This last letter was written on 2/28/2008. I’ve been sitting on these last few e-mail exchanges for awhile. I wanted to make sure that Ryan made it home safely and just wanted to let some time pass before posting them. Hopefully, this action kept all our troops safe. A big THANK YOU, to Ryan’s Dad for sharing these with me and giving me permission to show them to you. Not all of them made it to print. Some contained some pretty private info which might have put others in harm’s way. So I acted on the side of caution and deleted them before they ever had the chance to be seen. The last exchanges took place between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Ryan has now been back home for well over a month. Welcome home Ryan!!!
Hi Ryan, Just checking in. Anything new? Fill me in on the
latest
Stay safe
Dad
Dad,
I have everything packed and I’m leaving for Kuwait in the am weather
depending. The latest is that my flight should arrive home on January
3rd. I say should because you know how the Army is and things can
change. How much leave can you take from work? I’d say that if you
could come down any where between the 3rd and 5th of January that you
would be alright. Hopefully I’ll find out some more information when I
get down to Kuwait. It looks like we’re waiting on a boat to pick up
our aircraft and the boat may be late, which pushes everything back.
I’ll let you know more as I get it spoon fed to me. My next email to
you should be from Kuwait. Thank God! I’ll email you from Kuwait as
soon as I get settled in. Love you and talk to you soon.
Ryan
Hi Ryan- I just wanted to send you a quick note to say hi. I guess that your Thanksgiving was pretty much just another day for you- right? I can’t imagine how hard it must be for you and all the other heroes who are currently serving in Iraq. Please continue to be excessively careful and keep your head down as you told me in your last email. Our sincere prayer is for your speedy and safe return home to your adoring family and friends. Please know that you are in our thoughts, hearts and prayers daily. Your dad is counting the days until he can see you and place his arms around you. We are both so desperately proud of you and service to our great country. Keep our love in your head and your heart always. Love, Jan
Hi Ryan, Hope all is well by you pal. How was Thanksgiving? What is going on by you? You must be winding down now huh? What is the latest on your ETA back at Fort Hood? I can’t wait to see you. Scott has an apartment now, so I can stay with him when I come out. It has gotten cold here now. Just within a few days the temps have really dropped. We have just finished decorating the house for Christmas. Am getting ready to send Ashley a check for the kids and you guys. Should go out next week. Will bring some special things out for you when I come out in January. All is well here. What have they got you doing?. Has the 3rd ID taken over for you? Saw in Army Times that the ————-. Let us know how you are doing. Jan sends her love to you as do I of course.
Take care and be careful.
Love
Dad
Hey Dad,
I’m doing well, just extremely tired. 15 months we have figured out is way too long. Chronic fatigue and battle fatigue has set in and we are all doing our best to stay focused so we all make it out of here. The people who don’t’ fly, you know the staff pukes have a hard time realizing how tired we are at times and take it for granted. On a positive note things have slowed down on the ground even though we still provide 24/7 support of 2 Apaches in the air regardless if they need us or not. So our op tempo has not slowed but I can tell you that Iraq is quiet, which is a great thing but has made things extremely boring for us Apache guys. Thanksgiving came and went; just another day for us and the food wasn’t that great. I’m thinking we should be home between 28 December and 3 January. Our last mission is still 24 December and the fact that we have to miss Christmas again has really pissed us off. ——————————- is here to relieve us. They just showed up a couple days ago and they have the best looking Apache’s we’ve ever seen. I say that because our morale goes through the roof just seeing them because it’s more proof we are getting close to leaving. Please tell Rob James I said thanks for his email. What a wonderful description he provided. He should really consider writing books. He certainly has a way with words. Ok, well I’m off to bed so I can wake up and do it all over again. Did you ever see Ground Hog Day the movie with Bill Murray? Because that’s what it’s like over here! Talk to you soon dad.
Love,
Ryan
One other note – In the spring of 2009, Ryan began serving his country in Afghanistan
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