The Midnight Hour

Thanks for the pictures. My son is a Marine who is on his second tour of Iraq and on this deployment is stationed at Camp Delta. On his first tour, email was almost an impossiblity due to rotations that took him out of camp for periods of time. Also, there were long lines for both computer and telephones and time spent in line competed with time for sleep. Free time was neglible. Motomail became the primary source of communication for family and extended family and I reccommend it for everyone. The website is: www.motomail.com. Letters are printed and delivered quickly. Also, Marnineparents.com (See New York Times Article on founder Tracey Della Vecchia)is an outstanding source of information shared by parents and families. Often in the early days of long stints out of camp, the only way I knew my son was safe was through this message board when other parents would relay that their Marine had seen him. This was especially comforting when the news reported casualties. Batallion parents, wives, fiances, grandparents support each other through this website and even organinzed homecoming get-togethers.

Clearly the digs are better than a year ago-my son’s group went without baths for 28 days until showers with running water were engineered. So thanks for that engineering degree!

Are you still under constant mortar attack? Are the children able to go to school yet in Fallujuh and Karma?

I don’t get how to read it do i have to pay?

In 1980 When my MP unit was deployed to Fort McCoy WI for 6 months at a time during the Cuban Refugee Crisis we faced the communication crunch with families left behind with some real high tech methods. You have to remember this was before cell phones, and good ole Ma Bell just loved for people to call long distance. Calls from Ft Dix NJ were not cheap. I had been married about 2 weeks before we were called up and my wife (Alabama native) had more than a few questions about military life and how to deal with a new family. After it was over we estimated about a $1,000.00 in phone bills. Worth every penny I might add.

The Army didn’t have a solution for my enlisted troops but one thing that was free and really appreciated was a group of volunteer HAM Radio operators in WI and the NJ area that arranged a set up where wives and soldiers could talk for free over the radio network. A real party line, if some your readers can remember what that means, but never the less a real morale booster when you needed one.

LT, one thing that you may never hear is the sound of land line phone ringing. Maybe sometine you can download that tune for cell phone and give everyone a short history lesson on Ma Bell.

Midnight,

“Also, I’ve added a few more pictures to my Flickr photostream.”

Your photostream is great; really enjoying it. Thanks for sharing your up close and personal in Iraq.

yo my brothersin iraq i got his mail address link boutim lookin for motomail or something so i can kno if my bro is allright if you kno what im talkin bout let me kno, god bless all youi soldiers