Letters From Iraq

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Keep them in your thoughts and prayers. Also remember their families, wives, husbands, sons, daughters, moms and dads waiting back home for their safe return.

These men and women from the NC National Guard are your plumber, salesman, accountant, and postal worker. They are the young family man down the street trying to eek out a living for his wife and little baby, the middle-aged police officer giving back to his country. Electronics and computer technicians, mechanics, students, teachers, and electricians. Constructions workers, truck drivers, mothers, and the sales clerk at Walmart.

The Guard consists of men and women from all walks of life, who find in this part time military commitment the opportunity to give back to their country, enjoy the camaraderie of their military unit and the physical demands to remain fit and finds the additional income fills gaps in their budgets. Most of them joined knowing they could be deployed, but didn't really expect to see action outside their monthly drills and 2-week summer camps. Now they find themselves very literally on the backside of the desert.

They are highly motivated and their sense of mission is acute, while in Iraq their focus is on getting the job done. Still, their family back home, while thousands of miles distant, are not far from their hearts. Their patriotism is unquestioned and their desire for the Iraqi people to share the freedoms we Americans enjoy is constant.

While the 30th BCT returned to their homes January 10, 2005, these letters will remain as a tribute to them and continue to tell their story.

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