I'll share news from Chris with all. See all on Saturday.

Hey Pop,Not too much going on, despite our busy op tempo. Just got in from Baghdad around 6 this morning. With the roads closed today and tomorrow for the elections, they've been in a hurry to get as many supply convoys up and down the roads the past couple of weeks. Last weekend and then again Monday and last night, we escorted trucks from the logistics camp 30 from here, about 3 - 3 1/2 hours north to another camp, top off, and continue on to BIAP, another 2 -2 1/2 hours. Both times we escorted 20 rigs. Luckily, last night most of the drivers were US KBR (Kellogg-Brown and Root contractor) drivers, so they were squared away and we had one of their walkie-talkies and could talk to them. We usually roll out between 7 and 8 pm from Cedar II, the camp near us, and arrive Baghdad between 2 and 3 am. Then we sleep and roll out 10 -11 pm from BIAP and get here between 5:30 and 6 am. Thank God for Red Bull (energy drink) and chocolate. Plus, the SSG I had with me both times is a smoker and let us smoke on the way because it was so long a trip. From Here to Scania (the first stop) is pretty safe. It's Scania to BIAP that keeps us on our toes. We've been lucky with no incidents. Last weekend, the convoy about an hour ahead of us caught small arms fire turning off the main supply route (MSR) onto the road leading to the back gate to Camp Striker (my old stomping grounds the 1st 6 months we were here); the convoy about an hour behind us got hit with an IED on the MSR down around the "fiyah's" (the southern area of Baghdad's own 'triangle of death'), Mamudiyah, Yusifiyah, Lusifiyah and Lutifiyah. Last weekend I gunned and talk about freezing your twigs and berries off!!! It's like rolling down I-64 around 2 am, this time of the year, doing 65mph and hanging outside of the sunroof. Yeah, freakin' cold. This time I drove.We've made a couple of school drops, going to some of these little mud hut schools that look like they came straight out of National Geographic and dropping off desk and bench sets made by one of the engineer units and school supplies. The rural areas around here are the places that time forgot, with some of them still don't have electricity. The bricks are still made the old way with straw and mud and then the brick homes are sealed on the outside with a layer of mud outside. I'll send y'all some pics or a disk or something. We also ran down to the British airbase in al Basra, about 2 1/2 hours south to take the officers to a meeting. I ate in their chow hall; food was worse than ours. We're just doing alot of the same stuff we did before, but with the added convoy escort every now and then. Oh, to answer your question, this election we have absolutely nothing to do with it, THANK GOD! We're just gonna' stay put here and do maintenance on our vehicles and equipment.Well, that's about it for now. I've got a squad leaders' meeting shortly. My squad leader went on leave yesterday and I'm the man for the next 3 weeks. Oh, yeah, I put my stripes on the other day. I talked to Michelle and she said "What's up, Sgt?" I asked what she meant, and my LES has me as a Sgt now and I'm getting paid E-5 pay. Then, on the 2nd, I got another deposit for $640, 2-3 months back pay for when I should've been promoted. I don't have my orders yet and the unit didn't put my stripes on; I did. But, in order for DA to be paying me E-5 pay, State must have promoted me and sent my orders up higher. Not my fault these jack asses can't get a copy of my orders. Guess I'll have to check my records online and print them off a copy if they've hit my online file yet.Well, I need to get going. Love you guys.
LoveBoo boo

"For those who fight for it, life has a flavor the protected will never know.