Deployed: A hell of a ballance

I wanted to post a follow up to two previous posts about my brother-in-law Nick, who was deployed last month as part of an MP patrol unit in Iraq.

I'm sure you've all read/heard that October was one of the deadliest months so far of the war in Iraq with 104 soldiers killed.

As a member of the military police, Nick is tasked with making regular patrols outside of American bases. He and his comrades are the targets of the infamous IEDs.

Anyway, I wanted to pass along this note from Nick to anyone who might be interested. I've edited out some of the more personal and personally identifiable information.

Hey Everyone,
Really great to hear from you all. Iraq is okay and ironically enough though it is sandy, it's way less sandy than Kuwait was.

I find myself here being very bored when I'm not going on missions and also very uncertain when I go out. It's a hell of a balance: either stay back and be bored or go out into Iraq on missions and play chance. In the end I find that playing chance works better for me because at least it keeps my mind occupied.

I don't really follow anything in the news, all I know is that for us (Military Police) it's been dubbed the year of the police in Iraq, and we're here to support that. No explosions yet, knock on wood.

I'm glad that Julie has you all there to help her with this. Being away from her makes me realize how terribly in love I am with her. Simply put I am not the same guy without her, and I just want to get this over with and come home to her the same person I was. That's all this year is to me. It's what I have to do to get home, and I'm just going to lower my head and motor through it until it's done.

Anyway you all take care. Write often cause its great hearing from everyone. Take care of Julie the best you can for me (thanks for helping with the house) and take care of yourselves.

tagged: Iraq, war, soldier, military police, October, home