197      

I'll let you figure out what the number at the top of the emails is. hopefully i'll remember to put it on from now on and you'll be able to watch it and figure it out.     Thanks very much again for writing and sending stuff if you have. i've already received a bunch of motomail letters and i have to mention who i got so you know who's has worked: Mom, Dad, Auntie Even, Margaret, and Simon    I think that's everyone who wrote so far. there may have been one or two others but again, i can't respond to it because it takes too long to write to that. I will write to letters I get if i get the time.     Which brings me to my next point. Busy-ness. not to be confused with Business. I have worked non-stop literally since last night. I barely got any sleep and i didn't eat enough at all. I know mom, i know.     The first couple days of turning over gear is the worst because you have to figure out how it all works and kinks. We have to straighten out the problems and stuff, but unfortunately, speed seems to be the key to this deployment. No sooner had we gotten our new stuff, that we were told to go out and use it. and so i had to work long hours to figure out how it all worked.    It's square now and i should have a few easy days ahead of me but i need to catch up on sleep and eating. As i mentioned in the last deployment, you really mess up your biological clock here. Not only do you have jet lag but the schedule is irregular.      If you don't know it, your body has a rhythm called the Sircadian Rhythm or something. It is how you've gotten to live with the schedule you keep. Depending on how you live, your body will regulate your appetite and bathroom breaks and sleep habits. Of course we all need to eat, and sleep, etc. but your body keeps a rhythm.      Jet lag is when you arrive in an area that has a different time zone than the one you live in. Your body wants to sleep on it's old schedule but you obviously shouldn't sleep at 1 in the afternoon because you need to be awake and you eat at times your body isn't "ready" for it.       Anyway, long story coming to an end, we sleep and eat and work at different times every day. In the field, your body can stop going to the bathroom for 3 or even 4 days at a time. And you can work 2 days straight if you need to before finally getting tired and eatting one meal a day.       The problem is we work at night and then during the day and we never set a rhythm. We go to the chow hall sometimes feeling as if we're starving because we haven't realized that we haven't eaten in 20 hours. Or we'll suddenly be exhausted because we've been riding on adrenaline for so long.       Some of you have asked for ideas of things to send or pray for. That's definitely one thing to pray for but also obviously for safety. We're all safe and sound for you mothers reading.     One new idea that they have at the battalion though is a 30 minute DVD clip. Last year I flew a flag over iraq for a church who supported me, but this year they have a camera that i can use for free and record a 30 minute segment and mail it home. the man in charge says he mostly wants to keep it for family members and kids due to the small number of DVDs available (40?). The idea being to read a book for your son or daughter.     however, i asked if i got DVDs sent, could i use it for anyone, besides family. He said yes. So here's my idea. If you want me to make a quick movie of me reading a book for your school/class/church or just saying hi if i know you, send me a few DVDs and your address and i'll get it done.      Now, the DVDs are a special size. they are small. i don't know if there are multiple size DVDs, besides the usual size. if you go into any circuit city or Best Buy store, check out the recordable DVDs for video cameras and if there is only one small size, i'm sure that's the one. If there are multiple small sizes, i'll find out tomorrow and let you know. Get it? i think i made that confusing.    I think that's all for tonight....or this morning. it's about 0235 here which means it's 7:30 in the evening there. Thanks again!!   Ebonically,     Jeremiah

195   Usually I'll take tons of pics and email them home. well due to my business and the fact that i don't find a lot of stuff here new or interesting anymore, i haven't taken that many pictures. i realized that the other day when i couldn't think of anything new to write.     I tend to only write if i have something pertinent to say. so here are a few pics of a few guys on our way to a mission.  

As usual, if in order:

1)

This is ME!! some of you have been forwarded these emails and this list has expanded so that i email or have contact with roughly 500 people. maybe more but that's my rough estimate. A lot of you haven't even met me or know who i am outside of the fact that i'm a Recon Marine in Iraq right now. So here's a goofy picture of myself holding my pistol. it's a 9 mm caliber and i'm in the office. behind me is radio batteries charging.

2)

Here's a young guy named Guenard or Ba-Ba-Booie in one of the teams. He's trying to affix a battery to an Infared strobe. This will enable other units to see us with NVG (night vision goggles) but the naked eye sees nothing.

3)

The same guy looking up after the first flash. You can see on his arm his Kill number, and blood type. it also has NKDA for No Known Drug Allergies.

4)

Here's a guy from the first deployment, Scott Reams or Scott-Bot or T-1000. He's actually trying the same thing because the first guy couldn't get it.

5)

Here i am pretending the picture is candid and climbing into the truck. that's my armour on my chest weighing in at 30 pounds. Then i have all my gear (magazines, water, knife, etc.). I don't have my stuff written on my arm because that's a new flight suit i'm wearing. big deal, i was lazy.   So now you have an idea of what i look like and from the emails and pictures i've taken,  a little bit about my attitude.   Gratuitously,    Jeremiah

182     

SOME OF you reading this are parents of a few Marines in my platoon and therefore might be exclaiming, "Back?! But I thought (insert name) said he was going to be gone for another week or so?"      This is true. In fact, this subject is so touchy that i've spent the last 10 hours contemplating how to write this email if at all. You see there are only a few reasons you can get back early from a mission: 1) the mission finishes early or gets cancelled early 2) You get hurt.     Well this last mission was a time priority which means we had to be there for a certain amount of time. We can't come back early. Which means the only way i'm writing this is if i'm hurt.     Now before you mothers and sissy's get alarmed, it was an accident. I know you're now reading a mile a minute to get to the sentence that says what it is that's wrong with me so i'm just going to go into it.     I was in a truck with a .50 cal machine gun on top. i was in the turret which is the gunner on top, manning the gun. Not my usual position but i was there for the convoy. We were headed back to Camp Fallujah to drop off our dog handler. The .50 cal has a long enough barrel that when oriented sideways (which i was), it extends past the humvee.     The driver drove too close to the side of the road and a pole hit the .50 cal barrel. The turret was locked in place but the gun can still swivel in it's mount. The gun slammed sideways against the turret wall. Well literally speaking, it slammed sideways into my thumb which was against the turret wall.     go ahead and let out that, "oooooooooh" i've been hearing all day.     So i started laughing and stomping my feet and yelling in pain. After all there was nothing i could do at the time but tell the driver i was gonna shoot him in the thumb and yell at the passing iraqi's, "i'm bleeding!!" They couldn't understand but gave me the thumbs up anyway thinking that's what i was doing.     I got back and immediately went to the aid station and they x-rayed my thumb. No breaks which just solidifies my theory that i'm unbreakable. However the convoy was leaving back to the field and the doc said with the severity of my cuts on my thumb, i was going to risk infection going back out. Iraq isn't the cleanest of environments, you see.      So i had to stay back and get 11 stitches which was a messy way of trying to hold the thumb together. Even as i type it throbs and aches.      Ok you can stop cringing now. And get that grimace off your face!      So i'm stuck here while my boys fight the good fight. For your comfort we're all ok and everyone's safe. There was a case of the runs for a few days but i missed it. I was notorious for getting sick last year so i'm sympathetic.     We were living in a house that was fortified. i'm not going to explain the missions or what we were doing, but we're catching bad guys and keeping the guns and the explosives off the streets.     A few days ago while taking a prisoner back to Camp Fallujah, they picked up the mail and to my surprise i had 25 letters! Thanks for taking the time to write! I wrote back to almost every individual who wrote me but unfortunately i hadn't planned on staying here and left the letters with my stuff in the field. Stupid thumb, ruining all my plans.      Well there are lots of things that i remember from last year and i've warmed up to the iraqi's. When i say that i mean i'm not shy around them and i'm comfortable holding what i call the bilingual dialogue. That's when you speak english and they speak arabic and you both pretend to understand each other. It goes a little something like this: Me: Salam! (Arabic for hello) Iraqi kid: Salam...hasham islonic football? Me: i'm sorry bro, i only know a few phrases. Iraqi: Football? Me: You think i'm hiding a football on my body somewhere? Iraqi: yeshum farajim. Me: Farajim? Iraqi: NAM! EE! Me: uh....you wouldn't happen to know who's been laying all these IED's do you? Iraqi shrugs and looks confused Me: oh don't give me that. I mean you've got a great country, but i like mine a little bit more and i want to go back so any help you can give me would be awesome. Iraqi: Chocolate mister? Me: Well i'll tell you what. YOu see that guy over there (point to whoever). He's got tons of footballs and chocolate. yeah go ask him and don't take no for an answer buddy.       This can go on for a while. Usually you just repeat an iraqi word here and there and they get encouraged that you understand. I do speak enough now that i can talk back and understand or say what i intend, but it's a lot of fun to just breed confusion.     Apparently the international sign for football is to hold your hands about 2 feet apart in front of your body. and it doesn't matter how many jolly ranchers or pens or paper you give them. they want a football. I was explaining to a kid that maybe he should be seeking an education or one or two freedoms we have first. He didn't get me.      I have a lot of pictures now also of the guys and myself having a grand ol' time in the field but of course i left my camera with the rest of my stuff.     I'll explain about iraq also a bit that some of you might already know but for you new comers it's fresh. Iraq is similar to america in many ways. There is marriages, satellite dishes, bathrooms, roosters, dogs, and of course church.     there are a few differences though. for example men marry a few women. I think enough people struggle with one, why move on to two? now your outnumbered.     satellite dishes too, i don't know of too many iraqi satellites and i think it's more like a status symbol. i mean they don't have consistent plumbing so i think tv is a lower priority on a list of things to fix.      And speaking of plumbing, the bathrooms are mostly a little bowl in the ground. On this subject, don't read this if you're about to eat or have just eaten. so pretty much everyone but Ghandi.  Iraqi's don't use toilet paper, they use their left hand. That is why it is impolite to wave or shake with your left hand. it stays almost the whole time at their side during a conversation. i didn't believe it myself until i witnessed it first hand. yeah i know....i had to!! i was watching him for security!      Roosters, dogs and pretty much every animal is free in iraq. Except cows and poor donkey's, they get to roam around and bark or crow at anything. but it's usually not selective. i've heard dog's with sore throats, and the roosters will cock-a-doodle-doo at every hour in the night, not just sun up. maybe they're broken?       Church...in america, you have your select religion but for the most part you go once a week on sunday or maybe mass as well on saturday. heck you might even attend a small group for study on a weeknight. but in iraq, it's every day, 5 times a day. and you don't get to choose if you want to hear the sermon, they yell it from towers called Minarets (spelling?). It's usually just a call to prayer and a fairly common repeated message but you can always hear it all over iraq. i don't know when these Imam (pronounced Ee-mom) guys sleep but they're always calling. and it's like a sing song chant too. the times differ on the area as well as the consistency.        Speaking of the area, can't say where i worked, but it's exactly like the area i worked in last year. you'll see pictures but if you dropped someone off there and asked them where in iraq they were, they couldn't tell you. there are tons of religions denominations, tribes, and ideas out there, but one thing that they've held consistent is their floor plan. I don't know if they're sharing a blueprint or what but they've got it down.      Each house you come onto has a main room that opens off into 3 or 4 bed rooms and a kitchen. There is usually a bathroom under the stairs and you never want to be the one to clear it for baddies. most houses are one story except for the skeikh (said sheek) of the village. He's the most respected dude of the village and each village has one and then each tribe has one. So there can be 5 villages for the Zobai tribe but those 5 Sheikhs answer to Mohammed  who's the sheikh of the zobai. whatever he says goes. the whole tribe will do whatever he commands or says.    in fact the area we were fighting in last year recently turned good simply because the sheikh of the villages there was sick of his people dying. So he changed his mind and commanded all his people to fight WITH the americans, instead of against them. To some people (me and the other vets) this can irk you. Suddenly the people who were shooting you, are on your side and you can't arrest them or get them because they're pointing out the guys who are still shooting at you.     Also last year there was mostly Iraqi Army (IA) and Iraqi Police (IP). THese guys weren't proffessional but they could pick out liars and people who didn't belong better than we could. This year the big thing is Iraqi Civilian Watch or ICW. These guys are literally the militia of little towns. THey voluntarily set up their own checkpoints where they want and screen for terrorists. They answer to a sheikh or a self-appointed leader but when it comes down to it, it's people sick of watching the americans miss what they can see. Finally the iraqi's are fighting back and the areas where ICW have checkpoints are a lot safer.      Just like the IP or IA, the ICW shoot at random and sometimes at anything. you have to be careful when moving at night. Al Qaeda has spies in every organization including ICW. For the right price, anyone can be bought but it also comes down to a bunch of farmers who have set up rocks in the road to slow vehicles and sit on the streets with AKs.      It's nervous seeing Iraqi's in the streets with AKs waving when that was cause to shoot before but a Marine must adapt and overcome. It is safer, and mayhaps the more they organize, the more we don't have to work.      Lastly, one more thought. Driving in the turret down the street is a lot like being the president. I'm assuming because i've never been the president of anything. but as you drive down, all the kids coming running out and wave and the men all smile and wave as you cruise on by yelling whatever you want:     "Don't eat so much Ice Cream!!"     "that shirt doesn't match!"     "I've got explosive diarrhea!"    They'll smile and wave back regardless and you feel very special.       well, the rest of the gang will be back in a few days so until then i'll write to answer your questions each evening after 7 pm (noon your time on the east coast).   Sardonically,    Jeremiah

179      

I HAVE nothing in particular to write about really. A lot of people have been writing back to me and i've been answering questions here and there but I feel as if I should explain or clear up a few things.     Thanks for all the compliments firstly on my writing style. I didn't know I had one. I type as I talk or rather as I think and some of you who know me have said that you can hear my voice in the emails. Good.     

I write these emails not to make light of the war, but to bring light TO the war. It started off last deployment that everything was new to me and I wanted to let people know how i was doing, so i'd write what i was learning. It grew and grew and finally people now read the emails to get a new perspective on the war. Instead of the CNN picture of a few clips of soldiers running or an explosion and a reporter standing on a sandy windy screen, you hear about the people, their culture and their country.     As I write, I make things simple for people to understand. I try to explain things as a civillian would understand it so it helps me to connect with people back home. It's therapeutic for me to imagine the faces I know (or don't) reading this email and write it so they wouldn't have to ask a question.    

