Coming home email from friend in Iraq

[Winnow]

Awhile ago I wrote about my friend in Iraq. He's heading home and sent an email to his parents which was forwarded to other friends (all Vietnam era vets) It's nothing earth shattering but I think it shows how the experience impacted his outlook on life.

Just wanted to let you know that I am logging out for the last time on this email
account and not checking it again. It has been an incredible 10 months and
I'm ready to come home. I was ready long ago... You probably were too.
Thank you for standing by me this whole time and dealing with some pretty
terrible phone calls from time to time.

We have RIPed all of our responsibilities to our replacements and they are
already incredibly busy. Sadly, it was only one week before they had an
officer get killed in a convoy with me by Jordan. His name was Ryan Le
Duc and I really enjoyed working with a young Second Lt so closely. Seeing
and feeling death so closely will change me forever, but I have a different,
new thirst to make the most out of life and family time.

The lowest point was in July seeing that beautiful four year old girl die
when we had been ambushed.

On 165 convoys and over 6,000 miles, we were ambushed 11 times. On 265
patrols, we had contact 16 times. I am so proud of how the Marines
responded. Their situational maturity, calm, patience, and then lethal,
swift strike we brought to insurgents will forever, too, be in my mind. I
remember being told once about a Bronze Star I was competitive for, and
not caring at all about it - just happy to be alive. I happily settled for a
Navy Commendation Medal...but who really cares?

Another low was of course, holding the British contractor as he died from
A gunshot in Baghdad right next to our base - the first time I ever saw
anything like that. After the adrenaline, there came the meltdown - thank
you for being patient with me and helping me with that.

I went on my last run in Iraq this morning. Probably my best 12 miler
ever.It started in the early morning and I just ran and ran. The weather took
a turn here last week and the mornings are cool and beautiful. It didn't
feel like I was running and I thought through so many of my experiences here;
how I've grown; and how much I miss my family - holding them again. It was
pretty surreal as I came to the end - where I had started - my routine -
and checked my watch to see the time: "0911".

I love you and will be home soon,

He attended West Point and played TE on the football team while there. He was promoted to Major while in Iraq. I still haven't got the scoop about the equipment Ross Perot provided for his soldiers but will. (per Aruman's question on earlier thread)

It's nice to see a humble letter from someone over in Iraq. The media relays mostly the negative stories.

[Lalanae]

oh yeah, no negativity in that one

[Marbus]

I wouldn't call it negativity but sadness, it sounds like he definitely experienced that while there...

Marb

[Midnyte_Ragebringer]

oh yeah, no negativity in that one

I feel so sad for you. Just sing me a haste song and make me forget about your narrow mind.

[Winnow]

oh yeah, no negativity in that one

It appears to me he's relating what he experienced and gained from it. I see neither a positive or negative slant to it. What are you perceiving as negative in the email he sent? I'd like to know instead of a useless one line comment and rolling eye smiley.

I even cut out a paragraph because I didn't think anyone would care and knowing most of the narrow minds on this board would probably think he was making light of war in it:

The highest points were laughing with the Marines for hours about me jumping into poop during an urban firefight. And (last week), voraciously singing the Tennessee anthum "Good Ol' Rocky Top!", and square dancing as Lima Company Marines pummeled all in our last base-wide Fight Night. 1,000 other Marines could only dream of being in such a tight-knit unit -

[Lalanae]

The media relays mostly the negative stories.

Ok lets look at the stories in the email: dead soldier, dead little girl, dead contractor.

Yeah, uplifting and positive look at the war in Iraq.

/crayon off

jeez you neocons are slow.

[kyoukan]

shame he didn't get fucking shot. looks like you yanks need another lesson in attacking other countries unprovoked.

[Dregor Thule]

What the hell is a haste song?

[Winnow]

The media relays mostly the negative stories.

Ok lets look at the stories in the email: dead soldier, dead little girl, dead contractor.

Yeah, uplifting and positive look at the war in Iraq.

/crayon off

jeez you neocons are slow.

I didn't think you were that stupid lalanae. Those are negative events. He wasn't being negative about his experience.

[Lalanae]

The media relays mostly the negative stories.

Ok lets look at the stories in the email: dead soldier, dead little girl, dead contractor.

Yeah, uplifting and positive look at the war in Iraq.

/crayon off

jeez you neocons are slow.

I didn't think you were that stupid lalanae. Those are negative events. He wasn't being negative about his experience.

Oh I see, so wtf does that have to the media then. Learn how to form logical thoughts Winnow, THEN make a post. You posted the letter as an example of what the media is not doing. So what are they not doing that the email does Winnow? They both show the pointless loss of life.

OH WAIT, he GREW from the pointless loss of life. I see, that makes the war in Iraq look a hell of a lot rosier, now that I know that soldiers coming back are GROWING from thier experience. Guess we don't need all those self-help books anymore. Maybe we just send everyone over there to hold the heads of dying people, so they can GROW.

