Avalanche...

I (once again) want to thank every single one of you who has taken the time out of your busy days and busier lives to sit down at a computer and type me a Moto-mail. Writing a letter or typing an email is thankless enough, I suppose you might expect a 75% return on personal emails, perhaps a 25% return on personal snail mail, but when the expectation of a return message is a big fat zero, and yet many of you STILL are making a point of encouraging me in this tangible way—I can only say, “THANK YOU,” again, from the bottom of my heart. I am SO encouraged, I feel VERY supported, and affirmed for my service. I received eight, EIGHT separate Moto-mails today, and one snail mail card (from Judy—thank you for your note, my intention is to write you back), and four of the ‘mails were more than a ‘page’ long. The Admin Chief from our unit was just shaking his head as he handed out the mail, I think even he found it hard to believe that so many people care about me—or care enough about me to write me in such a meaningful way.

Nicole, my Mom pointed out (and rightly so) that some of your competition has been without access to a computer for at least the last two weeks, and I should point out that another niece of mine posted to my blog before I even left the States J Seriously, I know how hard it is to write one-sided letters. Helen ‘just’ wrote me about the weather, and due to the speed of Moto-mails, I was able to inform a bunch of other folks out here from California about the snow down to 1,000 feet and the 18 hour shutdown over the Grapevine last weekend. It really helped us connect back to home, as practically everyone from California has sat on the Grapevine, on one side or the other, in such a shutdown. My days out here are practically all the same, hearing what is happening in your day brings meaning to what I’m doing here—GWOT is all about providing a secure enough environment to provide even some of the basic freedoms that we experience in the United States, like freedom of choice within the bounds of responsibility, freedom of speech and movement, etc. to folks in places where these freedoms are unkown.

Semper Fi, Jon G.