SOLDIERS' LETTERS
in response to children's art

Date: December 6, 2005 12:48:15 PM CST

Subject: Hello from Mosul for the Month of December 2005!

Hello to all,

Well I want to start by saying thank you to all who have been sending cards, letters, and boxes. Wow! You are a great bunch of people. THANK YOU, THANK YOU.

Well another month has come and gone. Wow time sure flies when you are away. That is because it sure is not fun, or a vaction (that is for you Rhonda!!!). We had a good Thanksgiving. We had a big spread for the day. I even served to the troops for one hour. It was nice to see all the smiles and not the same look of "boy I am tired". It is amazing what a little good food and holiday cheer does for a place.

The Post Office has gone thru some changes over the last 3 plus months. We have rearranged the working areas a couple of times, painted, replaced old stuff with new, build some new counters and shelves, and brought a little bit of home to the place. We have even built porches and sidewalks for our living area. So if it is not mail then we are always building something to help out.

The weather has turned to more of a fall fell. The evenings get pretty chilly. As my son would say "We get Dragon Breath". So it is cold enough to see your breath at night. But during the days it still gets up to 70's or 80's. So you come in with your polypros on and end the day with on a T-shirt on. The rain has
not really hit us yet. We did get one really really really good rain about two weeks ago. Our motorpool was really a pool. Nothing a new load of gravel and a little dirt work did not fix.

Well until the next rain that is.

For those of you who do not want to hear about the action part of this email, please move forward to the next paragraph (Amy that is for you!!!!). On the day before Thanksgiving we received two Mortars. They hit up at the Airfield at about 0530am. Then again the day after Thanksgiving on the otherside of camp. Nobody was hurt. I even slept through the whole thing. The only way I found out was by reading the report we receive daily. The one the day after thanksgiving I did know about. We were working out in the yard at the APO and SGT Jones and I felt it. It made the birds fly and all. But all is well and good.

Welcome back to all of you now. I sent out a list of what I wanted for Christmas to Amy and she sent it out to all of you. All it was that I would like some TV shows recorded and sent over.

As some of you know we only get AFN and that is not a big selection. So it is always nice to see the shows you like.

I do want to finish by telling everybody Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I will try and do better about sending these out, but only time will tell. Also I am doing fine and Yes I am still safe. Even if you read the above paragraph. I am safe.

Love you all, Daryl

SSG Daryl Brandt-COPE
795th AG Co (P) 3rd Plt
Camp Diamondback-Mosul, Iraq
APO AE 09334
DSN: 528-8573
email: daryl.brandt@us.army.mil

"We Deploy"

Date: January 14, 2006 4:06:06 PM CST

Subject: Re: Merry Christmas

Dear Heather,

I sorry to hear about you fall. I hope that you feel better soon, as for our needs I and happy to report that my unit will be returning home next month, we that you for the support you have given us. the pitcure are great moral lifters. Thank you.

Bruce

Date: December 26, 2005 3:05:34 AM CST

Subject: Merry Christmas

To all I'd like to wish you all a Merry Christmas, for this is the day when a Child was born, early in the morning, cold and shivering. And this Child would be the greatest of them all. God in flesh, to suffered by us for us. The baby Jesus took on our sins and payed in full so that we may be free. So let us lift his name with the Angels on high singing "Holy Holy is our Lord" My wish this Christmas is the same as every Christmas to come, Is that you touch someone special this Christmas as Jesus touched us in the first. Tell someone how much Jesus Loves them and how he Died for them.

You all have a Merry Christmas.

Bruce Dunham