Reflections on "What can we send you?"

Dear Extended Family,

Today, I looked around my temporary "home" in a new light. It's a fortress of concrete barriers and bunkers with an aerostat balloon floating overhead with sensors even I don't know about. Hundreds of Army soldiers, Ugandan guards, Special Forces musclemen, and KBR contractors come into the $3.4 million dining facility where I eat everyday, for free of course. My room is an air conditioned Containerized Housing Unit (CHU) which can be set as cold as I can bear. I get access to free laundry service, real hot water showers, and porcelain indoor toilets in an air conditioned trailer. Free transportation is furnished for me here at FOB Delta in either an air conditioned Chevy Blazer (covered in fine Iraqi dust), a Kia bus (covered in fine Iraqi dust) with curtained windows comes by at least once every half hour, or the usual (& most reliable form of transportation) Trigger, the wonder-bike... uh, covered in fine Iraqi dust. My job entitles me to strap into a $14 million, tax-payer-furnished Blackhawk helicopter, complete with another pilot and 2 door gunners, and a 2nd Blackhawk escort to help me out if I need to land in bad-guy territory. I've overflown and photographed the hanging gardens of Babylon, the Ziggurrat of Ur (Abraham's birthplace), farms irrigated by the Tigris or Euphrates Rivers, and the smoggy, diverse city of Baghdad. Oh, and I get paid for doing it, some of it tax free!

Eastern Orthodox Christian services I don't get, but I attempt to make up for it with lots of reading and non-denominational services or, heaven forbid, the "lite" Roman Catholic Masses. Good musicians. Not great. Clay and Janet would bring the house down!

So where was I going with all of this? I receive quite a few e-mails and care packages from friends and friends-of-friends. Recently, someone asked me, "What can we send you?"

Food? I get to eat out free everyday at the $3.4 million dining facility. I've bloated up to 190 lbs! Car magazines, especially BMW of course, that's a really good diversion.  Pictures would be the best. Of course Pat O'Toole thought of that, but that's because he's been in this situation before.

But then I really thought harder, which is very taxing on my little brain, you see. It just seems a little selfish for me to ask for anything, don't you think? ...But I will anyway. I think I found a good answer. If anyone feels so inclined, give me your thoughts, your prayers, your humor, but best of all - take care of my family for me. Somehow, we soldiers get all the attention, and "thank you" comments, but from what I can tell from talking to all my peers, their families are working extra hard to close the gap on the vaccuum left when their soldier left town. My family tries to keep life going at the same pace and commitment of "doing whatever love requires" (our unofficial family motto) when there was actually 2 drivers, 2 cooks, 2 tutors... 2 parents! My wife is "up to her eyeballs in alligators!" What a great saying, don't you think? My "favorite daughter", Lauren, is in her last year of living at home. I lost that one year. That hurts, but I'm confident I'll go way out of my way to get together with her for our little conversations which she lovingly calls "lectures". Funny girl. And my "favorite son", Gunner, is going downhill in Math and Latin with all the mixed-up hormones and confused/rebellious attitude of a 14-year-old teenaged boy. The outlook doesn't look promising for this year of school. Fathers should be there for their sons. And that one really hurts.

And so, please, if there's anyone out there, don't think harshly of me, but I have to answer the question "What can we send you?"

Do something for them.

When I flew out of town with all that fanfare in a gust of wind and noise, the News channels took pictures of 10 helicopters rising up in the morning light and broadcast it to the world. What they neglected to show were the little hands of families left behind waving goodbye in the dust of our rotorwash. Hope I'm not asking too much. But I'm asking. I hope you'll understand and do "whatever love requires." After all, you are my family.

With love,

Chris