Letter From The Company Commander to Family

I've had to edit location names from the newsletter since there are rules concerning blogs and military info. It's nice for me to have a name now though so I can look at a map and know just where Brendan is. It sounds like the company has been working hard to get everything in running order. Last I talked to Brendan there was still no hot water or electricity.
I also talked to Brendan's buddy Sandusky the other day and he is doing well. Ideally the two would have stayed together but , as we know , that wasn't meant to be. At any rate Sandusky seems to be in great spirits. He has posted a number of pictures on his Facebook which were great to see.
His brother Bryan is down to 2 months before he returns from Afganistan. I know he is tired and misses his family terribly.
The following is the letter I received concerning Brendan and his company:

We are living on an old Iraqi Army base which is not too bad. We are being fed three hot meals a day, though we are not always on base to eat all three meals. For the most part everyone has the opportunity to get 2 hot meals if they choose. The company does a food supply run every Friday which allows us to provide Gatorade, Rippit (an energy drink which the men love), snack food such as pop tarts-potato chips-and muffins, soda to include Mountain Dew, A&W Root Beer, and 7UP, we receive assorted cereal in plastic containers and milk, V8 juice, and even beef jerky which I do not think is a winner. This makes up for missed meals plus we always have MRE’s available. Trust me when I say that no one is going without food. We have tons of drinking water so we will be good even when the weather becomes really hot. We have showers that actually work and most of the time we even have hot water. We do a laundry run about every 3rd day and it takes about 3 days to get it back. All of our men have cots and live in rooms with electricity for their computers, IPODS, and even TV’s with their assorted video games. The company has been getting supplied with wood and paint in order to separate living spaces so that everyone gets a bit of privacy and we painted the rooms to make things a little nicer. In the next 30 days we will have beds, wall lockers, and internet in the rooms. We are also getting the Armed Forces Network but this is going to take some time. Considering all of this I would say that compared to other deployments we are doing very well for ourselves.
There is little activity in this area which I am grateful for. Our work tempo is rather easy compared to our last deployment here so the men are getting enough rest. In fact I would say that some of the men are actually bored, especially the Soldiers that are on the second or third tour and remember how busy they used to be. We have been doing a lot of great things in this area. We have gone to a primary school and gave out 500 back packs with books and other school supplies as well as soccer balls for the kids. We even gave out things for the teachers. Along with this we had engineers with us that are going to repair and rebuild part of the school. They are going to increase the electricity to the school, rebuild the bathrooms and aid station, construct another court yard for the kids to play and add air conditioning for the summer time heat. This is the first project of many to come. We have also worked in creating projects at the water treatment facility, the local medical clinic, gas stations, and even are in the process of adding much needed material for security at the Iraqi Army Headquarters. Your loved ones are making great things happen and you all should be very proud of them. I know that many of the local villages that we have operated in appreciate us very much. Many of them have invited us in for chi (Iraqi tea) and even lunch. Most of the time we have to decline, but there have been occasions where we accepted the local villagers hospitality.
We probably will work in a different area soon and we will be doing the same missions that we are currently doing. The most important thing for you all to know is that even if we move to a different area to operate in—we are still living at the same location. We are not moving our living environment just the area that we will be working in. So really nothing is changing. Our mail address will be the same and everything that the Soldiers have afforded to them right now will only get better with time. I can not promise that we will stay here for the entire deployment but I can say that there is not talk about us moving, so our chances of actually doing so are slim.
Our Soldiers have been receiving mail on a regular basis. Adopt-A-Platoon has been extremely gracious by constantly sending boxes for the Soldiers as well as Blue Ribbon Moms. We have also had some of our Soldiers sponsored by different organizations that send care packages. I would say that our “wants” are very limited except for wanting to be with our family and loved ones. This is obviously something I can not fix. We have already started our leave and have tentative dates for everyone. Of course these dates are based on aircraft, seats available, and mission needs so no one is able to say exactly when they will be taking vacation, but do know that everyone will get vacation. Again, not too bad considering that on my first of three deployments I did not get any vacation even though I had my daughter Victoria born.
Most of the men have bought Iraqi cell phones that use a special Iraqi calling card. This is something that you can not help them with. We need to buy the calling cards here and they are prepaid minutes that we load on to the phone. It averages out to 17 cents a minute but again this is only the average. I do not know how the Iraqi system truly works but I do know that sometimes I have gotten more minutes than what I paid for while other times it went in the opposite direction. I guess it all evens out in the end. The phone cards come in 10 dollar increments and there is no limit as to how much time you put on the phone. Reception with these phones is not the greatest. If we are having a storm, whether rain or sand, most of us do not get a signal. We also have to be outside most of the time in order to get a signal, but this has not stopped anyone. We also just received a military phone which we can use for morale. If you live by a military installation than the Soldiers can call home for free. There is usually a 10-15 minute time limit and then the operator cuts you off, but if the lines are not busy they will let you stay on longer. Also Soldiers can use US calling cards with this phone to call someone who does not live by a military installation. The only draw back about this phone is that we only have one and it is located in my office. The primary purpose of the phone is business related-not morale but we use it for morale when we can anyway. I leave the key to my office at the CQ desk this way Soldiers can get into the office at night. We are too busy during the day to place calls, but on occasions Soldiers have been successful in doing so. The battalion will eventually get a bunch of the phones as well as computers with free internet for everyone to use at any time they are free, but again this will take some time. It is part of a morale, welfare, and recreation package that the battalion will receive which is where the AFN television comes from.
We have also built a conference room with a video proxima available in it. We will soon have this room complete so Soldiers can hook up their computers to the video proxima and watch movies on the big screen. We bought some comfortable padded chairs for this room so it will eventually double as a conference room for meetings and a place to relax at night and watch some movies. As long as the Soldiers take care of all that we have provided and are going to provide then life will only get better. I guess we could use movies and books to stock the room but I am guessing that this will happen naturally. I have not heard anyone say that they which they had xyz yet.
We will have finance come out to our base once a month so Soldiers will have access to money. We have also been making trips to Camp Liberty where there is a PX that is fully stocked with goods, a finance office, gyms, and KBR for chow. There is also a post office for Soldiers who want to send things back home. I imagine that this will become important as our deployment nears an end, but not right now. I almost forgot to tell you that we do have a gym here but it does not have all the equipment that it should have. The equipment is on its way though and should be here relatively quickly. Many of the men are working out religiously.
All in all life is pretty good. Even with all of this mentioned we still must remember that we are in combat and we have to stay focused on the mission. We can not allow ourselves to become lazy due to our comforts. Please do not expect your loved ones to call home or send emails every night because that is unrealistic. Thank you very much for your support!