As far as the other things, the stuff I don't write about, i turn to the guys to the left and right and talk to them about it. With nothing much to do here, there is a LOT of talking. It's easier to vent about problems like that because they're already aware of the dangers, acronyms and verbage so i don't have to explain things and they get what i'm venting about. If i vented to you all that i couldn't kill some guy even though i was pretty sure he just tried to blow me up, you would probably be in shock that i'm even in that much danger in the first place.    

I'm very well rested these days. The rest of the Company, and pretty much the entire battalion is out in the field for a little while longer so i've been spending my days with another friend who i went to Boot Camp with, Patrick Diener. He's had a problem with an infection on his leg so he's been unable to leave the wire also and so we just chit chat, make movies for home, write letters or paint. He paints, i'm no good.     

My thumb: my thumb throbs and aches. I've been given percocet to kill the pain and it's awesome. Yes, i'm aware of how addictive it can be and i took it before when i had all the complications with my appendix. I'm also taking antibiotics to fight infection. The big concern as far as my thumb is concerned is not letting an infection spread through my hand and effect the movement of my other fingers. I've seen a joint specialist and they're gonna take off the bandages i've had on the last couple days tomorrow. The pictures of my thumb are all out in the field but tomorrow i might have some good nasty ones for you.    

When i was out in the field, i was chit chatting with a few iraqi's about their lives and their views and we got onto the subject of Shia and Sunni. As you may know, Shia hate Sunni and vice versa. Baghdad is Shia, as well as Iran, and the east side of Iraq for the most part. The west side including Fallujah, Karmah, and Zaidon are all Sunni. I had imagined that we were making progress with all these militant groups however talking to these guys sorta changed my mind. They were Sunni and they said all they wanted to do was go to Baghdad and kill the Shia. And they asked me who i thought was better. I said they were the same of course and that if and once we leave, didn't they think Iran was going to come in and kill all the Sunni. They thought it was possible but they'd fight back.     Sweet life huh? I've decided that my view on the war is i'm just postponing the inevitable. It doesn't matter what the higher powers think in Iraq, if this is the general consensus on the people (and it has been for the one's i've talked to) then there's always going to be fighting.     

Happy Halloween to everyone who enjoys that sorta thing. I had actually bought a skeleton mask to use but of course it's out in the field. i'll use it later though.    

That's all i can think of that's on my mind. I'm sure i had more to say but i've forgotten it now.  If you have any questions about anything, email and i'll get back to you. IF it's a recurring question or good one, i'll put it in here.  

Barometrically,     Jeremiah

The thumb

We spoke with Jeremy yesterday, he was taken over to the hospital by his Battalion Doctor, this is a real Doctor, not just a corpsman, to see a joint specialist. They are concerned he may have snapped his tendon to his thumb, they are also concerned that if the cuts become infected he could lose the use of his fingers as all the tendons for your hand pass just below your thumb in that meaty part of your hand. He has lots of anti-biotics and he says the pain is pretty intense at night and when he first wakes up. He is having the bandages removed today and hopefully some improvement will have been made. He needs to be able to move the top joint of his thumb as this will indicate the tendon is fine. At the moment it is too painful to move plus all the gauze from the dressings makes it hard to move at all.

177     

AS I promised, here are a few pics of my thumb i took today. They uncovered it to check out how it was healing, hoping to leave it uncovered to get some air. As you might be able to tell, it still looks like crap.    I figured you're already reading this even if you don't like blood. Bad bad bad. I was explaining my story of how it got crushed to a Marine in supply and even though he's not a Recon Marine i took for granted that all Marines were as tough as the ones i work with. This however, is not the case.    

I said, "So then the doc said it looked a lot like ground beef and there was blood ever-"     

"Ew! Man, woah. Don't tell me that!" he says     

"What? I thought you were a Marine."      

"yeah but that's nasty!"      

This same guy refused to get near me when i pulled the bandage off to show him today. *Sigh*     

So if you're looking at the picture now you can tell i'm not in too much pain anymore. Yes it hurts to move or use it but it doesn't throb like it used to. From the close up you can tell that there isn't much flesh to stitch together so they kinda just made do with what they had. there are some lacerations you can't see on the side. All that white skin will fall off because it's not getting any blood.      Also, there are 11 stitches in that mess somewhere but they meant to stitch up more but didn't have enough skin to do it with. Sorry doc, my bad.     

Every time a new doctor asks, "so how's it looking" when they come over, i show them my good thumb and say, "well this is what it SHOULD look like...." then show them the ground beef thumb and say, "but here's what it does look like.....so not too good."     

Also, I must receive about 6 million requests to write a book so let me just say officially...YES I WILL WRITE A BOOK. i've practically already written it so all i need is an editor, and idea and a cover. Thanks for the nagging, i mean encouragement.    

Procrastinatingly,     Jeremiah

175  

THE OTHER guys came back yesterday in order to drop some stuff off and they'll be back soon for good. I make movies as a hobby and you can see a few on youtube.com. just search for Jeremy Vandekar or T-Cup Pictures and you'll find a few of mine.     Anyway, i'm making a movie for each month of the deployment and while they were back i collected up all the cameras and got my video camera back and compiled all the pictures. I spent all last night working on it and i'm finished but it's too big to place on here, and the internet is too slow to post on youtube. you'll have to wait till i get back.   

until then, you can see a few of the pictures from the guys. If in order:  

1)

Here is my best friend in the platoon, Malachi Even and myself. i'm on the right. I was writing a letter at the time and we were just chit chatting about family. You can see we're sitting on cots we took out into the field. last year i slept on the floor the whole time but now we're taking the luxury of bringing cots. Also you can see the window has been completely sandbagged up to prevent any glass or shrapnel falling inside.

2)

Here's Ed McDevitt (or Guile, or Micky D) in the foreground playing with Renzo our dog. The dog handler, cpl Priest (or preacher man we dubbed him) is attached to a regiment which is the Marines working in Iraq as a whole. He works for whoever asks for him and we did. There are two different types of dogs: attack and sniffing dogs. Attack dogs are obviously a lot less social. Renzo did a great job and was very obedient. Good boost for morale

3)

This is team 3. You have from left at the back, the Machine gunner and spotter for the sniper Hill (or Sloth) Team Leader Nick Steshko (or Stitch), Asst Team Leader Chris Knipe (or Vicious). In front from left the Radio man (RTO) Dan Winton (tits), turret gunner and ARTO Rob Graham (DUI or Pappy) and sniper Dan Levine (Jewy)

4)

Here's Rob graham with our Terp Ted. Ted's excellent but not as spot on with his english sometimes.

5)

 Here's Stitch again in the truck. He doesn't ride with me but this is someone else's pictures. On his shoulder you can see his speaker for his radio.

6)

I thought this was funny. This is a wall surrounding the house we were living in. It was a veritable fortress and the gate was to be kept closed to keep baddies out and the dog in. But malachi's pointing out that this isn't always the case.

7)

Here i am on patrol, enjoying myself and relaxing. I like my job.

8) here's a picture of my thumb while they were stitching it up. Blegh! I am putting this at the end if you really need to see it.

9)

I like this picture because you can see the contrast in culture. on the left is the American forces in the humvee all armoured up geared for war. And 50 meters away is a few women carrying food or laundry back to their homes. you can see the greenery from the nearby water. It's not this green everywhere, just around water sources. also you can see the type of buildings they have from sun baking clay

10)

Here's the house we were staying in. It's huge and FEW houses are this nice. We didn't kick anyone out however, this house has been in the hands of Coalition forces for a while. we just borrowed it while the unit we were supporting moved elsewhere. (Any offers?)

11)

A few kids on their way to school. The women only cover up from 16-30 or so. when they get comfortable with their husband or are very young they wear this sort of apparell. This child on the left is very happy we just gave him a bag full of crayons, papers, pencils and colouring books. I bet he still wants a football.

12)

This picture was taken from a humvee. the kids were all on their way to school and didn't bother us too bad. they were very friendly in this area and the best way to read that sort of atmospherics is from the kids.  

well that's all the time i have. there's more pictures in the works so just sit tight and relax and enjoy the show. if you have any questions about anything feel free to ask.  

poetically,    Jeremiah

Yep here is the thumb

174      

WITH THE guys all back i'm able to send a few more pictures that I put together. Everyone gives me their cameras, i compile them on my computer and then they can send home all the pictures on a cd that i burn for them. This way, not everyone is swapping cameras and losing pictures.    

As usual, if in order:

1)

Here's Jason Mann (Mannimal) and my platoon commander, Capt Flores (flo) getting the coordinates for that house. Chris Knipe (vicious) is in the background checking out a room. You can see that Mannimal has seen something over my shoulder that he's keeping an eye on. It happened to be the next target house. 2)

Here I am relaxing in the house while the males in the next room are being questioned about the area. The kids in front of me nag me for candy or footballs and i try to keep them entertained or i scare them away. In this case, i was feeling friendly

3)

Here's the kid i was entertaining. they like to see themselves on a camera and think it's like being on TV. i see this picture and think, "Hello!"

4)

Here's Steven Kaliszewski (or Ski) with Ted our interpretter talking with the head of the household about the area.

5)

I found a stash of cocaine so i did a few lines. just kidding, it was flour and i thought i'd goof off and relax everyone a bit.

6)

Ski and I were in a house holding security downstairs. The whole family stayed in a room and wouldn't come out. The kids stood inthe doorway but when we looked at them they'd run back inside. Except this tyke. He sat next to ski and we just made funny noises ("Zing! Pop! Cabooooooza!") while he just stared fascinated at Ski.

7)

Here they are from where i was sitting. We also let him try on our helmet and sunglasses

8)

we entered a school to check it out and i found classrooms full of kids! so i thought i'd goof off and teach them stuff. their teacher spoke rough english and loved it posing for several pictures encouraging the kids to come up. I sent this one because it's more candid though. the kids were learning to read and write english and there was a 50:1 student teacher ratio.

9)

Here's Team 2. From left to right is Greg Reynolds (Rey), the ARTO and driver, Ivan Cherry the RTO, Scott Reams (Scott-bot) as the pointman, standing is Tim Donoho (D-ho) as the team leader, standing next to him is Monz (Monzarelli) as the sniper and in front of them is Kenneth Richter (Honey-bear) as the Spotter for the sniper and Asst. Team leader. Next to them is Gunny John Hayes our platoon sergeant and second in command.    

ok i got to go. hope you enjoyed these pictures!  

Emphatically,    Jeremiah

Diane,

Thank you. All these young men are brave and deserve our support whatever we believe about the war. They are the ones who allow us an opinion that we can express. Thank you for your compliment. They have many more months to go so keep watching.

173  

I HAVE 247 days left until my EAS or End of Active Service. That's the day I leave the Marine Corps and begin my venture into the civilian life. Regular haircuts, no shaving, and not being arrested for showing up late somewhere. I can't wait. Each day that goes by is another day closer to that date. It's the real count down for me.    

But here, each day is a struggle with your emotions of home, a girlfriend or wife, and the threat of getting hurt. Recently I've been trying to get my mind around the fact that the only reason i keep saying, "i miss home" is because i'm supposed to. I have good friends here, good food and i get paid well. Plus i enjoy my job so what's to miss? It is hard to convince myself of this fact because with every call home, or email to you guys, i get love and attention and people who want me safe. It's hard to feel ok when you know you cause worry and concern because of your actions.    

In this email i am just planning on ranting and spitting my thoughts on in an email. The last couple emails were pictures but it's the wordy emails that seem to garnish the most responses and passion.    

When i am out in the field, i work with my platoon closely. The 22 guys and maybe a few attachments sleep, eat and fight together side by side keeping watch over the others sleeping and making sure the others are OK. But we all have friends in other platoons that are working in different areas at the same time.    Last year, i mentioned this about my friend David D'errico but he is now on a MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit) snowboarding and drinking $20 beer in exotic ports. I'm gonna give him a hard time.   

This year however, Josiah Bailey is in another platoon and is a close friend of mine so we don't hear from him or about him until we get back and you see everyone unloading the trucks and squaring away gear. We do what i call, the post-mission-hug. You're relieved to see he's alive, that he's ok and that his friends are ok too and so you give him a hug and walk on. No one needs to say anything or really swap stories. You're both equally tired and are busy but you exchange that relief and it's understood. This is how i greeted my platoon when they came back while i was here.      

In a past email i mentioned that the Sunni and Shia were at war with each other and still despite our presence seemed to convey the intentions of continuing this struggle once we had left. You just want to smack them. But whilst talking with my interpreter about something he remarked, "becoz I hade my fuggin country." It wasn't the first time i had heard that. My interpreter last year said the same thing, while lying in a ditch, smoking a cigarette with rounds flying over his head.     

This interpreter is new, only working with Marines for 2 months now. Few interpreters end up working with recon because apparently they don't want to be put on these kind of missions. but the few that do, are good guys and we treat them as we treat each other. They save our lives with their skills just as we save each others.      Interpreters get to pick their names when they join so it's easier to say, and ours picked Ted after his favourite actor Ted Dansen. He learned English watching seinfeld as well and always seeks to better himself. I've already made a comedy movie depicting the struggle of interpretting the english that comes out of his mouth.       

My stitches come out tomorrow and my thumb looks a lot better. The scars are starting to form and i can move it around without too much pain. It doesn't really have a full range of motion and it's all but i can't wait to have my hand back and actually be able to help the platoon.      

I had a lot to write but of course my mind has blanked again. It's good to get it out though. It's like talking to a crowd of people except a lot easier because i can't see you. Can you believe that of the people reading this, there are several parents of Marines in the platoon, people from the Lion's Club, a convent, several churches, numerous schools and even a gentleman who works on space shuttles. Incredible how things spread.     A day doesn't go by when i don't add someone to my email list or receive a number of compliments. Thanks for all of you for reading and responding. It's already been over a month since I've been here. We've done great things so far all of which i can't share though.    

Continue to pray for upcoming missions, safety and that no one else gets hurt. We need everyone.   Pneumonically,     Jeremiah

170

    LOTS OF you have been unsure as to what the count is anymore, thinking that I am now counting down to my EAS (when I leave the USMC). This is not the case. I am still counting down to when I get back  because for most of you that is what rings home (pun intended).

    I have attached a few more pictures that I'll describe for you here shortly and hope that they work. This is the new email address to write to so I'm not sure exactly if it worked at all. But as usual if in order:

1)

This is me for some reason not looking at whoever is taking the picture. With my candid shots, I usually pose for them which doesn't make them candid at all I know. But in this case I might have been listening to the radio on my head. Some of you might be wondering why I'm wearing the Iraqi flag as well on my gear. I wear that with my Capt because when the Iraqi's ask the same question I am able to say, "I am here from America, fighting for you and your freedom. I am fighting for Iraq, and that's why I wear your flag." It gives me something to talk to them about and they can see and get a little pride themselves. The writing says something about God.