[Winnow]

Oh I see, so wtf does that have to the media then. Learn how to form logical thoughts Winnow, THEN make a post. You posted the letter as an example of what the media is not doing. So what are they not doing that the email does Winnow? They both show the pointless loss of life.

OH WAIT, he GREW from the pointless loss of life. I see, that makes the war in Iraq look a hell of a lot rosier, now that I know that soldiers coming back are GROWING from thier experience. Guess we don't need all those self-help books anymore. Maybe we just send everyone over there to hold the heads of dying people, so they can GROW.

You are saying it's pointless loss of life nitwit, not the email. If you took your head out of your liberal ass, you might see things differently.

[Lalanae]

you still haven't explained the difference between the email and the media is... make an effort winnow. you didn't in the original post nor in the 3 other posts of yours on this thread.

Could it be you dont know wtf you are trying to say?

Take "pointless" out of my post and my argument still stands.

[Winnow]

you still haven't explained the difference between the email and the media is... make an effort winnow. you didn't in the original post nor in the 3 other posts of yours on this thread.

Could it be you dont know wtf you are trying to say?

Take "pointless" out of my post and my argument still stands.

Once more for the dullards. The media is relating cold hard facts. The email expands a bit on his feelings about them concerning himself and not the broader scope of world affairs or who's right and who's wrong.

[Xzion-]

Il have to side with winnow, it was pretty unbiased. War sucks ass, you really cant put a "positive spin on it"

Gee, war kicks ass, i felt really good killing four evil arabs today. Bush would be proud of me. It feels good to kill people, and see my people die while i live, maybe because im just better then them. Im supposed to come home soon, but im not going too, im going to stay here and kill people. I hope we have more wars. I want to kill people in Iran, Syria, and maybe even China, China would be fun, they arnt pussies like they are here.

[Lalanae]

So in your words "cold hard facts" = "negativity." By definition facts are not colored with emotion.

And you prefer the media to color the facts with sentimental fluff, so that people are less likely to think about the horror of a 4-year old dying and more likely to note that the young man "grew from his experience." After all that is the only difference between the stories we see in the media and your email.

Also, aren't you part of the neocon posse who claims the liberal media is NOT presenting the facts?

You are spinning a web of contradiction Winnow.

[Lalanae]

nice edit winnow

[Lalanae]

War sucks ass, you really cant put a "positive spin on it"

Tell that to Winnow. He's the one bitching about the negativity of the media.

[Dregor Thule]

Il have to side with winnow, it was pretty unbiased. War sucks ass, you really cant put a "positive spin on it"

Gee, war kicks ass, i felt really good killing four evil arabs today. Bush would be proud of me. It feels good to kill people, and see my people die while i live, maybe because im just better then them. Im supposed to come home soon, but im not going too, im going to stay here and kill people. I hope we have more wars. I want to kill people in Iran, Syria, and maybe even China, China would be fun, they arnt pussies like they are here.

You say that like there aren't soldiers who think that.

[Winnow]

War sucks ass, you really cant put a "positive spin on it"

Tell that to Winnow. He's the one bitching about the negativity of the media.

What your mind is failing to resolve is that the email wasn't spinning anything. You yourself are spinning it.

[Winnow]

nice edit winnow

That edit took place less than a minute after I submitted the post. Your next post was 6 minutes later. It's nice to see you hitting the F5 but I wasn't changing anything due to a response of yours.

[Dregor Thule]

Sure it's a spin. It's only telling heart-wrenching tales of suffering due to violence from insurgents (I assume the little girl was killed by them, maybe your friend will take credit for it? I doubt it). This is, of course, completely understandable in a personal e-mail to family and friends, he wouldn't want to talk about having to force down any Iraqi civillians, talk about how many of them have been killed directly and indirectly by the US forces, nor focus on how the US has made the region the center of terrorist activity that they claimed it was already, but wasn't actually. So yes, it's spun. Innocent, personal spinning, but still, it's not even half of a picture and accomplishes nothing at all in this forum other than serve as a selfish tool, by you, to try paint a picture of half-truths.

And I still want to know what the fuck a haste song is.

[Winnow]

Sure it's a spin. It's only telling heart-wrenching tales of suffering due to violence from insurgents (I assume the little girl was killed by them, maybe your friend will take credit for it? I doubt it).

That's exactly my point. He's not blaming anyone for the girl's death. In fact, he didn't even mention who was responsible which is about as spinless as you can get as he's relating his feelings about the death and not who was responsible...positive or negative would be either him claiming responsibility or blaming the enemy.

I don't see anyting heart wrenching or overly descriptive words recounting the experience.

