Letter Two

Hey everyone,

Everything is going good here. The unit we are taking over for is giving us some good training and setting us up for success once we leave the wire and start doing missions. It is pretty beautiful here with nice green grass and trees growing in the valley around us and mountains surrounding us in the distance. The FOB itself seems ok to me but the people who have been to Iraq say it is crap compared to how they lived there. Here we are living in tents and plywood buildings. In Iraq they had more permanent structures along with fast food restaurants and nice gyms and everything else. Maybe it will get better here because there is a whole brigade moving in so they will probably expand and build onto the FOB (Forward Operating Base). We are getting ready to head out on a mission sometime soon with the unit we are taking over for so that they can show us the land and how they execute, and then they will ride around with us as we execute and give us pointers. After that we will completely take over and it will be on me to lead the guys and run all missions. The roads we are clearing can vary from nice paved highway type roads to crazy single mountain roads that have a 200 ft cliff on one side and a 200 ft drop off on the other and your tire on the outside hangs halfway off the cliff. So it will be interesting. I'm kind of excited to get out there and see what it is like. Take care of yourselves and I will talk to you soon.

Love,
Todd