Thanksgiving dinner was ok, but the army will never get stuffing right. EVER. The meat is always over cooked and dry, except the turkey which is processed. Please let grandma know that I got her package, and took it to a Marine captain that runs a MITT team. They live in Habanea with the Iraqi soldiers they work with. They do some medical support missions in the city and they always see children. While they don’t understand Christmas they do understand candy. Our operational tempo is very low. We are looking at one mission weekly, then one day of QRF. My squad still hasn’t made contact, so we are either lucky or good. I’ll take either one. All of the other squads in our troop have made some kind of enemy contact. I hope this year is the most boring ever.
We are finally getting our vehicles cleaned out and looking like they have real owners. Kinda crazy. I’m trying to load a picture to send to you.
Love,
Johnny
04/12/2008 at 3:17 pm Permalink
Boy, is he right about the Turkey dinner!!! We lucked out here, though, there was a lot of variety and they really tried to dress things up a bit…they did butter sculptures that were good sized and they froze flowers and such in pans of ice, so those were kinda pretty as decor.
Thank you, Grandma Johnson, for the stockings, I will be passing those out before Christmas, I’m sure the kids will love them. Unfortunately I won’t be able to hand them out in person or get any pictures for you as we’ll be driving and tossing–I think my gunner will enjoy that a bit; he tossed chem lights and munchies today for the first time and seemed the have a bit o fun.
My mission schedule is a little busier than John’s has been. We have mission every 5-ish days. I actually have been having a lot of fun! It’s nice getting out; I equate it to camping, in that I don’t get a shower everyday, eating is on the road and not often, you live out of a bag and sleep in a sleeping bag.
Like John’s team/squad, my platoon hasn’t had any contact either, so that’s a pretty good thing. We have had lots of problems on the road, though…all vehicle break downs. Lol!!! Mine twice, and a couple other trucks. Go Army equipment! Well, we did fall in on used equipment, but we really aren’t doing too badly. In fact, we are slotted to get 5 new Caimen MRAPs for our company, so I can’t complain too much. And our mechanics have been working 24 hour ops to get all 4 platoon’s vehicles up to working standard.
Well, that’s probably good for now. I will try to update you again, soon.
Lots of love, hugs and kisses,
Tracy