Email from Seth...Pics from Eli!

Two pictures from Eli. The top picture is a sandstorm at Al Asad. Seth and Eli's tent is the second one on the left side of the picture. The second picture is out on the small arms firing range on base...Seth and Eli helped run the M-4/M-9 qualification range three days in a row and this was their crew. The following is an email from Seth:

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope this email finds you all doing well and having a great week. Things here are going well, we are just waiting for the word to fly. We recently celebrated over a month in tents. The tents were never comfortable, but at first they were welcome. They signified the beginning of the end, the last stage before leaving Iraq. However as the weeks have passed the tents have become more and more disliked. They are an oven during the day, and with over thirty smelly guys living together in close proximity, the heat is the least of our worries. Not only has the heat and stench drastically increased from a month ago, but we have been having problems with mice in our tents. One soldier went through his rucksack the other day to organize his clothes, and to his surprise he found a mouse in the bottom of his rucksack along with many signs that the mouse had been there for some time. We still find it hard to complain since we are so close to getting out of here, and we know that people have it much worse. But the tents are slowly starting to wear on us and our patience.

We don't spend our days sleeping in, because as soon as the sun starts to come up the canvas tent starts heating up. However we have found creative ways to fight boredom over here. Instead of spending half an hour at the chow hall we spend over an hour. We sit and talk, make sure to eat plenty of ice cream and enjoy each others company. We spend a lot of time in the air conditioned MWR rooms watching movies, reading books, playing ping pong, and just hanging out. As the sun goes down and the temperature starts to cool off everyone slowly migrates back to the tents. In the evening the tents are illuminated from the glow of numerous laptops. I shower every evening to rinse off the days dust and sweat, and then get into bed looking forward to another day, and another day off the final count. The only problem is, with the delays of soldiers getting out of country, no one is exactly sure what the count is. I sleep good with the knowledge that I am a day closer, whenever that day is ,

Take care and have a great rest of your week,

Lots of Love and Peace from the Middle East,
Seth