2)

Here's a random picture. We were switching over gear from one truck to another and you can see how the platoon is all working together. Everything is laid out and everyone is working to get it all sorted out regardless if they ride in the truck or not.

3) This is Dan Winton, another member of the platoon. He's a guy in Team 3 and serves as the RTO. He's a goofball and doesn't usually look that intense.

4)

Here's Dan Winton on the left and Dan Levine on the right both in Team 3. In the background you can see our Gunny, John Hayes trying to light up a pipe as he's run out of Copenhagen dip

5)

Here's the platoon in the firmbase relaxing. The firmbase is usually a house segregated from the rest of the village and has a rooftop wall around it. This way we can man the house for security when we're not on missions. This area was the eating area and was where people relaxed in the shade or just talked about home, work, guns, the last patrol, girls, MREs or what they plan on doing after the USMC.

6)

Here's Nick Steshko, the Team leader for Team 3. I'm not sure what he's doing, but it's not tactical. On his rifle you can see his M203 grenade launcher and unlike me, he wears his headset on his armour where he can hear it, not on his head.

7)

Here's a picture of Chris Knipe who's the Assistant Team Leader for Team 3. We found this kid who we dubbed Crazy Larry who had down syndrome. He followed us around after we gave him a cup of Raisin Bran. He wore those same easter colour clothes the entire time we were out there. In fact, apparently when we drove away and stopped down the road, he ran ½ mile to catch up to us. This is simply one of the many pictures we took of him.

8)

Here's Stephen Kaliszewski, the Team leader for team 1 catching a bit of shade with our interpreter, Ted. Ted of course looks a little more relaxed while Ski maintains that security posture. I was serving point man for that patrol and turned around to snap the picture. Ski also prefers to carry a M203 on his rifle. It can shoot high explosive grenades, illumination rounds or rubber balls and batons. It holds a whole variety of ammunition for different occasions. I just prefer not to because it impairs your shooting stance.

9)

Here I am again teaching the class but this was when I just showed up. I was yelling "SALAM!" and then putting my hand out to indicate them to yell back. It took a bit but eventually they got the picture and we had all the teachers (and a few Marines) poking their heads in to see why the 50 or so kids were yelling "SALAAAAAAAM!" OH children.

10)

Finally here's Ed McDevitt finding a bit of irony in the trucking company name.

    I've added a lot more people to the list of recipients on this email distribution so I want to explain a few of my rules. I don't usually write what I do or where I'm going. I don't say if anyone's been hurt or killed or if we killed anyone either. I won't say when we'll leave or when we'll get back so please don't ask for any of that information. All of that is to protect our operational security and also because a lot of what we know, you will hear in a few months when it gets released.

    With that said, I will leave in a few days and I'll be gone for a while. If you don't hear from me, that's GOOD news. If anything ever happened to me, I'm sure my parents would email this group and let them all know if I couldn't myself. So please just be patient and wait for another update and of course, more exciting pictures.

     I wanted to also explain a bit about why I fight. Most of you thank me for fighting for the freedoms of America or for keeping you safe and yes, that is what I'm doing. But once things start to go wrong all I end up thinking about is that if I don't put this guy down, he might hurt someone in my platoon. I rarely think about what would happen to me because we all seem to have this "I'm invincible" syndrome (or at least I do). Many times when things have gone wrong, I've found myself thinking about the others in the platoon or team and wondering if they were safe and secure.

    This is what the warrior ethos is. The Band of Brothers mentality, the fighting spirit or whatever you wish to call it. It's how we bond together. I thought about this last night when I wondered what to write today. Is it because we suffer together? Is it because we fight together? I think it's a bit of both. When we're walking through the night over canals and someone falls in, it sucks to be wet and cold, but you're wet and cold together.

     A gunny that I know here said "Recon Marines almost take pleasure in being uncomfortable." This is true. I talked with a few guys about this the other day. We pointed out that when we're back in the wire, time crawls because you think of home, and you're not doing anything. When I say that, I mean not working as a recon marine. But when you leave the wire and you're out in the field all you think about is security, patrolling and the mission at hand. Making sure you're corner of the house is secure. Watching for any doors to pop open or looking through NVGs for a FAG (Fighting Age Guy) running through a field.

    By the way, that acronym is my own personal, not a military one.

    But all these factors help the time to fly. You never know what day it is without looking at your watch and you're not aware of the date. You miss the chow and the showers and a bed but you're with your guys and you're all suffering together so it really isn't that bad. The worse it is, the more we laugh.

    I can't seem to explain exactly what I'm trying to say and that's partly the fact that movies or books haven't seemed to grasp or portray it just right. And I seemed to have failed in the same area.

Despite my signature appearing on the bottom (hopefully) I'm still going to sign the emails the way I always have:

Surreptitiously,

  Jeremiah Vandekar

Ps that took forever to write correctly

Alex, thanks for your prayers.

Jeremy's email address has changed, if any one wants the new address just email me and I will forward it to you.

He had his stiches out yesterday, and it seems the skin had grown in over the stitches. They offered him Novacaine to remove them as it seemed it was pretty painful. However he refused and just took them out himself as the nurse was hurting him so much. He siad it was really painful. He could not get the last stitch so they gave him a shot of novacaine and then the nurse got it out. typical Recon Marine, got to look tough in front of everyone else. Last deployment they were on an airforce base that got mortared, everyone ran for cover, they just looked up and as they were at chow decided that the mortars were far enough away it was not worth missing chow for.

 He seems pretty well healed up from his little accident and is looking forward to getting out of the wire as he calls it. I know he hates being left behind and not adding/helping the platoon or team do its job. He also worries about "his" guys as he calls them when he is not with them. This bond is something we civilians will never understand although he tried in his own way to describe a little of it in todays email.

Pat thank you for stopping by and thank you for your prayers they are always appreciated.

Alex - you always have great ideas. I will have to let him know. He was planning to make Florida home after he gets back from Iraq so he can go to university there, but not sure what the plan is currently as he was talking about N. Carolina. We will just have to wait and see.

Maura Gebhardt from Atlanta had emailed me and told me she was sending Jeremy some packages, well eight to be exact. I was amazed at her and her clients generosity. For a quick report from her go to Our Pilgrimmage to the Post Office which shows a photo of Maura and her team. Thank you Maura and have a great Thanksgiving.

We have received an onslaught of emails today from Jeremy. They returned from a long mission and he shared a mass of photos. i will try to post these all here as seperate comments so you understand each email. This first email has no photos.

"ARRAJA! ARRAJA!" The words tear out across the sparse Iraqi countryside reaching the curious ears of the Iraqi people watching our convoy. It's "Ted", our interpreter, telling the people to watch out, stay inside and keep your doors closed. Why? There's an IED (improvised explosive device) in the middle of the road and we're gonna blow it up. A countdown comes over the radio for the detonation and we all huddle inside our vehicles or behind some cover and wait for the literal breath-taking explosion.

We're not disappointed. The detonation goes off without a hitch reducing the dangerous obstacle to nothing more than bits of metal. We all turn off our cameras and pile out of our cover to check to make sure no wild shrapnel has somehow found its way into someone's leg.

Such was the last 14 days we spent out in the field. We worked very hard. The first couple days were 8-11 hour missions, coming back to sleep or eat and then leaving again. We work for another unit which is a contrast to last year when we owned battle space. Let me explain.

A unit such as mine can own a particular part of Iraq, conducting all the missions in that area required; census operations, observation posts or vehicle check points. That unit will typically not get to move to different areas but maintain that part. This time around, we are instead supporting a larger unit so we can work in a larger part. We go where we're needed and perform tasks more specific to our job capability.

I'm going to talk about a few things now that popped into my head while I was out in the field. It might transition from one thought to the next rather haphazardly but that's how I think.

Fourteen days is a long time to be continuously doing your job. I kept telling myself at first it was two weeks which is shockingly misleading. You see two is a rather small number compared to fourteen. But in this case two is equivalent to fourteen and fourteen is in the double digits! There you go, double. Bringing two in again. You can obviously see that madness has struck.

Fortunately we did have a few things to break up the monotony of eating MREs (Meals Ready to Eat). Firstly, MREs are one of those things you choose what you'd rather not eat, and grab the other one. It says "Chicken breast" on the front but it doesn't look and especially doesn't taste like any chicken breast I ever ate. And MREs have a tendency of clogging your system. Also, even though there is "fruit" and "vegetables" in an MRE, I have yet to find an expiration date. A little scary if you ask me. Last year one of our guys fed a stray puppy part of their MRE and when the puppy got sick and started to vomit they had the Corpsman check him out. Apparently the Corpsman said, "you guys can't feed him that stuff! It'll kill him!" Sooooo, why are we eating it?

As I was saying, we had a few events that helped break up the constant cycle of missions and eating. Of course there was Turkey Day and we got the opportunity to call home from the satellite phone. We all ended up using it in the evening since it's afternoon/morning there when we do. I made a few calls and it cheered me up considerably. I had originally hoped NOT to be able to call on Turkey Day or Christmas. My reason is because if I have the opportunity to call and the line is too long and I can't, my family would be upset. And then if I DO get the chance, it'll just upset me hearing everyone else.

        But I called and it wasn't like that at all. And I don't think we'll be out for Christmas either. On that note, please don't send me any gifts or expensive because firstly, you've been very generous already as it is and keep in mind I have to take this stuff back in the few bags I have allotted to me. I don't want to sound so assuming that you were even thinking about it.

        We also had a birthday out in the field. Dan Levine's parents also receive this email and they sent me a box full of streamers, balloons, party plates and invitation, noise makers and of course SpongeBob hats. I figured it would be more memorable out in the field than back in the rear so we set up a room at the house with all the party decorations and called him in from a random job we had him doing. SURPRISE! It was fun to break out of the rhythm and the whole platoon got in on it.

        After so many days of not showering or changing clothes you can imagine the funk that begins to build. Fortunately you don't really smell yourself or others because it builds slowly. But when you come back from a particularly long hot mission and everyone takes off their boots to sleep you can feel your eyes begin to water and your nostrils begin to catch fire. Certain people in the platoon already have that reputation attached to them and I was sleeping in a room with one of them. You start to see salt lines develop where the sweat collects on your clothes and your hands begin to darken not from the sun but from the dirt. And yet we eat with our hands all the time. One thing I always find amusing is the use of hand sanitizer. The Corpsman have an endless supply so after a mission or before we eat you rub some on your hands and VOILA! Clean again right? Uh......right.

        Speaking of sleeping; I have a tendency to sleep talk. I always have since I was a kid and I've always done it since. When I sleep in an unusual area or after a long pent up day I tend to talk more regularly. Well in California during our desert training I was infamous for my "We have SPIES! SWEET!" I woke up and yelled that in the middle of the night and heard about it all the next week. Last Op, I woke up and said, "We just have to use Spiderman's powers and swing!" I never remember it the morning after but I always hear about it.

        I sleep talk almost every night but most of it is mumbling or something. Well this time I yelled at the top of my lungs "GET EVERYONE AGAINST THE WALL! GET AGAINST THE PINK WALL!" I have no idea what I was dreaming about but the team I was sleeping with woke up and started to get real anxious thinking a mission was actually brewing. Well of course I heard about it the next day but they never politely tell me I've been sleep talking. It always comes out with, "Vandekar, find me a pink wall in this f*cking building." And then after a confused debate and I insist there is none, they conclude that therefore no one can get against it and walk off with me standing bewildered and unsure as to the sanity of the person.

        Silly string got the reputation somewhere as being a great way to find booby-trapped rooms or wires connected to IEDs. I have yet to find one of those wires but I see the idea behind it. We've found a different use for it though. Kids come up and constantly ask for soccer balls (football mista!) and chocolate (Choco-latté!). It gets really annoying so we've found that spraying the kids with silly string sends them running. Who knows, maybe they think it's poison.

        Usually however, I'm the humanitarian one in the platoon. I pack my drop pouch with dumdums, jolly ranchers and any other candy I have from packages. Chocolate is the most valued however. When we go into a house to talk to the owners in a civilized manner, I hand out candy to the kids. I try to get them to do something for me like recite their ABCs or count to 10 in English but they can usually get it regardless. On a raid or a harder hit for an actual target, I wear a skull mask. It's very fearsome and at the very least, gives me the mentality that I'm terrifying. I've also found that the kids won't take chocolate from me no matter how close I get or how big the bar is. They just don't want a candy bar from a skeleton with a gun. I guess when I think about though, I wouldn't either.

        Lastly before I go into the pictures, our interpreter did a fantastic job. We're incorporating him more as a brother into the platoon. He saves our lives even without a gun and so has earned himself a spot. He is still an Iraqi and so can't be briefed on missions but we treat him with respect and he has been a great asset for us.

        I'm going to send the pictures in individual emails since this seems to be long enough for now. I hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as I've enjoyed writing it!

Lymph Nodally,

    Jeremiah

154

        I GOT a lot of good responses from the last email and as promised here are a few of the pictures I took. I have thirty or so to send so here's the first batch of many. This email is to show you how we're goofing off and having a good time regardless of environment. Of course, if in order:

1)     

Here's Dan Levine on his birthday. It's Recon tradition to paddle the marine with a fin but of course we didn't have one so Stitch here is using his hands. I didn't join in. Something just didn't feel right about smacking his rear.

2)     

 Here's Ski, one of the team leaders with Vicious on his shoulders and Tits in his arms. Excuse the nicknames. Chris Knipe is on his shoulders and Dan Winton is in his arms.

3)     

Here's Dan taking a much needed break from sitting in the drivers seat of the humvee during a mission. He's a driver so he doesn't leave the vehicle and moves it into a good position for the gunner to cover us on the ground. Of course humvees aren't the luxurious hummers from the civvy world and it can get uncomfortable and cramped. You can also see a bit of his unique sense of humor in his patch on his gear.

4)     

Here's Chris and I clearly exaggerating our security posture. At the time Chris was covering me while I munched on a few nuts from trail mix. Then Dan said he was taking the picture and the trail mix disappeared and these two studs appeared.

5)     

Stitch used the silly string on the kids to get them away from us and yet we see here no matter how much silly string you apply to Dan, he's still there. Anyone got something stronger?

