Report On Thanksgiving from pilot/soldier

All is well here for Thanksgiving and I ate to a point of discomfort... Twice. I had to leave way earlier than normal that day and was out taking people here and there and they went out of their way to take us to eat with them. As it turned out, our meal was far better than the one served here at the base. The Turkey I had was strange, but delicious. Said turkey appeared to have been canned, whole... I looked at it sitting in the mermite can and said aloud, "Looks like that poor bastard got shot out of a cannon." The guy standing next to me (who was already taste testing it) replied, "Yeah, a gourmet cannon." It was truly tasty. They finally opened the new Dining Facility (DFAC) here that they've been working on since the first time I was here. The Third Country Nationals (TCNs) did a fantastic job with the decorations...
Getting into the double digits which is nice, but means that we're getting into that time of the deployment where people get hurt due to preventable, complacency related incidents. We are all ready to get home.
Hope all is well there.

CW4 MWR

Mel, thanks so much for the sitrep and for the account of the "hat." Maybe next year you'll be ready to go with us. What a trip we had this year. Needless to say, the pheasants of North Dakota had little to fear from me. A great time and your Dad, I can truly say, made the best shot: two went down in succession and almost with one shot. But, don't know if you know the story that made our trip. The one about the woman crawling in bed with your Dad. It was one of those stories where you almost had to be there but with some embellishment, it made the trip.

With the military, it sounds very much to me like: the more things change, the more they remain the same. I remember writing an article, mainly for my own consumption, about getting too comfortable in Iraq. Some general seemed to be proud of the fact that he had found a whole bunch of ice making machines for the PXes; my take was that it was a common problem with us. Although we want soldiers to have as many comforts as possible, the idea that we are settling down for a long stay in Iraq was a problem. This was in the early days of the war. Now, of course, we have settled down for who knows how long. In fact, I am still very doubtful that we'll be out with any real timetable. And, Afghanistan, with an overlay on our lives that looks surprisingly like your Dad and my war (Vietnam). Oh well, don't want to get started here.

Be careful and don't take chances. As my personal gift to you for what you are doing for the country, I want to spring for your expenses on our next hunting trip. File the dates away: 21-24 Oct 2010. Great bonding time. God bless. Be well and safe. {{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Jerry}}}}}}}}}}}

I don't think it is just Republicans who are "locked in." As a Democrat, let us be objective: everybody that I talk too of all kinds of political persuasions, appear to get it about Afghanistan, we simply can't do anything. They are a tribal people, still live in the Middle Ages, a President who is a joke; adinfinitum and yet we continue to pour in millions as though as though we have a McChrystal ball. Nothing seems to make any real difference: we have a demo Prez, that I've supported bigtime, Demo congress: no difference. So, it really baffles me.

I'm sticking with my view: 30% of Americans are downright stupid. I don't mean dumb, they just don't think, they appear to be mostly Republicans from where I stand but by no means, the only ones. We have 300 million plus in the country, 25% are out to lunch, they don't participate in anything: operate on a philosophy of "Of all my fathers children, I love myself the best. If the Lord provides for me, the devil take the rest." And, what I'm hoping is that there is at least 50% of Americans, of all persuasions who at least possibly, maybe are still participating and want to rescue the country.

America is a great country, still experimenting, I believe. We may be ungovernable, like CA, not sure. Still, we have lots of opportunity, can criticize the government, and be about as nutso as we want to be.