Sent: Thursday, October 27, 2011 8:24 PM
To: Freddiek61
Subject: THANK YOU FOR THE CARE PACKAGE!!!!!!

 

 

Well, I guess I will start by saying thank you to everyone. Then tell you a little about myself.

 

Tori you are right, I am the man, and Katie how did you know I am so amazing? lol Fred, I did kick some ass for you well. Everyone else thanks you for the prayers and best wishes.

 

I am in 3rd platoon and I am our 1st squad leader. We were in the upper Gereshk Valley, just south of Sangin. In the area that we operated nothing was built and we lived under cammie netting for roughly 2 months and ran convoys to secure the 611, a newly paved road that is now a main supply route in Afghanistan.

 

After that we were relocated into platoon positions and we were running 2 to 3 patrols a day with my squad, walking through canals, mud fields, and open desert, anything to try and make it hard on the Taliban to place IEDs on us (we were not hit by any IEDs). Well, the Taliban got pissed and decided to start ambushing us with small arms fire and indirect fire (i.e. mortors and grenade launchers) and machine gun positions lol. Well, that was a mistake. My Marines were very effective and did everything I asked of them and performed remarkably.

 

In the last 3 months of our deployment we got into 68 firefights. As you can imagine not many people wanted to come to where we were, so care packages were few and far between and we were in desperate need of hygene gear from all the patrols and fighting that we were doing. We were going through it fast considering we were using water bottles to shower with. So whenever we received care packages that are like the ones that you sent out they are a huge boost in morale. I just wanted to say that I appreciate what you do and keep up the good work!

 

Sincerely,

 

SGT. Harper