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 Our Soldiers in Iraq:
1) From the CO's wife of 1-67 Armor at Fort Hood, TX to FRG members (Ed Note: for those who don't know, FRG is Family Readiness Group):
Hope all of you are doing well. I know many of you have been receiving calls from wives concerned about two soldiers that were injured in an attack on a Humvee. They are in fact from 3-67 and in Alpha company. One is not married and has called his parents and the other's wife is also deployed to Iraq and has been notified. They are both expected to make a full recovery and are doing fine. So you can assure your wives and concerned parents that their husband/son were not involved in this incident. Also, our Battalion satellite phone is broken, but they are working to repair it. They hope to have email by next week - it will be the same situation as with the phone - everyone will need to take turns, but should be a faster way to send a message to husbands than regular mail. Headquarters and Alpha Co are in an abandoned airfield - engineers are attempting to install wiring for air conditioning. Hopefully they will be successful and our guys will be a lot cooler soon. The rest of the Battalion is very spread out - Bravo is still with the MEK and Charlie is still sitting in the desert - they all remain in the general area of Baqubah.
2) Just wanted to update you that I have been getting letters from my boyfriend (B 2/20 FA) almost daily now! Some of May's mail is still coming but a June letter got here in 8 days! Imagine my surprise. I am receiving weekly calls now and that is a major relief for me. Not much is discussed other than we miss each other and they are ready to come home!
3) Hello! I received a phone call Friday night from my boyfriend in B 3/29 FA, 4th ID, 3rd BCT. He is a medic and sounded like he was doing well. Of course he said it's hotter than blazes out there and he asked for more Gold bond medicated body powder. He said it really helps cool the skin. He also said they were moving south again and didn't know when he would have phone access again. I also received a letter from him and he enclosed a bracelet. The customs slip was on the envelope, but when it got to me, the side of the envelope was completely cut open and the bracelet was missing. The letter was still there. Anyways, I was just so happy to hear from him nothing else mattered!! :) He said the soldiers he's with are doing okay, but people seem more than ready to go home. So far I've received 12 letters and after that first month they seem to be coming very regularly. Please don't ever stop praying for these guys!!
4) Just had to share my bit of heaven. Yesterday I got a dozen long stem roses. The card said "loving and missing you from 7000 miles away." I cried like a baby. It takes a war to turn my husband into a romantic. He is with 104th MI, 4TH ID, Fort Hood. I also got an email, he said he got to use the computer while they were in Tikrit from Baquaba for supplies. He seemed good. Mail keeps him going. He wants more bug spray and drink mix. They took their phones out but ATT should be there anyday (yea right). He is doing missions and that makes him feel useful. Just had to share.
5) Thanks for keeping us all up to date on what is going on, just wanted to let you know that his wife, and us here in CA finally stated recieving mail from my brother (her husband) in the 1-66AR in Samarra. She has also been getting almost weekly calls, so it would seem that the phones are coming up. His main requests have been for socks, underwear, magazines, books, as he put it "thought games", I am guessing card type games (Uno, etc.). Mountain Dew, CD's, and his biggest request, "A PLANE TICKET HOME!!"
6) I got an interesting question today - who canned the brownies and sent them to her husband. Other wives want to know how you did it - here is the note I received: I read with interest the note from one spouse who "canned" brownies in a mason jar to send to her husband. I mentioned this to a couple of the wives in our unit and we would like to do this for our husbands. Any suggestions from you? One of the wives thought canning homemade soup or beef stew might be a neat idea. Unfortunately, I don't still have the note of who sent that idea to me - would you please send me a note (to babcock224@aol.com), if you are willing to share your recipe for canned brownies? (Ed Note: Never thought I would get into recipe sharing but it is a good idea so I'll try this one time, but don't inundate me with recipes, please. Remember, I'm an infantryman at heart and don't understand cooking, just eating).
7) My hubby is with 4th ID 1-66 AR BN over in Samarra,Iraq. He called me today-he is able to call every 10 days through the satellite phone. I got 3 letters yesterday - 5-26, 6-13, 6-16. Mail is getting much faster, his last letter took only 12 days! Here are portions of his letter:
A typical day here in Iraq-wake up at about 4am; go on guard around 8am for about 2 hrs(checkpoint). About 8am it's around 100 degrees already..then we get off guard..time for maintenance, around noon we break for lunch. Second guard shift during the heat of the day-sweating our butts off. After that it is personal hygiene(shower) or whatever. Our guard shifts vary. You try to sleep during the day when you can, but usually it is too hot. All the action is at night-sproradic gunfire and explosions from time to time. Sand gets all over you everyday. All you look forward to is getting mail and hot food(or a phone call-you have to squeeze in somewhere during the hectic schedule), usually instead of sleep. The people here are a lot different-women are submissive. They say "hello MISTAH(mister) sometimes at a checkpoint they will bring food to you. Other times like at night they will try to RUN YOU OVER or say "f---k you". It's one extreme to the next. The kids always wave to us.
We sleep on our tanks-they are our home. You have to clean your weapons everyday because of the dust and sand. Mosquitoes bite you at night and flies pester you during the day. Try doing #2 in a plastic garbage bay it's fun you will be surprised how heavy they are (oh I don't know why he included this..lol). He also said there is nothing like the smell of diesel and you know what in the morning .
He also said the Iraqis have very good produce. One day we were on guard and an Iraqi man gave him a fresh cantaloupe and watermelon. When we drive our tanks people around here throw rocks at us. I guess they don't want us here? They also stayed in one of Saddam's palaces which is huge - a palace he never used while his people starved because of the UN sanctions.
Anyway our baby is almost 3 months on July 5 - exactly 90 days since he left. To all the family members out there keep praying for our brave service men and women out there . They are doing this for the future of our children!
8) What a week! I got 3 phone calls and 8 letters this week; dated from April 20th to June 18th. Mail is definitely doing better. My husband is with the 401st MP company and he sounded a lot better than the last time we talked (right after the memorial service of one of his soldiers). He lives in a palace and the water and electricity are flowing again so he is happy. He has received only 12 of the 75 letters and 6 of the 10 packages but says when he gets a package he is king for the day. He works mids and sleeps in the day but isn't getting much because of the heat. .... He is attached to the 1-22 and says they know how to take care of soldiers. (Ed Note: "Regulars by God!" - my old unit). God bless all of you and remember when you feel like you're the only one going through this and your circumstances are the worst, you can get on here and read about the other wives who are in the same boat and find out that some have gotten less phone calls, letters, emails, or whatever. This is just temporal and YOU CAN MAKE IT!
9) As soon as I read the article about the pay error I had to go check his LES for the month! It was fine, but I got a little scared for a second! For all 1/68 wives & family members, we got the first edition of the Silver Lions Newsletter. If you didn't get it by email, call or email your FRG (family readiness group) leader to get your copy. Copies will also be available soon at Rear D. It didn't say much that would excite anyone else, except for their showers they're building-not like home, but it made for a funny story! They've also got satellite TV-with 5 English speaking channels-so life is good for them. Just wanted to pass the info on about the newsletter for anyone who didn't get one.

Back to Active Unit Main News Page