Mail

We actually have a pretty good mail system compared to others here. We get mail 6 days a week. Those that are down range get it when a convoy comes to them bringing mail. We’ve got a guy who picks up the mail every day. He then has the task of sorting all the boxes and envelopes into the various command elements here. Then from 6:00 – 7 :00 p.m., the frenzy starts. Guys will line up in line just to see if they’ve received anything from home. It’s happiness when you get a letter, joy when you get two letters and “I’m going to kill you because you got three and I didn’t get anything” when you get three. Oh, that was the guy behind me who was feeling that way when he saw me get three letters from home and he didn’t get anything.

I must say that I’ve got the best wife and family. Janae is so good about writing me. I went 4 days in a row and got something every day from her. Mixed in was a card from Donna Durfee, my mother-in-law and cards from my boys. It was so nice.

When my first and only box, so far, arrived, it was like Christmas. It was actually the second box Janae had sent but she didn’t insure or register it as she didn’t think about it and the clerk didn’t ask. I’m sure that unregistered, uninsured box is out there somewhere, the only question is where. So, if you send me a box, be sure to register it or insure it. Apparently if it’s got some type of tracking system on it, it gets here faster. I know, it doesn’t make sense, but that seems to be the way it works.

Now for the real reason for writing this – if you have a soldier here and you haven’t been sending him any mail, write him a letter right now, put it in an enevelope and send it. I know, e-mail is instantaneous and that’s great, but there’s nothing like getting a real letter that you get to hold, knowing that your wife or loved one was the last one to hold it. If it smells like your perfume, it’s even better. My friend, Steve Esplin, will sleep with those letters from his wife that smell like her. I know, I think it’s weird too. Now if it was something else that was sent that smelled like my wife, something soft and silky, black or...OK, I’ll think of something else now.

OK DeAnna, maybe I was thinking of something else (mango), but I'll never tell!!