A War Story

This Iraqui war thing has been like no other. Live television coverage, reporters embedded with the soldiers on the front line, chats with generals and all that.

Coverage of wars has indeed come a long way, pholks, but history has always taken wars very seriously. Nothing dominates history like war from rocks, spears, battle axes, cannons to airplanes, black powder to nuclear weapons, hand gernades to laser guided smart bombs.

News from the front lines has always been a fascinating experience.

I mention this as a forward to the excitement my wife, Kathy, has experienced in receiving, this week, the first letter from the U.S. Marine she "adopted" several months ago as part of her internet interaction with a group of her on-line quilting buddies.

Over a year ago, Kathy, ventured into the world of Internet support groups. After a lot of "visitations" she stayed with two quilters groups and a couple of medical groups. One of her quilting cyber-friends, Karen, has a younger brother in the Marines. In early February, when her brother mentioned concern for a lot of Marine "buds" that had few or no family "connections" they came up with the idea of "adopting" them out. Karen "posted" a notice that 26 Marines from her brother's brigade were up for adoption. In less than a day they'd all been adopted.

After learning what the overseas military servicemen and women could and couldn't receive and what they needed or wanted, my wife sent a care package to "her marine." At the same time she and I spent dozens of hours surfing CNN for the correspondent believed to be embedded with or was reporting on the 2nd marine expedition Brigade. This was in addition to the hours Kathy spent getting "updated" with her Internet friends.

All this time I couldn't help but think of all the images my mind's eye generated by the movies, tv shows, books, and live theater presentations of my life's experience.

Although Kathy and I and millions of others were being kept up to the minute on all the aspects of a real war in real time, there is nothing to compare that first one-on-one communication with a combat participant.

With respect for his privacy I will not name "our Marine" but will share his letter:

"It's me from this hot sandy place. I thank you very much for the books. It's a big hit here. Not as much as the snacks but there is a big demand from fellow marines here. Mystery and Western books are big. That John Grisham guy is very popular. I'm reading Catcher in the Rye. I'm a very slow reader so it keeps me busy in my down time here. It's settling down quite a bit here. We are playing hide and go seek with the Iraqi now. Every time we move in they run out. We also pass MRE's (meals ready to eat) to the local people. They love them. We don't! We throw them out while we pass through in convoys. It's funny, when you throw one, it's like Superbowl. All the kids come running and diving for them. Most of the people here are very nice and anti Saddam. People walk around here with white surrender flags. But there is still the Republican Guard. Saddam's elite fighting force. Whatever! They can run the other way pretty fast! Ha - Ha.

Most of the fighting has slowed down a lot. Al Nassreah was pretty bloody. The bloodiest fire fight since Vietnam they say. I was right in the middle of it. I'm thankful I'm still around. I appreciate all you have done for me. You make life over here that much easier. Sincerely, Lcpl _____ U.S.M.C. P.S. I forgot to describe myself...Duh! I'm in the Marines, 21 years old from a little town [in Vermont]. I'm almost out of the Marines and plan on going to school to run cranes and heavy machinery. Here I'm a machine gunner."

Pholks, this is in no way a great war story. It's just one of thousands, each one important to those involved.

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