farmgirl
03-25-2004, 03:33 PM
http://www.pepperellfreepress.com/Stories/0,1413,109~5515~2038156,00.html
BAGHDAD -- Army Spec. Adam E. Walsh, 21, is a member of a 10-man special-operations unit deployed to Baghdad, Iraq, just after Thanksgiving. He is assigned to Bravo Company 8th Psychological Operations Battalion Airborne. What follows are excerpts from his letters home to Pepperell.
Feb. 3: I'm getting ready for an early night. I was tired all day today and am looking forward to good night's sleep. The thunderstorm lasted all night and the next day was rainy. It was really intense with a lot of hard rain, not unlike North Carolina. I think February will be the coldest month of the year. It'll probably start to get warmer in March. Today was around 60. Tonight will be around 40, I think. Not bad at all. I've been really busy in the last couple of days. My job always shifts to fit mission demands. Sometimes I spend all day in the compound and only leave to eat. Some days I spend all day out. I think I have to go out tomorrow, but we'll see.
Feb. 6: We've had a few more thunderstorms. We lost our generator for a little while, but now it's OK. I'm not a big generator fan (they're big, loud, smelly and love to break) but I appreciate the occasional warm shower they bring me. All of our essential equipment runs off an Army generator, which never has problems, but is too small to provide for the entire compound. I'm not going to write long because I'm sick again and would like to rest ... I'll catch up with you later.
Feb. 11: The weather has been interesting here. We've had some days that were hot and sunny, and some that were cool and stormy. When it rains it gets muddy as $*@! and there are giant pools of water everywhere. It didn't rain much until recently. Today it was 90 degrees. Imagine that, 90 on February 9! It doesn't look too good for June. It's very dry though, so it probably won't be as bad as it sounds.
Work has been pretty steady. Right now we're looking for information on a certain terrorist of al-Qaeda affiliation who is suspected of operating here. He has his own network, which is tied with al-Qaeda. He has been a known terrorist threat for over 2 decades and has spent his life moving from country to country (mostly in the Middle East) and engaging in terrorism. He is wanted in many countries for acts of terrorism and is believed to have taken part in several bombings here in Iraq. Saddam allowed this terrorist network to operate and set up training camps here (just south of Baghdad) before the war.
He's a pretty bad guy. There are a lot of people like him in the Middle East. They are taught by their parents and teachers that in order to be a good Muslims you have to wage "jihad" (holy war) against the "infidels" (usually westerners or non-Muslims) and that if they do, they will be rewarded with a glorious afterlife. So these people find terrorist training camps (these days on the Internet) and then start their journey around the Middle East, poisoning, assassinating and blowing things up. Mostly western things, of course.
Thousands of these terrorists are here now waging their jihad, and are also using a different method of terror known as "fitna," which refers to the killing of Muslims and is highly discouraged in the Muslim world (obviously). They justify "fitna" by claiming that the Muslims they kill are traitors. They are killing the Iraqis as punishment for supporting us and for not trying to kill us. Most of the bombings happening now are by terrorists.
We've caught about 44 of the 55 most wanted former regime members. Remember the deck of cards with all the faces? Saddam was the ace and it went all the way down, remember? The biggest threat now is these terrorists. The only comforting thing about the whole situation is that most of the Iraqi people do not want these terrorists here and are not supporting them. These terrorists originally thought they were heroes who were helping the Iraqi people, but when they showed up (they started coming before the war) the Iraqis slammed their doors in their faces, threatened them, told them to leave and turned them in to Coalition Authorities (once the Coalition arrived, of course). This is still happening a lot. Many captures are the result of tips from Iraqi citizens. Anyway, I could go on, but I think I should hit the hay. I'll keep you updated.
BAGHDAD -- Army Spec. Adam E. Walsh, 21, is a member of a 10-man special-operations unit deployed to Baghdad, Iraq, just after Thanksgiving. He is assigned to Bravo Company 8th Psychological Operations Battalion Airborne. What follows are excerpts from his letters home to Pepperell.
Feb. 3: I'm getting ready for an early night. I was tired all day today and am looking forward to good night's sleep. The thunderstorm lasted all night and the next day was rainy. It was really intense with a lot of hard rain, not unlike North Carolina. I think February will be the coldest month of the year. It'll probably start to get warmer in March. Today was around 60. Tonight will be around 40, I think. Not bad at all. I've been really busy in the last couple of days. My job always shifts to fit mission demands. Sometimes I spend all day in the compound and only leave to eat. Some days I spend all day out. I think I have to go out tomorrow, but we'll see.
Feb. 6: We've had a few more thunderstorms. We lost our generator for a little while, but now it's OK. I'm not a big generator fan (they're big, loud, smelly and love to break) but I appreciate the occasional warm shower they bring me. All of our essential equipment runs off an Army generator, which never has problems, but is too small to provide for the entire compound. I'm not going to write long because I'm sick again and would like to rest ... I'll catch up with you later.
Feb. 11: The weather has been interesting here. We've had some days that were hot and sunny, and some that were cool and stormy. When it rains it gets muddy as $*@! and there are giant pools of water everywhere. It didn't rain much until recently. Today it was 90 degrees. Imagine that, 90 on February 9! It doesn't look too good for June. It's very dry though, so it probably won't be as bad as it sounds.
Work has been pretty steady. Right now we're looking for information on a certain terrorist of al-Qaeda affiliation who is suspected of operating here. He has his own network, which is tied with al-Qaeda. He has been a known terrorist threat for over 2 decades and has spent his life moving from country to country (mostly in the Middle East) and engaging in terrorism. He is wanted in many countries for acts of terrorism and is believed to have taken part in several bombings here in Iraq. Saddam allowed this terrorist network to operate and set up training camps here (just south of Baghdad) before the war.
He's a pretty bad guy. There are a lot of people like him in the Middle East. They are taught by their parents and teachers that in order to be a good Muslims you have to wage "jihad" (holy war) against the "infidels" (usually westerners or non-Muslims) and that if they do, they will be rewarded with a glorious afterlife. So these people find terrorist training camps (these days on the Internet) and then start their journey around the Middle East, poisoning, assassinating and blowing things up. Mostly western things, of course.
Thousands of these terrorists are here now waging their jihad, and are also using a different method of terror known as "fitna," which refers to the killing of Muslims and is highly discouraged in the Muslim world (obviously). They justify "fitna" by claiming that the Muslims they kill are traitors. They are killing the Iraqis as punishment for supporting us and for not trying to kill us. Most of the bombings happening now are by terrorists.
We've caught about 44 of the 55 most wanted former regime members. Remember the deck of cards with all the faces? Saddam was the ace and it went all the way down, remember? The biggest threat now is these terrorists. The only comforting thing about the whole situation is that most of the Iraqi people do not want these terrorists here and are not supporting them. These terrorists originally thought they were heroes who were helping the Iraqi people, but when they showed up (they started coming before the war) the Iraqis slammed their doors in their faces, threatened them, told them to leave and turned them in to Coalition Authorities (once the Coalition arrived, of course). This is still happening a lot. Many captures are the result of tips from Iraqi citizens. Anyway, I could go on, but I think I should hit the hay. I'll keep you updated.