6)     

While we cleared an enclosed area, I found a bike and had to make sure it was safe to use.

7)     

 I included this one just to show you that I still had security. As I passed Doc Ward (Darkness) on the knee I yelled, "DOC! COVER ME!!" He just laughed.

8)     

Here's another picture from Dan's party just before we paddled him.  We hung the banner on the right there but the streamers we tied around our heads like Rambo. The plates we threw at him when he entered and the invitations we dumped all over his cot. I think the only thing we used correctly were the hats. Marines will be Marines. Just for face recognition, Jason Mann is on the left, next to the tall Tim Donoho, Dan's in the doorway and Aaron Ward is on the right.

Ok that's all for this email. I'll keep these next few emails strictly to pictures and hopefully they'll go through alright.

Patiently,

   Jeremiah

154

        This email is strictly to show you the crazy and bizarre things we see while we're out and help us to understand why we'll never win and yet why they'll never win either. A few pictures if in order:

1)     

Of course, a cute baby and some young girls. "You know, Gingivitis is the number one cause of all tooth decay?" And yet, despite not having a toothbrush, they asked for chocolate. Hey, who am I to play dentist? And their primary excuse for wanting things is because they have a baby.

2)     

This, of course, is the wrong way to ride a bicycle. I can't remember ever getting on a bike as a kid and not knowing which way I was supposed to go. We all just wanted to kick the back tire to teach him. If they can't at this age learn how to ride a bike, can we really expect a democracy just 20 years later in this child's life?

3)     

Two thoughts instantly popped into our heads. 1) What....the....F*CK!?!?!  And 2) Built Ford Tough. This is the police. If this police squad car rolled down your streets in the US, drugs would be off the streets, and people would instantly stop speeding. It's like something out of Robocop. "You have 5 minutes to evacuate the premises or we'll reduce your house to toothpicks. Dead or alive, you're coming with me Creep."

4)     

 Here is an Iraqi check point. I don't really need to explain why this wouldn't work. I mean any one of you can see with no military experience the many faults hidden in this picture. Will a terrorist really weave around the stones on the road? Is there no one better to man this checkpoint than a cripple? And if there isn't anyone, at least have someone else to help. I don't know, maybe he smells.

5)     

This is a toilet. There doesn't need to be an explanation. Let's just hope that isn't the chai water we drink later.

6)     

Even the cows are jacked up. It must be something in the water.

That's all for now. Another email soon to follow. I hope you enjoyed reading this because I had a good laugh on my end.

Grudgingly,

    Jeremiah

154

        THE PURPOSE of this email is to teach you a little more about what we do. It's to explain a few subtleties of our job. If in order:

1)     

Here's Ski looking toward the camera with the M203 on the bottom of his rifle. He's holding a second rifle because right now Jason Mann is digging a hole. In the foreground with the mine detector is our new boot Comm Sup PFC Hernandez. When we get a hit on the metal detector, the guy with the shovel digs. You can see with all the gear how awkward and heavy and hot this can get.

2)     

Here's Malachi Even posing on the front of the rollers. These rollers pass in front of the truck called a 7-ton. Interesting name considering it weighs 10. But that's the military for you. The idea behind this crazy contraption is that it'll hit pressure plate IEDs before the actual truck does.

3)     

 I thought at first Tits was pulling another crazy pose but he's not. He's got a radio antennae on his back and it somehow got undone. His team leader, Nick Steshko, is fixing it for him and Tits is squatting so he can be more convenient. Ivan Cherry is in the background holding security. Cherry's nickname? We just call him Cherry.

4)     

Both 4 and 5 are simultaneous. This kid was the son of an Iraqi who was assassinated by the insurgents. WE stopped outside his house by chance and usually people stay 100m away from our humvee for our and their safety. This kid just toddled up to my door. I took out a strawberry lifesaver and some toffee and opened it for him. He loved the strawberry and rolled the toffee in his hands since it felt soft. You can see his sister in the background in a red dress. We gave her a pen for her school book she had at the time. It was a Kodak moment.

5)     

See number 4

Experimentally,

   Jeremiah

154 (still)

        HERE'S THE tail end of the email that I couldn't send. I don't know how large I'm able to send in Outlook but it isn't much. I hope this one works for you:

1) 

Here's the 7-ton roller again. I didn't realize I had two pictures of it.

2)     

This is our new vehicle, the cougar. It's smaller than the 7 ton but it weighs twice as much. It's more armoured, faster, more equipped and has more radios. It's better. Levine right now is the only one who can drive it.

3)      Here's my skull mask. I'm getting a comm check right now. Usually I reduce the red eye on pictures but I thought this one was kind of appropriate.

4)     

And of course, I'll end it with a beautiful sunset in Iraq. I love to find the contrast in pictures so here you can see the natural and colourful beauty of the world contrasting sharply with the rugged edges, bland colours and artificiality of the war machine in the foreground.

Simply,

   Jeremiah

154

THIS NEXT couple batches are to introduce you to the people in the platoon. If you feel inclined to write anyone in particular just include their name on top of my address and it'll reach them. To reiterate, our address is

NAME

2d Recon Bn, B Co, 1^st Plt

Unit 76678

FPO, AE 09509-6678

If in order:

1)     

Malachi Even has subjected himself to torture. He's smart enough to try and spice up his MRE with Tobasco sauce though. He used to live in India and Mexico though so I'm sure it barely tickles his spicy taste.

2)     

 Yeah ok, I was sitting with him as well probably not enjoying what I was putting in my mouth by the looks of it. There really isn't much to these pictures other than that.

3)     

Here's Gunny John Hayes, our platoon Sgt. All geared up and ready for war. Whatever you do, don't call him Gunny Highway (from Heartbreak Ridge)

4)     

Our entire platoon plus some. Ok so here goes from the bottom row on the left with the bandanna: Greg Monz, Greg Reynolds, John Hayes, Aaron Ward, Michael Hernandez, Dan Winton (with the knife), lastly Jeremy Guarino. Starting on the left again with Ted the terp standing, then Capt Albert Flores, Kenny Richter, John Hill, Nick Steshko, with Rob Graham turned sideways. Dan Levine has his rifle in front of Ivan Cherry's face. Levine is standing in front of Zach Guenard who's next to Ed Mcdevitt with the machine gun. Back on Ed's right is Scott Reams with Chris Knipe with the hat backwards behind Ivan. I'm far on the left again behind Ted and Capt Flo. Next to me is an attachment Clary, then Tim Donoho. Finally the three sitting on the humvee is from left Steven Kaliszewski, Jason Mann and Malachi Even. Ok, quiz on that tomorrow.

5)     

Here's Jason Mann. His voice is as deep as Barry Manilow. That thing on his helmet will hold his NODs (Night Optic Device) at night.

6)     

Here's Zach Guenard. Those two handles on his back are bolt cutters for troublesome locks.

More to come...

Repeatedly,

   Jeremiah

154

        HERE'S A few more faces to remember. Hopefully as I continue to do this over the next 5 months you'll become familiar with faces and names. When we all come back in April/May time frame you'll know everyone and can give them all awkward hugs since they won't know who you are. Unless of course you're their parents.

As usual, if in order:

1)     

Here's Nick Steshko poking his head into the humvee. He's looking toward Chris's seat so I'm guessing he's asking his Assistant Team Leader a question regarding the notes in his hand.

2)     

Here's Zack Guenard with our Terp, Ted relaxing for a second before jumping up and continuing talking to the locals.

3)     

This is Rob Graham with a package we got while we were out in the field. There are positives and negatives to mail. It can give you a morale boost or a downer depending on your personality. Sometimes also, we'll get boxes and of course that means we have to truck it back to base and there can be a lot of mail thanks to you all!!

4)     

This is Graham again with some Christmas trees and a hat prematurely I guess. We put these in the house where we slept though. I love Christmas!!

5)     

This is Chris Knipe. Iraqi's always squat like this for whatever reason and it's good for us because it takes the weight of the armour of your shoulders for a second while your legs take the heat. He's also eating some hobas bread which is much like pita bread.

6)     

This is me on the right with Steven Kaliszewski on the left. My rifle doesn't usually have a M203 grenade launcher but I'm borrowing Jason Mann's for the picture.

That was quick wasn't it.

Painlessly,

   Jeremiah

154

        WHAT A treat huh? So many emails and so much eye candy. Stay back girls, some of these guys have girlfriends and some even have wives. I guess you can't help it with studs like this:

1)     

 I love these shades. I get crap for them all the time but I wear them regardless. So trendy huh? And to think only $2 at a thrift store. Sadly though, they went missing the very last day we returned. I don't think I'll find another pair quite like them. I was pulling rooftop watch at the time for a bunch of guys who were hitting a nearby building

2)     

My fearless leader deep in thought holding his radio before a mission. That orange thing on his right is a burn blanket to smother flames and the med-kit for the vehicle is on his left.

3)     

A fantastic picture if I can say so! Nick Steshko on the left with Chris Knipe on the right. The leadership for Team 3.

4)     

Another great picture. Steven Kaliszewski on the left with Jason Mann on the right. The leadership for Team 1.

5)     

Dan Winton. I can never tell if he's pulling a face or squinting at the sun. Maybe a bit of both.

6)     

Here's Steve and Nick one morning at breakfast. I guess Nick didn't get it.

Two more emails to come but that's all for the friendly face bunch.

Slowly,

   Jeremiah

154

        ALMOST AT the final batch of pictures. No please, don't thank me. I enjoy sharing with you because I know you enjoy seeing what we do and it interests you. If your not interested you delete these and so I never hear about it anyway. And so the magical internet audience satisfies everyone. These next sets are more scenic I thought and I liked the artistic quality behind them. I might not have much to say but just enjoy seeing what we did.

If in order:

1)     

Here's Nick by the looks of the gear popping what we call "the Haji squat". I liked seeing the poise and balance that he held while overlooking his area.

2)     

Myself, Malachi Even and Jason Mann prayed before each mission we left. Here we're joined by Steven Kaliszewski and in later days we invited another guy we saw reading a Bible. I also saw from later pictures that people were watching so it's good to bring people together before the Lord, whether you're in the circle or not. We took turns praying each day for the safety of our guys, that the iraqi's would fight us clean and that we'd be successful in our tasks.

3)     

 The contrast again I see here I thoroughly enjoy. Here Knipe is procuring information from a local but it appears he's stubborn.

4)     

I couldn't resist feeding these picturesque lambs and I even climbed into the cage to see if I could grab a kid to eat later. Oh, a kid is a baby lamb, not a child. (I have sent Jeremy an email explaining the differences between lambs, kids, calf, foals etc. Dad.)

5)     

This child holding the candy bar up was next door to a house we were talking to. He stood on a chair when we pulled up looking out over his front wall to catch a glimpse of the American Forces. I was 10 feet away but he hadn't seen me and his brother kept trying to get his attention to no avail. Finally his view panned and he saw me and fell off the chair in a hurry to get down and inside from surprise. I tossed him this candy bar, laughing to myself.

One more batch on the way and that'll be it for the evening.

Curtly,

   Jeremiah

 This last email received today lost its attachement. Hopefully the photos will arrive soon and I will add them later. Yep, it arrived this morning, enjoy.

 154

        THE LAST and final set of pictures to wrap up the evening. I could've included a few of these in the people emails but it rounds out the numbers this way so *shrug*.

If in order:

1)     

 More smiling faces and of course, more chocolate. Pig tails and colourful sweaters made these little girls stand out to me. Obviously given to them by American Forces (note the English words on the front).

2)     

A few guys in the platoon sitting down to breakfast before setting out on the day's mission. Malachi Even's holding up some special seasoning given to him by his family no doubt and of course you can see his trusty Tobasco sauce at his side.

3)     

A beautiful night sky over Iraq. I've never seen the Aerora Borealis (spelling) but I've got to some day.

4)     

This wasn't Thanksgiving but it was maybe the other time we got a hot meal. Jeremy Guarino was a guy not in our platoon but in our company and he came out with us to lend a hand. He's the one holding up his chicken.

5)     

Three salty Marines relaxing on rooftop smoking a few stogies and talking about life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. What else is there to talk about? I'm on the left, then Chris Knipe and Nick Steshko.

And I'm afraid that's all for the pictures you'll get from me. Let me know which ones you found the best or most aesthetically pleasing. Which emails were most informative? Which ones did you laugh at? What do you want more of? I have tons of pictures and I collect them from everyone in the platoon after each mission to create my movies which I'll post when we're back in the states on youtube.com. I hope now you can see the faces and bodies that protect you and can focus more of your appreciation now on them, that was once lost on an entire military.

Grudgingly,

   Jeremiah

153

        REPUTATION IN my line of work is a huge issue and plays a large role in your successes and position in your platoon/team. For example, if you go to a school to train and cry, complain, or give up then the people who see it remember. Your reputation precedes you and rank, though respected, doesn't mean a thing when you're a solid, hard working individual who goes out looking for initiative.

        Why am I telling you this? Well my reputation has been set as well. I have been in this Battalion for a little over 2 years and so my face is known, but I was not aware of how well my name was. Though Vandekar is an uncommon name, I don't particularly crack jokes with the guys who work in the other offices or other platoons. So I had assumed I was more of a gray man.

        My aviators however, have made me famous. I've attached two pictures so you can see how ridiculously AWESOME they were. "Were?" I hear you procure. Yes, I've misplaced them while we were last out in the field and I believe they aren't coming back. I told one person, the Chaplain and since that day people have been stopping me and commenting. I was at the chow hall eating quietly when an officer I've seen around the battalion stops at my table and says:

"I heard about your casualty," says Capt Weber.

"Casualty? Huh?" I respond quizzically.

"Yeah. Your aviators. I'm sorry to hear you lost them. They were awesome."

"Thank you, sir. Yes they were."

        Another time, I went to a class with an officer I was unfamiliar with and he was teaching me alone about specific equipment and started right off with, "Ok, Vandekar..." Afterwards I said, "Sir, I've never met you. How did you know my name?" His response:

"I saw you around the Battalion once with your aviators and I thought that guy is cool. So I asked and they said, oh that's Vandekar."

        A final example is another officer got a set of aviators and immediately his colleagues found me and informed me that I had to correct him. Apparently he was wearing them wrong and I was the sole guardian of the correct way. In fact I was told to tell him to just take them off altogether.

