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

 

Well, what he said about the media showing the good things is true. They don't show very much of it. The media basically gets their attention from controversy. Controversy sells.

As for how well things are going, soldiers tend to be a little warped when they are over there, especially after seeing alot of combat. Don't get me wrong, many people there are respectful to our troops and love us for what we are doing, however some others will say that we shouldn't have stepped in and that now things are chaotic.

My cousin served 2 terms in Baghdad leading a sniper batallion, he was doing what that guy wanted to do, foot patrols, going door to door and flushing these people out.. what he saw was very traumatic apparently. He goes to therapy twice a week, and hes so paranoid that hes got a loaded rifle under his bed, and he has night sweats.

His batallion consisted of 16 people, it was special ops, all were either Army Rangers, Green Baraes and so on. He is the only surviving member of that batallion.

While he was there, terrorists blew up his gym, and attacked the apartment complex they had taken over for their quarters. Yes, the all got their own rooms ect as well.

There are good sides, and horrible sides to war. It all depends on what cities you are in.

My prayers are with that soldier though, I really hope he doesn't have to see the things my cousin has.

 

well the people over there are happy America is there....

The terrorists arent (yes I am implying that they are not people)

condolences on yer cousin... glad he is ok... I can imagine a terrorist attack is very scary to say the least...

 

Like I said, many normal people are happy we are there. Some don't like it much..because now so much more is unstable, and with saddam they atleast knew what not to say. Now they are worried that they will be walking down the road and the car next to them will blow up..

But, for the most part, yes they do like us there..

 

well ive been of of here for a while, i just puchaches my new wheels 4 days before i deployed to iraq, ill post some pics soon. anyways no two people will ever have the same experiances while they are deployed. its all how people handle things, what they see, what they do. this is my second time here. so much has changed from the last time. the first time i was here we rolled around w/o doors or armor, it was all small arms fire. now its how much armor can we fit on our trucks. ieds (improvised explosion devices) are the norm now. they have everything from shape charges to just artillery rounds. there is some bad **** out there. but at the camps it is great, internet in our rooms, good chow hall, we can get almost anything that we need here. we are living in hard buildings, 2 to a room. i am a mechanic on a recovery team. i dont see all the stuff that the grunts do, but when we get called its a bad day. the people i have had to deal with are very fickle. most of them love us being there. but their minds change all the time. you cant support people that terrorize you. when you see soldiers on the news rapeing, killing, and harrasing the iraqi people it gives us a bad name. they look at you all the same. but there is so much good that happens here, it just doesnt sell newspapers. we delivered 26 tons of fertilizer for their farms. one of the troops that we support rescued 5 children that were kidnapped. they find so much stuff out there. were we are at the violence is between the terrorists and the iraqi people. so the terrorists make it easy for the iraqis to like us. i really want to thank you for guys for the support, it means so much. alot of the guys get down and wonder what we are doing here, they see the news and all of it is negitive. we get letters and packages from all over the country saying thank you. it helps out so much. i wish you could see the smiles when these grown "hard ***" men read a grade schoolers card. anyways thank you.
Sgt. Tyler McMickell

 

I must read.....