[Dregor Thule]

That's exactly my point. He's not blaming anyone for the girl's death. In fact, he didn't even mention who was responsible which is about as spinless as you can get as he's relating his feelings about the death and not who was responsible...positive or negative would be either him claiming responsibility or blaming the enemy.

I don't see anyting heart wrenching or overly descriptive words recounting the experience.

Did you read the whole post or just fixate on the first line and see a neat talking point and go with it? He doesn't have to say who did it, because it's assumed. You know you assumed it, as did every other person who was personally CC'd the letter by him. Watching a child die... what isn't heart wrenching about that? I didn't say anything about overly descriptive words or embelishments, all that needs to be said is "watched a child die" and it's all the impact you need. If you took your head out of your conservative ass, you might see things.

[Winnow]

That's exactly my point. He's not blaming anyone for the girl's death. In fact, he didn't even mention who was responsible which is about as spinless as you can get as he's relating his feelings about the death and not who was responsible...positive or negative would be either him claiming responsibility or blaming the enemy.

I don't see anyting heart wrenching or overly descriptive words recounting the experience.

Did you read the whole post or just fixate on the first line and see a neat talking point and go with it? He doesn't have to say who did it, because it's assumed. You know you assumed it, as did every other person who was personally CC'd the letter by him. Watching a child die... what isn't heart wrenching about that? I didn't say anything about overly descriptive words or embelishments, all that needs to be said is "watched a child die" and it's all the impact you need. If you took your head out of your conservative ass, you might see things.

Dude, I don't think he could possibly say that with any less emotion or description besides stating it was the low point no matter how it happened.

My conservative ass didn't assume anything although I'm sure this is what was going through the typical liberals head reading it:

"The low point was when a 4 year old girl was ripped from her mothers tit as she suckled milk and used as a human shield by the ruthless insurgents. Shooting the baby in the head caused her head to explode, blinding the insurgent with blood and brain bits, allowing enough time for a guided smart bomb to take out the group of insurgents along with the mother. God will sort them out but our team was saved. The encounter ended with us raping the dead mother's corpse and cutting off the ears of the enemy for trophies."

Happy? Can you do your liberal anti war dance and feel good now until the next whine?

The email was not political or biased yet liberals spin it until they can feel more comfortable relating the story "about a baby killer". You people are so warped, you can't see anything as non biased. The purpose of the email wasn't to convince anyone of anything. I guess you can get back to the regularly slated crap on the news whether it's FOX or CBS.

[Hoarmurath]

Awhile ago I wrote about my friend in Iraq. He's heading home...

Tell your friend I said welcome home and thanks for the service.

No matter how much I may disagree with anything that is going on in Iraq, I will continue to support the individual service members that are over there.

<a href="http://forum.galeyisrael.com/forum/file ... .wmv">Even these idiots.</a>

[Lynks]

No matter how much I may disagree with anything that is going on in Iraq, I will continue to support the individual service members that are over there.

<a href="http://forum.galeyisrael.com/forum/file ... .wmv">Even these idiots.</a>

You actually support those soldiers that pretty much ruined that guy's life even more?

[Hoarmurath]

No matter how much I may disagree with anything that is going on in Iraq, I will continue to support the individual service members that are over there.

<a href="http://forum.galeyisrael.com/forum/file ... .wmv">Even these idiots.</a>

You actually support those soldiers that pretty much ruined that guy's life even more?

Of course. How do I know that the car's owner was really a taxi driver? Maybe the car was stolen? A very good friend of mine spent 4 months in Iraq with the CIA (including numerous other trips to Arabic nations) and he says it's easier to find an honest politician in D.C than it is to find an Iraqi that won't lie at the drop of a hat if it suits them. Maybe the soldiers were under very direct and specific orders. I don't know the entire context of the incident. However, they do come across as having less-than-average intelligence (not that I'm surprised, I was never impressed by most tankers), which was my point.

[Kelshara]

A very good friend of mine spent 4 months in Iraq with the CIA (including numerous other trips to Arabic nations) and he says it's easier to find an honest politician in D.C than it is to find an Iraqi that won't lie at the drop of a hat if it suits them.

The audacity of the Iraqi who will lie to the noble Americans who have come for their oil and to kill them! Erh I mean protect them! I mean, it's not like a noble American would EVER lie!

You people are so warped, you can't see anything as non biased.

Considering how much y'all whine about how biased everything in the media is, that comment comes across as quite hillarious.

[Zaelath]

That entire region is full of corruption. A friend who lived in Pakistan un until his late teens was stopped by a cop once while driving purely to get a bribe, he refused and ended up having to bribe the clerk of the court instead (which of course cost him a lot more) or go to jail on a bullshit charge.

Now, you know what the scary thing is... the thing that keeps us safe from that is not our superior government, various constitutions, happy police/military.. it's the free press. Of course, the press is just a pack of lefty whiners and paparazzi.