Letters from SSG Dan, Part 1

SSG Dan is a National Guard soldier from Kansas. A husband, grandfather, and church elder, Dan volunteered to go to Iraq in 2003 and returned to Iraq for a second tour in late 2004. His letters to his wife, Sherrie, are shared by her for your encouragement.

October 8, 2004
Ft. Riley, Kansas

We have been pretty busy in-processing: ID cards, medical, dental, legal, uniform issue, etc. I hope the days fly by until I'm home again. Our barracks are really cramped. The room I'm in has six guys in it. Each of us have two large boxes, two duffle bags and one large ruck sack, one green bag with our desert uniforms and vests, and at least one personal bag. It's really tight! I don't have any good friends yet so please pray that God will lead me to a good friend.

October 21, 2004
Ft. Riley, Kansas

Have you ever considered how sweet will be the reunion for those who have been long seperated? My heart is forever yours and I shall count the seconds until we are together again. While we are apart my promise to you is my unfailing love and constant prayer. When you lay down each night please know that wherever in the world I may be, in whatever circumstance, I'm praying for you and thinking of you. Someday, when this is all behind us and we are together again, we will be able to say with pride that we served our God and our country honorably. I long for that day.

Forever your loving husband, Danny.

October 28, 2004
Ft. Riley, Kansas

Just thought I'd write a few lines before chow time. A few lines before chow time. There, I feel better.

Love, Dan

December 21, 2004
Camp Virginia, Kuwait

It's really crazy since we arrived in Kuwait. We are staying in a tent that sleeps sixty. Most mornings we are up by 5:00am and our days don't end until 9:30 or 10:00pm. It is really hard, and we are all getting burned out pretty bad. I hope it gets better when we get to our permanent duty in Iraq. Our captain is pushing too hard. Everything you do here at Camp Virginia, you have to stand in line. [He hates standing in line.] It's been really cold here and has rained quite a bit, not the same as last year.

I hope this letter makes sense, I'm really tired. We spent three days in the field and didn't sleep very much at all, got back last night and had to get up at 3:00am to go to another range. It's noon and I'm trying to keep going the best I can. I hope you have recovered from your surgery by now. What a hard time with the holidays, surgery, and my being gone all the time. I hope you have a great Christmas and really get to relax for a couple of weeks. I hope I never have to spend another Christmas away from my family [This is his second Christmas in row.] Please write and tell me all about home and send pictures. Also send a goodie box if you have time. [Mushy stuff excluded]

Christmas Day, 2004
Camp Virginia, Kuwait

Merry Christmas. It's 12:30pm and we just had our Christmas meal and it was really good. I had prime rib, shrimp, sweet potatoes, eggnog, cake, pumpkin pie (not as good as yours), cranberry sauce, and ham.

It rained really hard last night and we even had thunder and lightning. Today is warmer and sunny, about 65 degrees. We stayed up late watching movies and playing cards and didn't get up until about 9:00am. It felt good to just relax. I have to go to formation now.

I'm back. We have the rest of the day off. I'm going to play ping pong with the Koreans. I'll call you when I'm sure everyone is awake. I'm going to talk for at least ten minutes!

I'll tell you a little about our camp. It is called Camp Virginia and is one of the oldest camps in Kuwait. We live in a big tent with eighty men. It is heated and air conditioned so it's not too bad. I live beside SSG Riley and SGT Maiava. We all have battle buddies but I pretty much hang out with Jackson, Berry, and Riley. Riley is my official battle buddy. We watch out for each other and always know hwere the other one is at all times. Break…

I went to the MWR tent and played ping pong for six hours. It was fun. The Koreans were there and we played doubles against them. They can all play really well. We won most of the games and I even played the best one of themand won 2 out of 3 games. I hereby proclaim myself the ping pong champion of Camp Virginia and all of Western Kuwait (sounds impressive).

I got to talk to you twice and it was just a great day! I also got to take a hot shower! We have a few shops here but there are always long lines. Our tents are in rows around the perimeter of the inner camp where the shops and medical tents are along with the command center. Outside of our tents are our trucks and outside of that, around the entire camp, is a berm and barbed wire. he have guard towers with automatic weapons manned 24/7, so I feel pretty safe here. It will be pretty much the same when we move to Camp Cooke in Iraq, only security will be much tighter there.

[Here's an article about an Army unit passing through Camp Virginia, and some photos of the accomadations.]

January 11, 2005
Camp Cooke, Iraq
Postcard to the Church…

Dear Church Family,

I hope all is well with everyone at home I sure miss you all and think of you often. I am stationed at Camp Cooke near Baghdad. We are very busy hauling supplies and ammo all over northern Iraq. Most missions are at night so we try to sleep during the day. It has been pretty cold over here at night and especially up north around Mosul. I'll be glad when it warms up a little bit and dries up all the mud. I hope to come home on leave this summer some time for two weeks. Please keep praying for all of my soldiers as it is pretty dangerous right now. I look forward to seeing you all again this summer.

Your brother, Dan

P.S. Thanks to all for the Christmas cards!