmeal, raisins (for the oatmeal), squeeze pudding (which he says is heaven for a chocoholic), squeeze jelly (peanut butter is in the MRE's and the mini packs of jelly are not enough for the peanut butter), drink mixes and reading material. I also send cereal (1SG really loves cereal), powdered milk, Ouick chocolate mix, brownies, empty jugs to mix the drink and milk mixes, soft toilet paper,cereal bars, chips and dip, and soups. Also seasonings like garlic powder,Cajun seasoning mix ( I contacted this company also and they are sending a case) and ketchup. He says these help with the MRE's which they eat twice a day and 1 hot meal. When he emails me a letter I reply to it and answer all his questions and my responses or questions in a different color font within his letter. This he said really works great and he now does the same thing to my emails. He hopefully will be home by August to ETS out. Then he will begin his next life goals (which this war has put on hold for a little while) of college and becoming a history teacher. At least he will be able to tell his students some real history!! God Bless our Troops.
7) My soldier (didn't say if it was husband or son) called from Iraq. He is in 401st MP unit out of Fort Hood. He called at 1:30 A.M. Said he got a five minute morale call. Said he was okay,(told me to stop crying so he could understand me) whew...talk about tears of joy and relief... He has received only five letters and no packages but said they were working on getting the mail delivered quicker. Said they got a big shipment from different sources so all he needed was paper, envelopes, pens and stamps. No Problem! He said if you did write to please enclose a stamped (two stamps) self addressed envelope and paper, 'cause it was expensive and hard to buy over there. He said living quarters were not too bad, but everything was and is covered with sand and it is very very hot. His time was around 10:00 AM and the temp was 105. He did say the solider that lost his life on June 6th was his friend and that was hard, but that he has not been in any danger, said he sticks close to the base. WOW ! It was sooooooo good to hear his voice! Two pictures and a phone call in one week! We are blessed!! Thanks to all of you for all of your prayers and support and for writing to him and helping to keep his morale up.. (Of course he did say several times that he was so ready to come home)... He said all is okay. Hot Hot hot and dusty and he is ready to come home! Said they had plenty of supplies.
8) Got a 25 minute call from our son with 4th ID 104th MI from Tikrit. He's actually been doing his job again with the lastest action in the area. He had just been pulling guard duty and escorting officers to surrounding towns. Now they are pulling 12 hour shifts, every other day. They are not in the main palace, but one of the smaller palaces. He and 5 others share a very small, but air-cond. room (ac most of the time). They have not had running water for 4 days, but hope to have it up again soon. Are getting at least one hot meal a day (evening) and sometimes breakfast...MRE's the rest of the time. Share their room with 2 lizards which they appreciate, because they eat the flies and mosquitos. He sounded tired, but upbeat and in good spirits. He is still being told that they could be there until next March or April, but is hoping that is worst case senerio.
9) I'm over here in Iraq and my parents have been sending me your updates. If possible, I'd appreciate it if you could add three addresses to your distro: my husband, my boss, and me. It's often hard to get good info here because we don't have television right now and we don't have time to search online for articles. Your updates are great cause they fill in some of the holes in our information. We are a combat support hospital (21st CSH), and we see many of the casualties the papers talk about. Thanks for all you're doing.
10) This isn't necessarily newsworthy for others, but I wanted you to be aware of something that is happening in Omaha. The College World Series (CWS) has kicked off with it's usual fun and flair. The CWS is close to my family's heart... most important to my father-in-law Dennie Poppe. The purpose of this email is to let you know that on opening day, the head groundskeeper called Dennie out on the field (not an unusal event in itself...) and each grounds crew member was/is proudly wearing a 4ID patch on their uniform... not just for my husband Carl, but for all 4ID soldiers. They are thought about, prayed over, missed every day... And here is an article from the Omaha paper:
Not all is right with the CWS for Carl Poppe, NCAA Director of Championships, this year. Something's missing. Someone. His son, Carl, is away from only his second CWS for a very good reason: He's a captain in the 4th Infantry Division in Iraq, stationed north of Baghdad. "I have no idea where he is now or what he's doing," Poppe said. "We've only received one letter from him since he's been there. Unfortunately, he just lost a soldier, a sergeant, who was killed in a sniper attack. "This was always our one-on-one time. I remember when he first started coming here, when he was 15 years old, he worked all sorts of odd jobs. We had him out there on that old roof of the press box. His job was to look for tornadoes. I remember he said to me, 'You're kidding me, right?' "I know he'd rather be back here, looking for tornadoes, than doing what he's doing over there. It reminds you how we take something like this for granted."

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