A letter from Melissa

(Our AK-47 door jamb for our villa)

The best thing about being an American soldier in a war is the support that you get from the home front. No other country on earth even comes close to the sheer volume of cards, letters, and care packages addressed to “any soldier” by the good citizens of the USA. In fact, we had to place a large metal storage shelf in our kitchen just to store all of the goodies that were sent to us from the states. That storage shelf looked like a section of any grocery store that you would find in the states. In fact, our coalition brethren would have nothing to eat outside of the chow hall, so they had free access to our food. This was the only source of food they had outside of the chow hall. Anyway, we would also get tons of mail from school kids back home. A teacher would have the kids write a letter to “Any Soldier”. They were cute little hand made cards, drawn in crayon, with little notes inside written in grade school English. It was fun to go through them at the end of the day and read them. But one caught my attention. I wished that I had saved it! On the front was drawn in crayon an American flag with an Army soldier (green clad stick man) holding a rifle. Inside was the note from Melissa:




Dear Soldier,

Thank you very much for defending our country. I’m sure that it must be very hard for you to be away from your family. Please be careful when you are fighting the Iraqis. Show them no mercy.

Love,

Melissa
4th grade