        So now we get to the point of the email. I've got to have aviators. I refuse to wear the issued Oakleys because I'll have to turn them back in when I check out of the USMC and if I lose them, I'll pay. Plus, more importantly it's not my style. I don't like asking for anything but I'm asking you all to send a pair of aviators. You pick ‘em. When you see a pair that says, "I am aware these sunglasses are obnoxious and make me appear blind, but I'm too cool to care" then that's the kind I want. Call it a Christmas present. Don't go spending $60 on a pair of nice ones, go to a thrift store as I did and spend $3 on a cheapo stylish look.

Trendily,

    Jeremiah

151

        MAYBE IT'S because of the holiday season, maybe it's because of the amount of people I write or maybe even due to the comets in the sky. But for whatever reason I have gotten an unprecedented amount of packages and letters from all of you back home. I am attempting to write back tonight to catch up. If you have taken the time to write me or send a package it always helps to receive a letter back to encourage you and help you to realize that we're not a brick wall.

        Anyway, this is just a short email to say Thank You from the bottom of my heart for all your generosity. Right now I wanted to thank especially the Gebhardt Group in Georgia, St David's Church, Faith Covenant Church, Goshen Baptist and Resurrection Grammar School in New York. I don't know how many of you get our addresses or who you know me through but thanks very much for sending all the things you have. I am trying to write back but obviously I can't respond to the 120 letters from the Grammar school!! I'll do my best to write however to the collective and thank you personally.

        God bless you all this Christmas season. I am currently listening to Christmas music which happens to be my favourite part of the holiday season. Decorating the tree with my family with the music playing was my favourite part. I'm sure you all have traditions and memories from Christmas.

        It's not getting too cold here for a Philadelphian (as some call me, Filthadelphian) but at night it's cold enough to wear a hat and gloves. The guys from Florida bundle up in their fleeces, neck gators and shove their hands in the pockets but I refuse to wear warm clothes until the day is equally cold.

        Thanks again for writing or sending things and everything was a big hit. I appreciate everything you've done even if I can't be there to tell you myself.

Graciously,

   Jeremiah

149

              I GOT a few questions from someone and I thought they were very deep and answered a lot further into the general idea I was portraying in the last email. Though it also helped me realize that some things were misunderstood so I thought instead of answering this four or five times, I should just answer it once to the larger majority.

Since you knew joining the Marines that you would be in harm's way, why did you want to do that?

            I joined the Marines for a number of reasons, none more right than the other. The first and foremost reason was I wanted to fly. The Royal Marines wouldn't have me, the Navy and Airforce said I had to attend their academies and I wasn't a citizen so I couldn't. But the Marines said they would let me become a pilot, I just had to go to college first. I went to Penn State picking Aerospace Engineering as a major, but soon realized this wasn't any different than what I was doing for the last four years. I was still learning obscure things I didn't believe I needed to learn. So being the young, impatient kid I was (and still am) I went to the recruiters office and enlisted in the USMC.

            I chose the Marines because they're the best. Everything they can do, they do better than the others. Not every Marine is better than everyone else, but the Marines are always better than the other branches at what they do. Even though I chose Infantry as my job and knew we were at war with Iraq, I didn't really understand that I was going to be put in harm's way. I don't know if in Boot Camp when they told us 100% of us were going to Iraq that it meant I was going to be in harm's way. I just trained to do what they told me and most of it was a first for me. Hand-to-hand combat, bayonet training, marksmanship, marching....it was all the first time I had done it.

What is it in you that makes you willing to face your fear?

            In reference to going into a house or stepping off on a mission that we're told could be bad, I think I face the fear because of the man to the left and right. I've explained this before and you've heard it from movies. We all count on each other and the minute one of us falters or breaks rank, the others pick him up for his sake and their own. When someone wakes up late to go set up the trucks, he is punished because though that act cannot take someone's life, in the field if you are late for extract then you can't go home and that can.

            I guess the bottom line is, I am willing to face the fear of getting killed because it would hurt me more if someone else was. Whether that be my kids who have to continue to fight this war, or my friend who fights it now.

Why did you choose a very hard and fearful inducing career in the Marines?

            This is easy. I was in infantry school and you have to pick your MOS (Marine Occupational Specialty- job). You could choose rifleman, machine gunner, mortar man, assault man (rocket launcher), or TOW gunner (Vehicle rockets). I was interested in the assault man or machine gunner position at first. However, a Recon Marine came to infantry school and selected all the people who had outstanding test scores, swim qualification and Physical fitness scores. They were allowed to listen to a brief on what recon was about and go to a screening the next morning. I was not chosen because I was not a US citizen and so was not eligible for Secret clearance (required in recon).

            However, my best friend from Boot Camp was chosen and I stuck with him already adopting that "warrior ethos" we had been taught. I said to the gunny administering the screening, "I am not on your list only because I'm not a US citizen, but I will be. I can do it if you'll let me try."

            Out of 300 students, 50 got to hear the brief. 22 of those went to the screening to try it and 5 of us made it. We didn't know each other well until then and when we got back we were proud that we had made it. Some of the guys had tried out knowing full well what recon was, dreamed about it since they were kids. Some like me, had no idea what we were getting ourselves into but had gone knowing we could not settle until we had achieved the best we could. It was tough and stressful finishing my recon training but I did and I'm proud.

I always say to younger guys who are small like me, "If we can achieve the same thing that these big guys can, who do you think is tougher?"

Did you realize after finishing Amphibious Reconnaissance School, how great the fear would be? Or is it like getting cancer, you just don't know how you deal with it until you face it?

            I remember we did ruck runs at ARS where you run so many miles with so much weight. The hardest and longest was 50 lbs in your ruck, rifle, and canteens for 12 miles. It was really hard but the instructors told us that in the fleet we would be moving with more weight on our back. A lot more. I didn't believe them. I thought it was one of those things you told students to scare them into quitting. But last year we went on a desert OP (observation post) and we took an ungodly amount of water and batteries and all the equipment made it easily over 100 lbs. Plus we had our 80 lbs of armour to wear so I was carrying more than my body's weight.

            I did realize at ARS how dangerous it was going to be because we were conducting patrols and learning to move at night. We were learning all the old skills of land nav and moving in the woods and keeping quiet that we don't use so much today. As I was learning these things I remember thinking how alone we were going to be when we implemented these skills and how scary it was going to be. But though the fear was understood as I learned these skills, I was not able to understand just how real it was going to be.

            You can never train the way it will actually be because in training you have to make sure people are safe. You use blanks or there is no actual enemy. No matter what the training is, there is never any real threat on your life because it would be absurd to actually lose someone in training. So even if the ref in a war game points at your buddy and says he's just lost his leg and he begins to scream, your mind doesn't actually believe it because it knows that you're only in California training in the desert.

            I was fearful of being "alone and unafraid" as we call it because I was aware of the possibility of being rolled up on by a group of Iraqi's. It only takes 6 to outnumber 5 and despite all your training, the same bullet that kills him, can also kill you. When I went to Iraq the first time, I was very apprehensive and nervous. I was excited though and was on edge the whole time. This is fortunate because things went bad quickly for us then. My platoon only lost one man, but out of 24 guys, that's about 4%. And more important than the numbers was the fact that we all knew him and loved him.

            I had Fear each mission because I was aware of the danger, but my training was extensive enough that I was prepared for it. I had gone through enough drills and ranges and "KILL!" mentalities that I was prepared for the war I was facing. I was in the USMC almost a year before I went to Iraq. What I was most fearful of when I left, was the psychological impact it would have on me since I believed I had a perceptive and imaginative mind. However, I came back and I was fine and I had a loving family and friends that helped me.

That's all the questions I have time for. Very well done however and I hope this helped to answer a few remaining thoughts you had. Ask away if you got some but I might not be able to answer for a few weeks *wink*

Dauntlessly,

   Jeremiah

140

        WE'RE ONLY back for a few hours to fix a problem we had with a few vehicles but I'm taking advantage of this opportunity to send a few pictures that I have so far. I'll send out a longer email when we get back for good but for now just entertain your days with these:

1)     

Here's our motivated platoon commander standing security overlooking some fields. You can see how green it is contrary to popular belief that the whole place is a desolate desert.

2)     

Here's Omar, a kid with down syndrome or as we call him, "Crazy Larry". He's always a favourite amongst the platoon and we usually stop to hear what he has to stay. In this case we gave him one of our soccer balls which seem to be the big hit amongst the kids here. I'm sure a few hundred yards down the road he got sadly got lynched for it.

3)     

In the first picture I was taking his shovel away from him (who knows what he was doing with it) to take this picture. Then he walked away happily with a shovel and a soccer ball. It's the little things in life...

4)     

A few kids enjoying the chocolate we gave them.

5)     

A beautiful sunset picture.

6)     

I wore this hat the entire time I was out. I wear it every time we come back and even when I sleep. The white edges have turned a bit brown. In fact, some people in the platoon have tried to get me not to wear it by singing carols every time they see me. But unfortunately for them, I ENJOY carols so I don't get annoyed and simply join in or finish the words they don't know. And we also had some cereal boxes brought out to us. I gotta have my pops. But I had them with water.

7)     

Here's my gunny and captain talking about where were headed next, the platoon's security and other really important things that commanders discuss. You can see Gunny is fed up with me taking pictures of him (this was the second one).

That's all for now. I'll let you know about my thumb, the weather and adjusting to the field and a whole range of other topics when I get back.

Emphatically,

     Jeremiah

Alex,

You can send them, they will black them up or use them when not in the field. They will appreciate anything you send.

Nick

A rash of emails this morning with photos plus a phone call. All very encouraging. the first is below.

134

                  Here's the first group of pictures that'll come from a few weeks in the field. We're only back for a day or two and we'll go  back out again for a while but I thought I'd take this time to write to you and send you what I have. Though not as many pictures were taken, I got a lot of positive feedback last time so I'm sending almost everything that I have. Usually I'll filter through them and think, "maybe this one." And then not send it. This time I sent everything I had an inkling for.

                This batch just shows the few silly things we do/did.

•1)     

Here's Stephen Kaliszewski on the left with Jason Mann on the right and Ed McDevitt on the truck. It shows you how packed down with rucks we are on the initial push. We pack everything from the food stuff you send to warming layers and water.

•2)     

And of course here's the same picture with the guys not trying to act so tough. I think Ski just realized he was a boy.

•3)     

 I ended up finding my sunglasses and then accidentally stepping on them a few days later. But here's me again with the Santa hat that people got to love/hate.

•4)     

This is a ready packed meal we got but they are heads and tails above MREs. I don't know where we got them but they have Pringles, juice in a can, fruit, cookies, and stuff to make a sandwich with. That's the only questionable thing in there and that's what Ski's pulling a face at. It looks remarkably like dog food.

•5)     

Brian Rogge joined us at the end of last month since he had some issues in the States. He's a huge HUGE Ohio State fan along with Rob Graham and they flew the flag during mission prep\

•6)     

Graham saw this clever but classic picture

•7)     

 Here' Graham enjoying a breakfast/dinner of poptarts and coffee.

More to come!!!

Versacilly

        Jeremiah

134

                HERE ARE a few more people in the platoon to recognize and a few stories to go along with them. Hopefully you're starting to remember faces and get a bit of their character now. I'll hold off on the long explanation of our Op till after the pictures are sent.

•1)     

It's Winton, pulling a face again of course. It started to get pretty cold this time around.

•2)     

 I'm on the right and Captain Flores is on the left. Stitch took this picture and then said, "Way to act like a 3-year old Vandey." I took that as a compliment. You might also realize it always looks as though my ‘stache is 2 weeks old and never thicker. Every time I return to Camp Fallujah I have to keep it in USMC regulations which make it look like Hitler in my opinion, so I ditch it. And each time I leave the wire, I grow it out again.

•3)     

Here's Stitch with the Dr. Pepper, D-ho with the helmet and Ski behind him with the green boonie. We were inserting myself with Ski's team that night for an O.P. (observation post). D-ho's helmet has NVG's on it. These guys are the team leaders for the platoon.

•4)     

Here's a few guys from team 1 after an O.P. we did together. Brian Rogge is the guy on the left who joined us a little late, I'm of course in the scummy Santa hat. Mann is pretending to punch my head and Malachi Even is standing off to the right.

•5)     

 Here's Malachi Even crouched by a HMMWV wheel popping the "haji squat".

•6)     

This is Johnny Hill, the gunner for team 3.

•7)     

Rob Graham listening to his Ipod and posting a little Christmas cheer in the room where he sleeps.  Good to see someone is just as jolly.

More pictures on their way...

Breath-takingly,

                Jeremiah

134

                A SECOND batch of pictures of people maybe a little funnier than last time. Excuse my lack of enthusiasm in these emails, I'm a little tired since we just got back a few hours ago and I've been running around taking care of things.

•1)     

This was today after the O.P. that morning. Ed here is probably just happy it's all over. We got really muddy.

•2)     

This is Team 1 who I went out with for a few days of O.P.s. From Left to right; Zach Guenard the sniper, Jason Mann the Assistant Team Leader, Stephen Kaliszewski the Team Leader, Malachi Even the point-man, Brian Rogge the Radio Transmission Operator, and finally Ed McDevitt the machine gunner. Some of them are wearing tan and some are green because it is mostly green but there are still patchy spots of brown in the fields or against trunks. It just helps to throw off the eye.

•3)     

Here's Nick Steshko and Chris Knipe, the leadership for team 3.

•4)     

Here's team 2. Standing left to right is Greg Reynolds the Assistant RTO, Kenny Richter the ATL, Tim Donoho the TL, and Scott Reams the point-man. From the left on the knee is Ivan Cherry the RTO, and Greg Monz the sniper. You might notice a few positions are different or missing. The reason for this is because some TL's use people for double jobs or switch them around and tasks change.

•5)     

Here's Dan Levine posing for a picture, and apparently John Hill wasn't ready or happy about it.

•6)     

Tim Donoho, TL of team 2

•7)     

Myself and Ski

•8)     

And now also with Gunny John Hayes.

Alright, the next batch of pictures should be more geared towards Iraq and explanations.

Slowly,

   Jeremiah

134

                WHILE WE'RE out in the field, kids always ask us for chocolate, sunglasses, knives, candy or anything else those clepto's can get their hands on. Of course it's very frustrating to have to tell them every time no, no, no, no. But here's a few pictures to illustrate a little bit of how things go:

•1)     

Here's Ed, myself and Malachi tired, cold and muddy after a night of watching through NODs.

