GREG@SN95

From SN95 forums... member over there's family member sent him the following letter...

interesting read
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Hello friends and family,

Heres the biggest updates from where I'm at in 3rd Battalion 4th Marines Kilo Company Smiley, We are doing well! Our rotations continue, the patrols keep rolling, the humvees wheels keep rollin. QRF is always on edge the entire week, which is kinda stressfull, but each squad has its own room now, so I have a bed w/matress, and I made myself a shelf, I might even buy a chest to keep my stuff in, I'm pretty pumped about my new shelf I made Smiley. Post week is of course cold during the nights, (Its amazing how cold it gets in the nights in a desert), and fun getting to know the Iraqi Soldiers. I've moved from knowing a few words in Arabic to maybe a Spanish II level in Highschool. (As long as I have my cheat card with me lol). But thats the half the battle here, just getting the arabic down that is actually real arabic and means what you right down is very good. I have two different sets of arabic, one half is for patrolling, where it consists of just comma nds etc, and the other half is when I'm with the iraqis and I'm getting to know them. I can ask them where they live, if they're married, how many kids they have, different things about their lives is very interesting to know. I also learned recently that the greeting they give each other isn't actually a hello, it means "peace", and hello is actually a completely different word. I thought that was interesting how all the civilians say "peace" as a greeting instead of hello now. I also talked to the Iraqis about the Marine difference in Iraq. They say without the Marines in the cities the terrorists would completely take over, attacking the soldiers, raping, pillaging, just complete chaos. Then he said with the marines here, the bad guys are afraid to come out. In some areas they are more bold of course, but that is to be expected. Although the whole town isn't with us, most of them are honest working people that want to better the town. So don't listen to the media that says the w ar is lost, we are winning. The iraqi soldiers are moving around different towns fighting the insurgents and are driving them back farther and farther. Some towns the Marines won't even walk around with their flaks, no helmets, and freely shop around the markets. Don't hear that in the media do ya?? Of course not, because the politicians haven't seen the people getting power, food, ..... sigh.... anyway.......
Something new we are doing now during mission week is foot patrols. I was excited about these, snce it would be something different. I would be able to use my arabic more, maybe get some intel, and just do more infantry stuff right? I mean the humvee is cool, but I want to patrol, cruising down the alleys, goin through houses, finding these bad people.... doin my job.
Just last week, more vehicle commander let me get up into the turret on some of the less essential missions. Wow it was awesome, standing up on top of the humvee with the machine gun doing everything a turret gunner is supposed to do. It was alittle cold with the wind bloing in my face, but it was just awesome. Now of course my job is not that, I'm a dismount, not the machine gunner, (the main reason why I learn so much arabic because I do all the talking for my truck), but it was still really cool to wield the power of the 240G.
Well other news, I just found out about our regiment getting relieved from this area. 1/7,2/7, 3/4, etc is done here. 3/4 Has no done 4 consecutive back to back Iraq deployments and is the MOST deployed infantry battalion in the corps. Our next tour in January 08 should be to Japan, Okinawa. Now we should be done here in Iraq, but there is chance we might swing back to Iraq after a few months in Oki, but as of right now, that is the battalions schedule.

Hope you liked the update, take care. I love you all!
Lcpl Shoup