KC-10 Driver
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2002
- Posts
- 503
Hello Everyone,
I am currently activated and deployed overseas supporting the war in Iraq. I called my brother (a Gulf War I vet, and now a SWA captain) about 8 or 9 days ago and complained about all the anti-war stuff I had seen on CNN at my deployed location (CNN and SkyNews are our only news outlets here).
The following letter was my brother's response. He emailed it to about 15 people, and since then it has taken off like wildfire. I have received scores of emails from total strangers, and I have shared these emails with my compatriots here at my deployed location.
My brother's email, and the massive response, has made me proud. It has also made me grateful to all the patriotic, supportive Americans pulling for us back home. Thank you.
I thought some of you all would like to read his letter, too. I have removed our names, and my email address. Here it is:
----------------------------------------------------------
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Please take a moment to read this. Thank you.
I recently received a call from my brother who is flying combat missions in direct support of hostilities in Iraq. As you may be aware they are accomplishing more mission objectives with a smaller force than we had during Gulf War 1. The operational tempo is very high for all members in theater. Fatigue and stress will eventually set in if it has not already. They are under tremendous pressure to avoid collateral damage in a hostile environment.
***These men and women need our active support and continuous prayers right now.
Watching the "imbedded media" we seem to be entering a more difficult phase of the conflict - casualties, accidents and POWs are beginning to accumulate. Depending on the military unit and location, our service people may have very narrow or negatively biased media access. In the case of my brother his only news source is liberally oriented. After being mentally and physically drained from very long planning, mission execution and intelligence debriefing he gets to tune in to strictly images of maimed Iraqi children followed by pictures of American antiwar protesters. This is very demoralizing, as you can imagine. Having been in the first Gulf conflict I can tell you that even a hint of this can be poison for the troops. They must know that we back them fully and unconditionally and they must hear it over and over again. Louder than the antiwar types.
***At this point that may not be the case with a number of them.....
Now, the reason for this blanket e-mail:
If you are like me, you are either busy raising a family or working hard to keep your job in tough economic times. You don't have much free time to go out and participate in your average "protest" etc - but we can use the power of the internet to make a massive show of support for our president and military. God willing our efforts will gain momentum. This time around our troops can get e-mail practically anywhere - please take a moment to do the following:
1. Pass this note along as much as possible.
2. Network with friends / neighbors / relatives and obtain the e-mail (or snail mail) addresses for as many service people as you can and fire off a quick note of support to them, please include my brother at xxxxxxxxx.
3. Be sure to mention that despite what they may see in their particular media source, the majority of America backs the president and the herculean efforts of the military 100%.
4. Also note that the protesters in places like New York may have forgotten about 9-11 but we have not - and that most of the them were not Bush voters anyway and this is simply a convenient opportunity to try and weaken his political position. Many of them also fear a reinstatement of the draft (naive, it would never happen).
5. Remember to tie a yellow ribbon somewhere near your house, on the car, etc and fly the flag appropriately.
6. Plan now for homecoming victory parades in honor of our heros.
7. Most importantly - lift up these folks and their families in prayer.
I'm not sure about you but I have trouble stepping away from the news with the conflict raging. Each one of our casualties feels like a knife through the heart. I want badly to jump back in my F-18 and go help, but nobody wants a worn out old fighter pilot - so this is the least I can do. Noncombatant casualties are equally disturbing - as Americans, despite what the world thinks, we are actually humane people, only ferocious when provoked to war. I have to keep reminding myself that Saddam killed many more of his own with chemicals than we ever will in this conflict - and that our actions now will prevent ten fold losses or another "smoking city" in the future.
Thank you for participating in this electronic march of support and for your patriotism.
To our troops who may get this message: God's speed and blessings - we are ALL with you! Keep up the outstanding work.
Semper Fi,
LtCol xxxxxxxxxx
US Marines (Ret)
I am currently activated and deployed overseas supporting the war in Iraq. I called my brother (a Gulf War I vet, and now a SWA captain) about 8 or 9 days ago and complained about all the anti-war stuff I had seen on CNN at my deployed location (CNN and SkyNews are our only news outlets here).
The following letter was my brother's response. He emailed it to about 15 people, and since then it has taken off like wildfire. I have received scores of emails from total strangers, and I have shared these emails with my compatriots here at my deployed location.
My brother's email, and the massive response, has made me proud. It has also made me grateful to all the patriotic, supportive Americans pulling for us back home. Thank you.
I thought some of you all would like to read his letter, too. I have removed our names, and my email address. Here it is:
----------------------------------------------------------
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Please take a moment to read this. Thank you.
I recently received a call from my brother who is flying combat missions in direct support of hostilities in Iraq. As you may be aware they are accomplishing more mission objectives with a smaller force than we had during Gulf War 1. The operational tempo is very high for all members in theater. Fatigue and stress will eventually set in if it has not already. They are under tremendous pressure to avoid collateral damage in a hostile environment.
***These men and women need our active support and continuous prayers right now.
Watching the "imbedded media" we seem to be entering a more difficult phase of the conflict - casualties, accidents and POWs are beginning to accumulate. Depending on the military unit and location, our service people may have very narrow or negatively biased media access. In the case of my brother his only news source is liberally oriented. After being mentally and physically drained from very long planning, mission execution and intelligence debriefing he gets to tune in to strictly images of maimed Iraqi children followed by pictures of American antiwar protesters. This is very demoralizing, as you can imagine. Having been in the first Gulf conflict I can tell you that even a hint of this can be poison for the troops. They must know that we back them fully and unconditionally and they must hear it over and over again. Louder than the antiwar types.
***At this point that may not be the case with a number of them.....
Now, the reason for this blanket e-mail:
If you are like me, you are either busy raising a family or working hard to keep your job in tough economic times. You don't have much free time to go out and participate in your average "protest" etc - but we can use the power of the internet to make a massive show of support for our president and military. God willing our efforts will gain momentum. This time around our troops can get e-mail practically anywhere - please take a moment to do the following:
1. Pass this note along as much as possible.
2. Network with friends / neighbors / relatives and obtain the e-mail (or snail mail) addresses for as many service people as you can and fire off a quick note of support to them, please include my brother at xxxxxxxxx.
3. Be sure to mention that despite what they may see in their particular media source, the majority of America backs the president and the herculean efforts of the military 100%.
4. Also note that the protesters in places like New York may have forgotten about 9-11 but we have not - and that most of the them were not Bush voters anyway and this is simply a convenient opportunity to try and weaken his political position. Many of them also fear a reinstatement of the draft (naive, it would never happen).
5. Remember to tie a yellow ribbon somewhere near your house, on the car, etc and fly the flag appropriately.
6. Plan now for homecoming victory parades in honor of our heros.
7. Most importantly - lift up these folks and their families in prayer.
I'm not sure about you but I have trouble stepping away from the news with the conflict raging. Each one of our casualties feels like a knife through the heart. I want badly to jump back in my F-18 and go help, but nobody wants a worn out old fighter pilot - so this is the least I can do. Noncombatant casualties are equally disturbing - as Americans, despite what the world thinks, we are actually humane people, only ferocious when provoked to war. I have to keep reminding myself that Saddam killed many more of his own with chemicals than we ever will in this conflict - and that our actions now will prevent ten fold losses or another "smoking city" in the future.
Thank you for participating in this electronic march of support and for your patriotism.
To our troops who may get this message: God's speed and blessings - we are ALL with you! Keep up the outstanding work.
Semper Fi,
LtCol xxxxxxxxxx
US Marines (Ret)
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