•2)     

 This kid asked for Chocolate of course, so Nick's turning the tables and saying, "if you give me your cow, we'll give you a piece of chocolate." They struck a hard bargain and didn't bite.

•3)     

Here's Tim and Ski chopping up some onions we bought on the street. To supplement our MRE diet (if you can call it that) we buy food from the Iraqi's and whip up some good stew or dish. Tim actually was a cook in New York before the USMC.

•4)     

Here's a picture that Malachi took with a few creative snaps. I don't know how to explain it like he did but bottom line is, it looks cool

•5)     

Here's team 2 returning from an OP one morning. It's freezing at night, lying on the ground and not being able to move. Also, on the insert you work up a sweat and that cools you down as the temperature drops.

•6)     

Zach here while walking to extract got so bogged down in a muddy field that we had to call a halt and get two guys to go back and pull him out. He almost left his boots behind but we pulled and yanked and got him free.

Realistically,

   Jeremiah

134

                THIS'LL BE the last set of pictures for the night. I'm going to rack out and get some hot chow in me and maybe send a wordy email tomorrow so you can read what's been happening.

•1)     

These kids were asking for chocolate and I popped out a beanie baby and gave it to one of the little girls. Oh great!! Now they were all asking for "Dowp" which means teddy bear and wouldn't leave me alone.

•2)     

This is an Iraqi police and we'd stopped by the station to hear how they were doing several times. I recognized this guy this time and called him "sadik" which means friend. So he wanted a picture. I didn't mean I wanted to be that close, and I'm showing it.

•3)     

Again, I'm the humanitarian one in the platoon. I carry most if not all of the chocolate and I pass it out to the kids. They'll cry or whine until I show up then all dry eyes and sniffly noses. Here's a few kids (though a little older than normal) probably asking for a football. I don't know what I'm doing.

•4)     

This kids flashing every American peace symbol he can think of in the hopes of getting a treat. And that's a surprisingly white kid next to him...how long have we been in this country now?

•5)     

 I sent this before but got a few error messages so I thought I'd send it again. Here's Crazy Larry and I posing for a picture.

•6)     

 And finally the picture.

•7)     

Nothing much to see here besides the obvious. We take for granted sites like this. We see countless sunsets and sunrises, and billions of bright stars each night. There are never enough of these pictures.

Till next time!!

Continuously,

   Jeremiah

133

        ON YOUR first day out of the wire after just a few days rest, there is always that first initial shock of being in a foreign country. We got back from our operation in November, spent a few days back in the wire and then left again. On base there are obviously plenty of English speaking people, internet, good food and of course a soft bed. However, the first day out of wire or on a knock and talk with an Iraqi male is always a shock.

        You're trying to remember all the Arabic you've learnt from last time. The trick phrases or key words to get someone to do what you want. A few examples are:

Ani adooj MentalaBATcoom        -       I hate your begging

Idtha Ikterabit High-coot-lick  -       If you get close, he'll kill you

Enti Eeni ________              -       Give me ___________

Shaku Maku?   Maku              -       What's happening (slang)?    Nothing

        There are different phrases for everyone. Each person has their own cheat sheets and phrases they want. For instance the gunners don't memorize the first one because they don't get asked for candy every five seconds.

        It could be the language barrier that hits you, or it could be trying to reason with Iraqi logic. Even if you are able to communicate or get your point across, there is still a disconnect between the logic found from a McDonalds culture and a hunter-gatherer culture. You can be banging into someone's house and yelling "GET OVER HERE!" in arabic but they don't want to move because they think that if they do, they're going to get shot. When in reality, someone who stays still after I've told them to get over here is more dangerous to me.

        It could be the logic adjustment or it could be the MREs that hit your system, the ground/cots you sleep on or just simply the schedule of sleeping when you can and working when you're awake. Whatever it is, the first day out is always a little strange.

        Another thing that was strange for me was the weather in the beginning. Last year I was here in the summer and it rained 3 times total. It didn't even rain really, it just drizzled twice in the beginning and once at the end. I rarely saw clouds. This time around it's the rainy season and even though there've been plenty of clouds it's only rained once. It rained one evening, fortunately while we were sleeping. We were bundled up about to go out the next morning and heard lightening and thunder which for Jason Mann who was here last rainy season, was a first. We ran out, covered up the heavy guns and radios and then ran back inside and I'm sure everyone was doing what I was; digging to the bottom of your ruck to make sure you had packed your poncho.

        It's also dropped a few degrees. It's still warm during the day (60's F) and I don't wear warming layers but at night it's gotten to where you have to have a fleece, long johns, beanie or gloves. Of course this is all issued to us but you don't need it ALL so each of us packs what you feel is necessary. The turret gunners are up in the cold wind so they usually pack the heaviest and most.

We've done a few O.P.s (Observation posts) as well which require as many warming layers as you can get. I had a friendly wager to not wear any though on my first one. I went out with team 1 and I was miserable. I was sitting in a damp, muddy ditch with nothing but my t-shirt and silk shorts under my cami's. I ended up taking someone's watch because I couldn't sleep at all. My friend Malachi told his team leader I could be coming down with hypothermia, to which I responded, "SCREW YOU!! I'll stop shivering right now!"

There's a certain pride with being a Recon Marine and that pride extends into your job. If someone starts to accuse you of being a liability over an asset you get defensive and this was the case. I didn't stop shivering however but I stood Even's watch later in the night and let the bugger sleep. This pride pushes you to do stupid things (like see if you can last a cold night with no warming layers) and pushes you to be the best so your team can lean on you instead of propping you up.

On the other hand, one has to be careful in those situations that you aren't becoming a liability and not realizing it. This is the case when you get hurt. You never want to cop out and say you can't go on a mission but sometimes (as with my thumb) you aren't going to help anyone and will just take up space if you go. That night I froze, I started the NWLC (No Warming Layers Club) maybe in my delirium. You have to go a whole night with no warming layers on, in temperatures below 40 F but here's the catch. You have to bring the layers to tempt you, and also in case you can't do it you're safe.

On another note, I want to thank you all for the mail. When we left we had planned on coming back after a few weeks so we told the Battalion to hold our mail in the mail quad. In the quad there is an area for each company and for each platoon on shelves. Well after only 4 days we got a call from Battalion telling us they needed the code for our team room. Apparently our platoon had more mail than the entire Battalion combined. They couldn't get in the quad anymore because our boxes were spilling onto the floor so they put it in our team room.

We walked into the team room after a few days out and there were boxes chest high, covering the floor. This is a 25X20 foot room (completely guessing) that holds 24 guys and their gear. Now we couldn't even get into the room!! Not only this, but we went back out and came back after a longer period of time and the room was more packed. People walked in to store their machine guns and just shook their heads and smiled. We had to cart all the packages outside because they'd clog any room or hallway. So thanks for all the support and packages and letters you sent. Don't ever feel obligated to send anything as a handwritten letter is just as if not more appreciated. Write about your day, your week or your headaches and struggles. Or the simplest support for us, is to simply pray.

I mentioned MREs before and I've complained about them. I've pointed out a few strange quirks like how the fruit or any food doesn't have an expiration date on it. Something else I noticed is the bold lettering on the front that says, "Not for commercial resale." I can't think of any reason why the government wouldn't want to make money especially selling something made so cheaply, unless of course it's dangerous, disgusting or out-dated.

When you open an MRE, you're usually sitting with a few guys eating. You open it up and the first thing you do is lay it all out and read the labels on what each item should be. You've chosen the MRE because you're pretty sure you like the ingredients inside but it's really hit or miss with these things. So you lay it all out and start to set it into two piles; things you won't eat and things you will. Some things you can just throw out or tuck back into the MRE sleeve. For me, this is always the accessory package (salt, creamer, coffee, wet wipe, toilet paper, or seasoning) and the beverage bag (for holding water if you don't have a canteen). You stick your main meal and if you have cheese into your MRE heater which takes only a few ounces of water to heat up. You set that aside and begin to hock the rest of your meal.

"Anyone want peanut butter for cheese?"

"Anyone want this Vanilla Dairy Shake?"

"YEAH!"
        "Well, whaddya got?"

Now the bargaining process begins. The guy who wants something checks over his unwanted pile and reads off the stuff. If you don't want it, he goes into his wanted pile and thinks to himself, ‘what do I want more, his item or what I've got.' Some items you just can't hock or even give away such as Pumpkin Pound Cake. After you've got your meal heated and traded out you eat.

All the leftover stuff from everyone's meal gets put into a rat-f*ck box. This ends up being 15 pumpkin pound cakes at the end but every now and again you can find someone's cheese they just couldn't stomach at the time.

I still wore my Santa hat and one of the guys even asked if I was planning on wearing it after Christmas. After I said no, he said, "oh thank God." I refuse to wash it, or take it off while I'm out in the field and not on a mission. I also have an advent calendar. There happens to be 25 days on it and 25 people in the platoon so each person gets a day. I wrote everyone's name on the back by the date and each day I get that person to open it up and eat the chocolate. But usually their response is, "now what? That's it?"

On that note, I got each person in the platoon to sing the 12 days of Christmas and I video-taped it for a movie I made. I posted it on www.youtube.com today. Search for "T-Cup Pictures" "Jeremy Vandekar" or "Plague-1-Productions" and it should pop up. If it doesn't it's because it needs to be approved and you should check in a few more hours. Happy Holidays!!

Unreservedly,

        Jeremiah

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED

130

        I JUST found some more pictures on someone else's camera. Usually after each mission everyone tosses me their camera and I put them all on my computer. That way all the platoon pictures are organized by month, by name so each person can come to me and burn them or put them on a harddrive and there isn't a mix match or swapping of pictures two or three times. Also, I make movies each month of the deployment to mark our progress and I use the pictures the guys take. These set were from someone who I hadn't gotten their camera so here are a few pictures to fill in the holes.

1)     

We got a vehicle stabilizer bar slightly bent and had to call in a wrecker. That wrecker got stuck so they called in a second. That second wrecker wasn't able to pull out the first so they called in a THIRD. Finally they got those out and almost got stuck on the way home. As a result, this is the road after all the vehicles had left. I'm standing in a rut so you can see how deep and broad the tires were/are.

2)     

Nothing particular happening in this picture except a bit of scenery and you can see the Marines holding security.  That's Guenard in the foreground and it looks like Richter in the background. Also if you look carefully in the bushes on the left there is a Marine standing there.

3)     

Another scenic picture. You can see the trees used as power lines.

4)     

Crazy Larry seems to be a big hit with you so here's another picture from the turret as he walked away.

5)     

"WHAT?! Oh, you're taking a picture."

6)     

Dan Levine with a couple kids from a neighborhood. The kid with the glowbelt around his body works for the ICW (Iraqi Civilian Watch) or local militia. Also note the kid with blonde hair and fair skin...and we've been here roughly 4 or 5 years now?

7)     

School just got let out....what a nightmare!!! This is bad because security is almost ZERO! There's nothing we could do though as the place we were visiting was next to the school. Blare a siren, flash your rifle or act pissed off. But that cluster of kids is getting candy or something from the Marine at the back of the vehicle. There's no way he has enough chocolate.

Well, in about 26 days we'll be at our halfway point. 6 days till Christmas, 12 days till New Years and 57 till Valentine's day. We'll be gone again soon for a few days so expect no emails and no calls if you have a son in the platoon.

Merry Christmas-ly,

     Jeremiah

105! WE WENT on the Euphrates with zodiacs which are inflatable rafts with hard decks. We learned how to use them in Amphib Recon School (ARS) so this was all a blast from the past for us. Here are a few pictures of us prepping the boats and getting ready on the water.

1)

Gunny on the left and McDevitt on the right pumping up the boats with foot pumps. We knew there was going to be sewage in the water and there might be a chance we’d have to get out to free a stuck boat so McDevitt is wearing a dry suit to keep himself warm and safe from bacteria

 2)

 Here are a few more boats getting prepped with their engines already mounted.

3)

Once in the water we made sure everything was tied down, waterproofed and secured. Zach Guenard looks on at another boat as they check their gear.

4)

Here’s a glimpse of the Euphrates as we coasted on by. When we went slow everyone sat up but when we revved it up a little more, people lie down to avoid getting tossed out the sides. More to come of course. You know me. Breath-takingly, Jeremiah

105!

        HERE ARE the funny pictures we took or pictures of us having a good time. This mission ended up being a lot of fun and a good break from the usual ones we take.

1)     

Here Graham is hurling over the side as the sewage seeps on by his boat. That's black water with gray bubbles and it's not just trash! Look how sympathetic his team is as well. We pulled out the paddles at times because the water was too shallow to use the engines

2)     

Here's team 3 cruising by at a good clip with all the guys hugging the gunwales.

3)     

My boat had gone into this little inlet to look for anything suspicious or a place to dock the boats and move onto land. The boat in the background was holding security for us as we came out

4)     

 Here's Gunny's boat beaching to take care of some business. Something's funny because Gunny's cracking up.

5)     

Gunny's boat again with Doc in the front left as you look at the boat. Donoho is on the right with the black beanie and Cherry is behind him.

6)     

Here's Team 1's boat with Mann in the black beanie and Rogge next to him with some bizarre war paint. Across from Rogge is McDevitt and across from Mann is Ski.

A few more emails with pictures on the way...

Despairingly,

        Jeremiah

105!

        WHEN I prepare the pictures to send to you I try to group them by type to at least attempt to organize the chaos that these emails represent. Pictures of people are hard to describe or even write a small commentary on, but I want you to see us as we are. We're regular guys in an irregular spot of the world.

1)     

Here's the newly promoted Lcpl Miguel Hernandez, our communications support (Comm Sup) with Greg Monz in front of him.

2)     

 Here's Kenny Richter who was the coxswain for our boat. Coxswain is a fancy word for driver. You can see the scenic beach front behind him that the houses on the Euphrates River banks take advantage of.

3)     

Here's the fearless leader, Capt Flores coordinating movement with higher. The handset is wrapped in plastic to waterproof it.

4)     

Chris Knipe holding security.

5)     

Jason Mann, the ATL for team 1

Callously,

        Jeremiah

A FEW more pictures of people on this mission, but also back at Camp Fallujah.

1)     

Brian Rogge holding security. I asked him the point of the paint on his face, and he said it was war paint like I did over Christmas. Great minds...

2)     

Here's Malachi Even and Steven Kaliszewski posing for a picture I took of them.

