My friend and former talk show co-host, Jon Alvarez, is serving in Iraq.  Periodically he drops a line to friends and shares details about what life is like in his current neighborhood.  This is his latest message:

Here’s hoping you and yours had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  Surreal seems to completely capture the experience I am having here in Iraq, so I would have to say it was very surreal to find myself enjoying Thanksgiving in Baghdad, Iraq.  Ours was a little different than yours, I suspect.  We began the day with an early morning mission into Shulla, just north of our FOB.  We’d only learned the night before that we would have to hastily put this mission together as our LT needed pictures of businesses in that area that had receieved business grants courtesy of the USA for a slide presentation he had to put together.  So, rather than sleep in and enjoy a nice Thanksgiving Day breakfast, we threw on our gear and convoyed to Shulla.  It was a beautiful morning and sitting up in the gunner’s turret the entire time, pulling security, I had time to reflect on all that I’m thankful for in my life.  I watched the Iraqis in the area go about their business, some leading donkeys or herding sheep, others doing their shopping, or just meandering about and I couldn’t help but think about how thankful I am to live in the greatest country in the world. (Our terp, Caster, did secure us some wonderful Iraqi bread freshly baked for breakfast)

It also dawned on me how fortunate I am to have my health, especially at 42 and performing a job most 20 yr olds are even struggling with.  I have no illnesses, no aches and pains other than some occasional shoulder aches due to all this freakin armor we wear, and am fully competent in performing my duties.  I’m thankful to have so many caring friends and family back home who write and have sent wonderful care packages to help make our living conditions here a little more tolerable.  I’m thankful to serve with so many wonderful young people who do their jobs while knowing people are back home, safe and snuggled in their beds because they are over here serving.  That fact is not lost on them.  We have an all-volunteer military filled with intelligent, honorable people who do the job for a paltry wage and they do it with a positive attitude.

I’m also thankful for the experiences I’ve already been able to have, which most people will never be able to.  I’ve met many wonderful people here from other countries, including Australians, Romanians and Ugandans.  They all have very positive attitudes towards the good old USA, many of whom have either been or wish to go there.  And, of course, there’s the Iraqis I’ve met who are helping us to rebuild their country.  They are thankful for our efforts to remove Saddam Hussein and to help them take back control of their country rather than just leave it in a mess, a leaderless vaccuum.  In particular, those who risk their own lives helping us, our interpreters and contractors who are targets of the bad people who wish to see a free and democratic Iraq fail. 

So, my Thanksgiving, while definitely out of the ordinary, was a good one.  It put so much into perspective for me.  Like everyone else here, I can’t wait to get back home to my comfortable life and enjoy the freedoms we all get to enjoy.  As Christmas approaches, I know some of you back home want to know if there’s anything you can do to help us out.  We really aren’t lacking for anything.  Of course, we love the care packages and letters and cards, it’s always nice to receive mail.  I suspect some 1st ID soldiers aren’t getting much mail as they are young and might just have immediate family sending them stuff.  Also, our own Lt. John Harris doesn’t get much mail, either.  So, if you want to send a Christmas package to a 1st ID soldier or our own beloved LT, feel free to send something to him directly at the address below, just put his name where mine is, or for a 1st ID soldier, wrap it and send it to my attention but be sure to include your name and address in the package so they can respond back to you.  We pretty much have no females here, maybe 5, so keep that in mind.  Finally, Team Zombie is asking for a few Barbie Dolls and such for our wonderful interpreter’s 2 daughters.  Caster tells us they are age 6 and 12, like dolls and drawing with colors.  Caster does so much for us and puts his life on the line every day when he goes out into the very neighborhoods where he lives and frequents.  Another request is for stuff for an 8 month old baby girl, who is the sole daughter of Achmed, a nice young contractor who has already gone out of his way to bring us Iraqi pizza and such.  He does all the contract work on the base and is an enterprising young man who always has a smile and cheerful greeting for me.  I just think it would be nice to share our own good fortune with these two men whose families must also worry about them. 

My “new” address, as the other ones still result in our mail winding up at HQ at FOB Liberty (mail seems to take one week to get here):

Sgt Jon Alvarez
CAB 1/18 Civil Affairs
2 H BCT 1st ID
FOB Justice
APO AE 09344

God Bless and Merry Christmas from a very quiet and peaceful Baghdad!

SGT Jon Alvarez, USAR
A Co 403rd CA BN
Team Zombie
FOB Justice, Iraq

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 at 3:04 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.