...I'm okay with being REALITY-based.




Tuesday, April 01, 2003
      ( 3:05 PM )
 
Letter from the Front

I got a letter from Brother Jon yesterday. As a recap, I am extremely close with my younger brother, who is a Captain in the Air Force. He was deployed to the Gulf 4 weeks ago. His 29th birthday is next week. It will be his second birthday in a row in the desert (last year he was in "operation enduring freedom" - which doesn't seem very enduring at this point). To keep his letter in context, a wave of a very harsh upper respiratory w/fever thing has swept the ranks (I haven't heard anything about it publicly). From how he described it, it's pretty miserable, and the fever goes pretty high before it breaks. His own fever broke last weekend. But they've all been told not to expect to really get better because of all the sand and the dust. Plus, they run 10-hr missions at a time. Anyway, I thought I'd share some of his thoughts. I quote, in part:

...Anyway, I'm still pretty sick. It seems like
I get better then fly and feel worse. 10 hours
on a mission at a time, plus all the sand and
dust is taking its toll on my respiratory tract.
..... Now it seems like this thing is going
to last for ever. Hopefully not though. I wonder
how we'll know its over? I guess when we kill
Sadam? Not like we'll be going home right away
anyway.
... We were fantasizing about good food today...

I miss my brother.


Life Sacrificed, Lives Saved

Wampum notes today that there has been an unexpected result of Rachel Corrie's death. While moral reasons could not influence the IDF's decision, evidently bad press could.

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