3)     

Same guys after the picture was snapped.

4)     

Ted our terp is well trusted and loved by all. He didn't go on the boats but always comes out with us in the off chance someone needs to speak to us. Dan Levine shows how much we trust him by letting him hold his rifle temporarily

5)     

 Monz from New York brushes his teeth at Camp Fallujah in the snow.

Dependently,

        Jeremiah

THIS'LL BE the last batch I'll send for today. We snapped more video than pictures on this mission and there were a lot of good ones but these were the ones I opted to send. Besides, I have work to do and I can't be sending pictures all day!! EESH!!

1)     

Brian Rogge is a pretty crazy cat. He has a skull mask just like mine. We purchased them simultaneously on pre-deployment leave. Though He didn't' wear it for this mission, he thought he'd pose in his wet suit with it.

2)     

Malachi wanted this picture taken to show the unique situation he was in. He was standing in long underwear in Iraq. How many people have done that?

3)     

The leadership for team 3, Chris Knipe on the right and Nick Steshko on the left. Johnny Hill holds security on the M2 in the truck

4)     

 The leadership for team 1, Jason Mann on the right and Steven Kaliszewski on the left.

That's all I've got for today. If you have any questions, as usual just ask away. I've got to go shave now.

Stylishly,

        Jeremiah

105!

        ONCE WE found a spot to head on to an island we did our thing to fight the war on terror.

1)     

Here I am in the foreground with my usual skull mask.

2)     

Nothing significant about this picture. I just liked the anonymity of it.

3)   

   A boat we found with Rogge sitting in it making notes on it's location, size, etc.

4)     

Here's our fearless leader making sure there's nothing around the sides of the boat of interest. In the background you can see the guys holding security where we docked our boats.

Helplessly,

        Jeremiah

A FEW more pictures from our brief stay on land.

1)     

 Here's Malachi Even scoping something out with his M4

2)     

Once we were done on land, we climbed back into the boats to resume our search

3)     

The Iraqis have denied boat traffic on the river so the boat we found, we destroyed.

4)     

Winton looks on after setting a Thermal grenade. Once we realized he was the only one on land and we had all gotten into the boats, we joked that we were leaving him behind.

Brashly,

        Jeremiah

98

                AS I talk to different people about the countdown, everyone has their own aspects of how much time is left. With the days crawling by it's all we talk about. We are busy with ranges and training and things like that but at some point, someone mentions how much time we're here for. Here's a conversation I had with Johnny Hill:

"Woah, tomorrow we'll only have 99 days left in Iraq," I remarked looking at my watch.

"Oh man. That's such a huge number," Johnny replies.

"I dunno. I mean we've got 210 days here, so 111 of those days are triple digit days meaning they have more than 100 days left in the count down. 90 of those days are in the single digits for the countdown and only 9 of those days are in the single digits!! So that means tomorrow we begin the double digit days and we'll only have 90 of those left!!"

                A moment passes as we walk and he thinks about what I just said.

"But 99 is still a large number," he says with all the excitement of Eeyore.

"Ok, but if we counted one number a second, it would only take us a minute and 39 seconds to get to 99," I retort, rather smugly.

"True, but we're not counting one a second, we're counting one a day," Johnny points out.

"Oooook. But we'll be in double digits. We've already had 111 triple digits so now we've only got 90 double digits ahead of us. Then we'll only have 9 single digits. Didn't you hear what I said?" I exclaim.

"yeah, but...99 is just such a large number."

                While Johnny brings up a good point, I can't help but remain optimistic. I meant to email this yesterday but we shot pistols and I got busy. So already the numbers have dwindled since that conversation. Imagine, before long it'll be April and I won't have the time between packing up to write anymore. Good times.

                So I hope you're as excited as I try to be. I took a few pictures while we left for the range and on the pistol shoot so you of course could see a shot of your son or nephew:

•1)     

Here's a new jacket we got, modeled here by yours truly. I hope I get to keep it because it's a great jacket. It fits the salty veteran mentality I'll be trying to portray

•2)     

 Though it's a little blurred, this might be a little more grizzled. A deep scowl to accompany the stereotypical psyche of a Marine

•3)     

Rob Graham, my gunner for a while now.

•4)     

 The guy in the middle isn't in our platoon, but I know him pretty well. The Marine on the right is our comm sup, Lcpl Miguel Hernandez. And of course, that's me on the left

•5)     

Here's myself and Malachi about to depart all geared up.

•6)     

 Brian Rogge aka 5 Golden Rings guy (the one with the gun) and Johnny Hill on the right.

•7)     

 Zach Guenard shooting the 9mm Beretta a few of us get issued to us.

Hope you liked the update, as uneventful as it was. See you in a few weeks...

Shortly,

                Jeremiah

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED

90

We usually have an OP a month. Or at least that's how it's gone so far. In October we went out for a few weeks and after we rested we left again. But by that time it was November. The same thing happened through December and into January. Unfortunately January's OP was only an afternoon and we've had the unpleasant experience of sitting around trying to stay out of trouble.

There's a quote we have: "When War goes on too long, Garrison breaks out." Garrison is the experience of keeping up your uniform, getting hair cuts constantly and paying attention to the details you don't have time for in a combat zone. On our days off, we've been trying to stay sharp and train up our individual teams. I'm responsible directly for the Corpsman (doc) and the Comm sup who are both brand new to Iraq.

For training, I'll put them through magazine drills (switching out mags as quick as you can), Immediate Action Drills (what to do when shots ring out), room clearing and so on. We try to come up with a plan each day so that when that next OP comes around, we don't need to bust the rust off our skill sets.

We've been doing more intense training as well. We've had several ranges in January. Anything from heavy machine guns (M2 and

Mk19) to pistol drills. We've done rifle drills and shot rockets and grenades. We've stuck each other with IVs and pulled out miscellaneous radios to learn. We've broken down every weapon system we've got and put it back together. Frankly, we're better trained now than we've been in the past. But training doesn't do for you what actual combat does.

We're all dying to leave the wire and soon. They gave us an OP order a while ago then cancelled it for some reason. Then they gave us another order to go somewhere and cancelled that one. I think it's worse to tease us with the carrot than to actually not have one.

You might've heard on the news about the casualties farther North. From my end, all I can say is that the insurgents aren't winning.

There isn't a sudden swell in casualties or deaths as the media would seem to portray. It's just the insurgents are getting more desperate as more Iraqi's help us. The media is throwing this back on the news and it appears to you that suddenly we're losing again.

Captain has a joke that he likes to pull on me. He's done it a couple times this month because I'm exceptionally gullible. Normally we'll have a few days break from coming back before we go out again.

Last time we came back, he told me that day that we were headed out and to get the platoon together. I didn't bat an eye, and said, "Roger that, sir." He was kidding.

The second time, he was making a slide to show the battalion commander what we were capable of and in it, I was put as a vehicle commander of an 8 vehicle convoy. But he told me we were headed to the Syrian border with 8 vehicles and I was commanding one. Again, without stuttering, "Roger sir, just say when." What a jester huh?

What I'm trying to say is, we're so eager to go out and ready to follow our leadership that we'd charge into the gates of hell if it meant that's what it took. I don't even think we'd look back.

I haven't written much in the last couple of days and I've got no pictures because nothing much has happened. You don't want to see pictures of us sticking each other with needles. We go to the range tomorrow so I'll have some motivating pictures of that then. Till next time...

Pointillisticly,

Jeremiah

Sgt Vandekar, Jeremy D

2d Recon Bn, B Co, 1st Plt

USMC

Margaret and Cody, thanks. We are very proud of him. It is amazing how they are able to communicate today compared to even during the Vietnam War. I was also reading yesterday an article about the number of injured has risen dramatically because the medics and doctors are able to save so many more lives.

We are right to be proud of our military and what they achieve and do. Thank you for our support and keep them in your prayers, they have a a time to go yet before they come home.

As you said, pretty graphic. Here are some photos we got today from a range in Iraq

88

        AS PROMISED, here are the pictures from the range we did the other day.

  1)

Guenard a sniper from team 1 and his spotter, McDevitt BZO the Mk11 sniper rifle. BZO means make sure it's shooting where you are looking.

2)

Captain and myself about to conduct a drill where we pivot and shoot at the targets behind us now.

3)

Here, we've pivotted and are letting loose with whatever the drill was (two to the chest?)

4)

Here's Rob Graham and his buddy Johnny Hill

5)

Captain about to step off on a moving drill shooting at the targets to his left.

6)

Here's that same drill, but with D-ho the TL from team 2   More to come and even a little bonus clip of the SAW going nuts....stay tuned.   Timely, Jeremiah

88

        HERE ARE second batch of the pics we took while out on the range. We did EMP style shooting of different drills with moving, pivotting and different positions. We also shot the SAW (you'll see) and a few pop-ups which are like flares.

1)

Johnny Hill checks back to hear what drill he's about to shoot
2)

Everyone puts a different amount of ammo in their mags by personal preference (anywhere from 24-30 rds) so that in a fire fight, everyone isn't suddenly running out of ammo at the same time. Here Winton has run out of ammo and has reloaded on the knee and finished shooting the drill from here. Everyone else waits.

3)

Reynolds and Richter walk online and shoot on the move. You can see the brass casings from the bullets from Levine's gun on the far left.

4)

Mann and Even (left to right) stand ready to pivot to the right and engage the targets. The guy behind them was an officer visiting and shooting with us.

5)

Here's the whole line ready to pivot on the whistle. They hunch over like that because when the rifle kicks with the recoil, they'll be able to stay on target and not rock backwards.

6)

The same drill from the other direction with Nick Steshko and Rob Graham standing by.

One last email left to send with a motivated Marine shooting off the SAW. you all should love it. Grab the kids and some popcorn!

Anticipatingly,

Before I post this message i have to add that this was received on Monday, since then the situation has changed and I will post a later email after this.

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED

Dear readers,

It was brought to my attention today that certain things regarding our operating here in Iraq were disclosed that shouldn't have been. When I was told about them and accused of certain things, it turns out that the information leaked wasn't in any of my emails. But of course, I'm the easiest to blame. So, I was warned to watch what I have included in my emails and not to disclose any classified information.

To simplify things, I've decided to simply not write anymore. I don't think I've compromised anything nor told you what we do, but it's just easier for me to prove innocence if I don't say anything at all.

I'm sorry if this means you feel more disconnected from the war and forced to watch the news but that's the long and short of it.

I haven't been punished or reprimanded at all, so don't worry about me. If you have a son in the platoon, and he tells you something you probably should keep to yourself, then don't bother posting it for the other parents or rest of the world to see. Please, by all means continue to pray for the troops and that we all return safely.

Semper Fi,

Jeremiah Vandekar

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED

                I was told to watch what I included and not to disclose classified information. Upon insisting that I was not at fault they pointed out that the blame wasn't falling to anyone, but that I should be careful what to write. I took the liberty myself of discontinuing the Chronicles (as some call them) just to make it easier on myself to show that I was not in the wrong. Maybe I was a little selfish when I did that. I didn't realize exactly how many people get the chance to read this and how many people it affects.

                Mothers and Fathers get to see their sons in the platoon. Sons who otherwise are technologically incapable of sending a picture over email. Wives and children get to hear that their father or husband are ok and safe. It's nice to see a familiar smiling face, even if it is 5,000 miles away. But the majority of you get to read this as a way of personalizing the large body of troops over here. Suddenly the name "Marines" becomes someone you can relate to and when you hear of news in Iraq, it isn't an obscure reference but where someone works or lives.

                I have been encouraged by my command to continue to write. I got more emails when I mentioned I was going to stop than ever before! So I'll write again, send pictures as I get them and watch what I include. I'm due anyway for another update so here it is.

                We've continued to try to fill our days with things that make them fly. Slipping into a routine is dangerous, because when/if something arrives in the future, it will disturb that routine. This is the longest amount of time I've ever been inside the wire. The toughest part about the deployment last year was the stress the combat put on us. This year, the tough part is the constant communication we have with home. We miss our families and friends and we're just waiting to go home.

                During the day, we lift weights, watch movies, call home and fill the time with training. There's nothing much to say really. I'd say our days are boring but I'm sure they're exciting enough, I'm just callous to them.

Porously,

                Jeremiah

Kristie, thanks for your response, as you will find out if Randy pursues his dream of being in the services you join as a family. You end up supporting them and their buddies through their training and their deployments. It is just as hard for the family as for the serviceman or woman.

Randy, good luck in whatever arm you decide to join, obviously we would encourage you to consider the best, The Marines!

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED

        IT HAS been a while since I've sent home pictures and I feel as though you're jonesing for a glimpse of your son or daughter. Just kidding, if you had a daughter, I hope she wouldn't be in this unit. There are three batches of pics the whole point of this email is just to send them to you so I titled it small talk. They are mostly of another range we went to which dealt with unique firing drills and weapons manipulations.

1)

Here's Jason, who's camera I had to borrow because i forgot my own.
2)

Rogge or "Butters" as we call him. Doc is peaking his head in as well as they set up the radio and the truck.
3)

Not the most flattering picture, or the best photography work. Dan is in the background with Robby in the foreground. *sigh* they're not models.

4)

Another Dan and Chris waiting for their turn to shoot.
5)

Myself and Nick doing....well there's not much to this picture.

        These days the weather has really warmed up. It comes up to about 70 during the day and drops only to about the high 50's at night. The sweaters are gone and wool socks packed away again. There's only like 5 days of Spring and then the blistering hot summer comes back. This is the iraq I remember and am not too fond of.

Bigotedly,
        Jeremiah

1)

Here's Chris and I watching the shooting. We dont' take our gear off despite the heat because the ranges are technically outside the wire.

2)

Butters again, refilling his mags
3)

Part of the drills involved sprinting 200 yards (50 yards four times), then doing 10 pushups then beginning to shoot. THe point of this was to make you worn out and shaky and it forces you to stop thinking and act based on your "muscle memory" or instincts. This way you can see how your body is reacting to malfunctions, distances or commands. Here's Mann legging it the first 50 yards.

4)

Here's Mann again on his pushups and the rest of his team looks on and yells either objurgations or encouragements.
5)

The rest of us sat back at the trucks watching, criticizing and learning for ourselves what the mistakes were. "Do you see his legs. Bad shooting position. Oh look a mag fell out."

        Last batch coming shortly.

