A Letter from the Soldier

We received a letter in the mail this week from Daniel with some pictures and some "Iraqi Dinars" (their currency) from the former regime. It's all been replaced now without Saddam's picture. I was given permission to copy parts of the letter for you all to read. The letter was written on October 11, 2006.

I scanned the pictures and money and will put them throughout the post.

He found the "Dinars" at a bizarre in Kuwait. The vendor was selling them off at $1.00 a piece. I thought that was a great souvenir. How many kids in the US have old Iraqi currency? The pink one is 10,000 dinars and the green one is 25. I looked up today's exchage rate and 10,000 dinars is equivalent to $6.80 US dollars. 25 dinars = about 17 cents. (The vendor really made out well with Dan paying a dollar for those 25 dinars since they're only worth 17 cents, kidding really since they aren't worth anything with Saddam's picture).

Daniel's letter:
". . . I have arrived in Mosul and I believe that I have now recovered from the travel portion of my trek. I had a very unique experience on the flight from Kuwait to Iraq. I was able to ride in the cockpit with the pilot, copilot, flight engineer, and navigator. They let me have a headset so I could listen and talk during the entire flight. It was very refreshing to meet the flight crew. We discussed OMS (oral and maxillofacial surgery) and where I was from. We talked a little bit about the Amish and Lancaster County. What a wonderful place to live! We are very fortunate to live how and where we do."

This is Lt. Colonel Hamre. He's a General Surgeon/Trauma.

"I haven't seen much of Mosul because we're here at war and I have a job to do but what I have seen of it looks ok. I stay a the FOB (forward operating base) and will probably never leave its protective fence and shields. I feel very safe. We get a nickname because we never leave the FOB: "FOBBITS". We sleep in 8' by 16' boxes that have basic amenities (bed & closet). We actually get to use flush toilets and hot showers - they're down the road aways so if you "gotta go", you gotta go down the street a bit. The little huts where we live are called CHU's. I don't know why but that's what they're called."

This is CPT Spires and LTC Hamre. Capt. Spires was Daniel's roommate in El Paso, TX. He is a CRNA (certified registered nurse anesthetist) from Ohio. Incidently, Ainsley thinks he is the doctor who delivered her. She has been watching her birth video alot lately. He does look similar, I think it's the dark glasses.

"We will take over the hospital tomorrow (Thurs, Oct 12th) and hopefully these Doc's from the 47th CSH (combat support hospital) can go (on Friday) to Kuwait to catch a flight to CRC (El Paso) on Sunday. They're totally ready to go - most of them have been here for 6 months - but many 1 year. I know that I'd be ready."

"My health is great - I'm feeling strong both physically, mentally & spiritually. I think I am about 10 lbs lighter now than I when I left PA. I'm not sure though. I've been eating wisely and excercising - (funny how those two things seem to control weight so well) My roommate is Capt. Mike Apostle, an ER doc who finished his residency in June. He's a very nice man. He and his wife and dog will be moving to CO in January or so when he has completed his mobilization. He's an avid runner so we signed up for the Diamondback 10 mile fun run this Saturday. I hope I do well." (On a side note, Lady speaking here, that Fri night he got paged at 3 am. He was done with his patient by 4:30 and went over to the gym thinking that the race started at 5am because of the heat. Well it didn't start until 7am and he was too worn out to stay up til that time and then run 10 miles. So he missed that race)

Daniel gets teased by the other soldiers that this is his "killer" face or that he looks like a medieval warrior.