Frantically,
Jeremiah

1)

This is either Zach or Eddy based on the running stance. I'd say it was Zach based on the gear. It's important to be able to recognize someone for the small things and not just their face.

2)

Captain had to run with each guy so he probably ran more than anyone that day. Hydrate or die (Camelback motto).
3)

Team 1 minus Malachi
4)

Zach, completely smoked from the running
5)

Malachi in Baghdad in front of the giant parade deck and crossed swords. There are two pairs of these and they were almost torn down but apparently we told the Iraqis to leave them up. It's a part of their culture and they should be     proud. Where the Saddam statue used to be (the famous clip of it being toppled) now stands a statue of a group of soldiers facing the entrance holding a flag.

        That's all I have for now. If you didn't get a glimpse of your son or I forgot someone, let me know and I'll see if I can dig one up for you specifically.

Voraciously,
        Jeremiah

BACK AFTER a much needed stint out in the field and I have a lot of pictures for you, of course. I am sending them in batches as I always do and this first batch is going to illustrate the job that we were doing out there. Our mission was to comb the desert for insurgents that we believed were pushed out there. For the first part we flew around in helicopters and stopped down on people, covering a much larger area. Unfortunately the time on the ground was limited to the fuel in the birds, so for the last part of the mission we drove out there and literally swept about 300 square miles of desert. It was a long and tedious process but it was a fun mission overall. We got to get out, eat some MREs, get nice and dirty and fight the insurgency in Iraq. All good things. While we were in the desert, the weather seemed to be fighting us as well. During the day, it was pretty hot in the upper 80s. That isn't too hot for iraq, but with the Hummvees and equipment putting off a lot of heat and sitting cramped in our gear it became pretty bad. I packed light of couse, not bringing out any warming layers (No Warming Layers Club, remember?). So at night, when the temperatures dropped and the wind kicked in fiercely we got pretty cold. Then one night while we were circled up sleeping, it rained on all of us but I'll show you all this in pictures. The people we encountered were bedouins mostly. They are your typical nomads, travelling through the desert with sheep from major city to city collecting supplies to make it to the next one. They live in tents and have their whole family in 2 or 3 cars and trucks. I don't understand how someone could or would want to live out there. In the summer the temperatures went up to 140 last year and with no shade for miles in every direction, I would soon leave if it were me. But people and survive out there and they must have their reasons. Last little note is about the insurgents we encountered. Because the area was so large it was difficult to actually stumble by chance across them so with each bedouin camp we came across, we had to go off of rumour. Why were they moving North? It was because insurgents were bothering them in the South and so forth. The people that we encountered were happy to see us because we were able to give them a sense of security in an area which most people would overlook. It made them feel that even this corner of the earth was important to someone besides themselves. The insurgents were mostly travelling through the area to get to the cities as well, using the desert to avoid roads but they were also hindering the meager supplies that the small towns needed to survive. There are more things to explain but it'll be easier with pictures so I'll just launch right into them. I might have a movie clip or two for you as well, depending on how it goes and sends.

1)

Here's Stitch by a Bedouin camp (not pictures obviously). He's walking through the sheep and you can see the barren terrain behind him. It's like this for miles and miles with no break. There are a few rolling hills but elevation is mostly flat, broken by the occasional gulley.

2)

Here is gunny on the left and captain on the right talking to our Air Operations Officer. This guy helped coordinate the birds and stayed in the air to talk to them when we went on foot on the ground to check something out. This room their in is at the air strip as we wait for the helo's to touch down

3)

 Here's ski, the team leader for team 1 in the helo. We rode in Army CH-47s which are very similar to USMC CH-46s. He's got an internal comm system on his head as he looks out the back ramp at the scenery below. You'll notice his rifle is pointed down. This is because all the workings on a helo are in the top, so you point all your rounds to the deck in case they go off.

4)

This is out the back of the ramp of the 47s. You can see the crew sitting on the back of the ramp as we headed back to camp fallujah. A pretty rare sight to be able to say we saw.

5)

We saw wild camels out there which is a first for me. There are wild and domestic ones which are hard to tell the difference. The iraqi's just tie up one camel's legs to it can't move and the herd will stay with that one so when you come across a herd it is tough to tell if they are domestic or not. But these two were by themselves so we figured they were wild. More pictures to come, but they are all pretty cool. A lot of unique things out there! Hurriedly, Jeremiah

1)

This is during the ground portion, but we did this mostly during the air portion as well. You can see the humvee way off in the background holding security. This is in the morning it looks like or evening. There is a lot of dust and wind in the evening time so the sun has a haze over it which makes everything look overcast. Again, you can't see the camp that these guys belong to but we call them out and search them one by one.

2)

Here's Rogge's truck, the high back. It's a large pickup type of vehicle we use to store things in the back or use to transport casualties. We call it the ghetto sled because it lurches, whines and grumbles when it drives but always pulls through. Rogge has put his bit of flare on the back, always a big fan of Ohio

3)

Here's a dust storm rolling in. In the foreground is our terp, Ted who had never been to the desert or seen a camel either. He wasn't a big fan of the area and it's extreme weather changes. During this time we couldn't get air to casevac us if we needed it so we circled up and waited it out.

4)

Here's Rogge on what we called the sh*t-chair. It's a chair with no bottom to it, which conveniently works as a toilet. Of course Rogge had to make sure he was on the only hill for miles around so we could all see what he was up to. That's Butters for ya.

        Those are all the pictures mostly about the job and it's perks and pitfalls. I'll be sending more about the people and the weird stuff we do when we're out in the field.

Gradually,
Jeremiah

1)

Here's team 3 before we went to the airstrip. The guy sneaking into the picture is from Charlie Co and a friend of Steshko, the guy on the far right standing. Knipe, the third in from the left is carrying a one-time use rocket launcher called a LAW. He also carried his M4 of course. Levine on the right standing is carrying the Mk-11 sniper rifle. And Hill on the right kneeling is carrying a M249 SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon). Winton on the left kneeling has got the radio on his back and lastly is Graham behind him. He's the pointman so he stays relatively light. My gear with the radio and all weighed around 70 lbs. So you can see these guys were ready for most scenarios.

2)

Sponsored by Rockstar! I wonder if we could get some endorsements for this? These guys are inside the helo, waiting to touch down. From left to right, Chris Knipe, Johnny Hill and Dan Levine.

3)

This is before we left on our ground portion. We prep our trucks then wait around for the time to roll. You can see Monz with a sort of hoody on. That's a shemagh (spelling?) which iraqis wear on their heads to keep cool and free of dust. Monz is a turret gunner mostly so it helps to keep the sun off your neck and dust out of your mouth.

4)

 This is my truck. I'm sitting in the seat behind Levine, my driver and Captain who navigates from the passenger front seat.

Aspiratically,
Jeremiah

1)

Here's Knipe looking on as the UH-1 touches down and refuels from a 47. There's a cobra circling in the background but hard to see. You can see the LAW on Knipe's back.

2)

One of our snipers, Levine poses while two other Marines hold security
3)

Here's Knipe again, usually camera shy but in a surprisingly large number of photos. He's the ATL for team 3 so he makes sure everyone is where they need to be in the 360 security. You can see what I was talking about before about it being so barren from these photos. There is nothing out there and even worse, it's rocky!

4)

The Cobra touches down to refuel from the 47 in the background as Hill, the team 3 machine gunner stands posing in the foreground. AWESOME! Those big pouches on the front of Hills gear are 200 rd drums for the SAW. He's got a smaller drum called a 'nutsack' on right now that holds only 100 rds.

Bravo company 1stp platoon

Reliably,
Jeremiah

1)

Winton and Hill waiting for the bus that takes us to the air strip
2)

Knipe again in front of a Cobra on the deck refueling.
3)

Rob Graham with a shemagh around his neck to keep the sun off of it holding security for the birds while they refuel
4)

Ski and Even in the 47s

1)

Mann and McDevitt laugh at something on the camera while in the 47s
2)

We found some old graffiti depicting someone shooting two unarmed individuals. The art was crudely done and the people looked like aliens so Winton found it appropriate to step in and make it more realistic.

3)

The teams had to go through a lot of gear prep for the air portion, ensuring they had everything they needed. Here Hill tries out a pro-american slant to his normal kevlar apparel.

4)

This is how dusty it is for the guys in the turrets as we cruise through the desert. It looks like an eclipse gum commercial.

Noticeably,
Jeremiah

                Even takes fantastic pictures and most of them I get from him. He has a great eye for the imagination and also a very nice camera. Here we go:

•1)     

Mann, like Knipe, carried the LAW for the air portion of the mission...just in case.

•2)     

Butters and Goo set up the satellite antennae and get comm checks before stepping onto the bird.

•3)     

After it rained one morning, people were generally miserable so I walked around in high spirits trying to cheer everyone up...like Dan here. His legs got soaked hanging out in the rain.

•4)     

Butters and Even inside a hanger where we stayed on an abandoned airfield.

•5)     

We burned our trash and buried it when we could, but inside the hanger we all would huddle around it for warmth, light and comfort. Mmmm...there's nothing like the smell of burning plastic.

•6)     

Myself and Ski...we're pretty dusty by this point, probably at day 4 or so.

I'll have about 3 more emails to send, all pictures again. Were you able to see the video clip? I hope so...

Volubly,

Jeremiah

•1)     

Here's the Cobra just over a little hill fueling up. You can see a Recon Marine off in the background on the left holding security.

•2)     

During our sweeps of the desert, we went online and tried to cover as much ground as possible. You could see all around pretty clearly but this helped see even further

•3)     

This is the hanger we stayed in once we found the airfield. If you look towards the ceiling you can see a hole or tear where the missile crashed through when it was taken years ago. This one was in great shape considering the others.

•4)     

 This is the inside of the hanger. At night we'd shut the doors and post some people looking out.

•5)     

This is one of the other hangers nearby, behind me. It didn't fair so well under the attack I guess.

•6)     

You can probably see a lot of this sort of thing in the deserts of Arizona but here in Iraq you can find the humvees stretched out over several hundred meters. Very little traffic.

Genuinely,

Jeremiah

•1)     

 Rogge sitting over a bunker we found.

•2)     

Everyone pitches in while changing a flat in the desert on the high back. We call this vehicle the "ghetto sled".

•3)     

 An oasis in the desert of a few trees. There must be water somewhere deep underground. Even is in the picture.

•4)     

 Another busted hanger and I'm clearly testing the structural integrity of that arch. Thankfully I didn't fall and impale myself on one of those rebar poles. But it wouldn't be a deployment without a little danger.

•5)     

Setting up the sat-com antennae with all its bells and whistles. I stick my tongue out when I'm thinking.

That's it...that's all I've got worth sending. When your son gets home he'll have something to share with you now and he won't have to explain every detail hopefully.

Abruptly,

Jeremiah

•1)     

Here's a look out the back of a CH-47 as we cruised over the Euphrates. It looks a bit blurry off to the right past the river because of the heat from the helo exhaust.

•2)     

One morning in Iraq, sipping a grape drink and standing over the burn pit after a night of rain...life doesn't get much better.

•3)     

The sun....in case you hadn't seen it before.

•4)     

The same picture but with the humvee in the foreground. This would make a great poster or desktop background huh?

•5)     

My truck with the sandstorm approaching. You can see all the miscellaneous antennae I have on there.

•6)     

The sun blotted out by the dust of the sandstorm as well as a humvee with it's kickup

Insincerely,

Jeremiah

NO MORE MAIL AS OF APRIL 1ST.  But don't stop praying for these guys, they are still active and out on missions. But this does mean that they will soon be coming home. The window for their arrival is still wide towards the end of the month beginning of May, but as the month progresses it will narrow.

Thanks for all your support. As you may know, on his return Jeremy's enlistment is almost up, he extended so as to finish the tour with his friends and comrades and he will begin the process of leaving the Marine Corps and starting the rest of his life.

Back so Soon?

AN IRONIC subject line considering we were gone rather suddenly for a little bit. But we're all back and we're all doing A-OK. We were out in the desert again and attempting to stop the insurgency through our efforts. I'll say vaguely that we were successful and you'll have to ask when I get home.

        One of the unique things I saw when I was out there was a sandstorm. I've been caught in a few that I knew were pretty bad, turning the whole sky red and everything getting coated in a thin film of dust. But while we were out there we suddenly saw a WALL of dust blowing towards us from the South. I caught it on video because it was unlike anything I'd ever seen, straight from the movie The Mummy. A few meters before the sand hit us, the wind did, and then the sky blotted out red again. It looks like you're on Mars and I'd had this happen before. We were pretty awestruck as usual by the sight of such a change in atmosphere in such a short time.

        Then all of a sudden the sky turned black in midday and you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. Dust blew into your eyes and mouth, making you cough and turning your lips to mud. Everything instantly got coated with sand and in crevices. We turned on a few vehicles to use their lights to see but you couldn't see them 12 feet away it was so dark. I walked from the tent we were staying to another building 50 meters away and got completely lost and turned around. You couldn't open your eyes and no sound reached you through the wind.

        The blackness went on for about an hour and the sand storm as a whole went on for a couple days. It was unbelievable. We all got headaches, fevers and skin irritations from inhaling so much sand. It was amazing to think that God could cripple us with such a simple thing like dust and wind. I'm glad I can say I've experienced it but I am equally glad it's over.

        The base we stayed on was tiny, only about 200 meters across with no running water and no hot food. We ate poptarts and MREs for the most part. My platoon got into calling me pig pen because I was so filthy. There is a character in Charles Schultz's Charlie Brown comic called Peanuts who goes by the name Pig Pen. He's constantly filthy and for some reason I was always the dirtiest one in the platoon. Hence the name Pig Pen. I didn't see the point in wiping the sand off your face if in a few hours it was going to be covered again anyway.

        When we got back to Camp Fallujah, I got a few stares from other Marines but I was fairly proud of my stink. It meant I had worked hard. It took a while to get all the sand and rocks out of my hair and to get my skin back to it's normal tone.

        Looking back on this deployment, I see we  have gone more diverse places than I did the year before. We've been to all sorts of climates in all sorts of missions and seen a lot of cool and interesting things. I don't have any pictures for you of this last Op because I've packed up my computer and I can't shrink them enough to send them on this one. I'll keep in touch over the next couple of days if you write, but start looking for that absence in response as a really good thing meaning we've come home.

Cortically,
Jeremiah

Paula, thank you for the comment, I was just looking back through some of the posts, and the photos of Gunny Hayes. Our hearts go out to his family.