Leaving on a Jet Plane

One of my old Captains from my police career sent me this email. It is from his son who is shipping out in a few hours for Iraq. I've watched Nick Jones, excuse me, Lance Corporal Nick Jones, USMC grow up from a kid doing all the all-American boy things to now, a young man going out to lay it all on the line for his God, his Country and his Corps. He wrote an email to everyone important to him as he met his formation for departure. Read it below, and have something standing by to wipe a tear, as this gritty lad makes light of the Baathist terrorists in Iraq, while acknowledging that his unit HAS to do a better job then the crack troops they are relieving.

Without more ado, Lcpl Jones' goodbye email:

Ok so departure time for me and my guys is early tommorrow morning (Thursday) we will be departing for Ar Ramadi Iraq. A beautifull 7 month vacation on the largest dehydrated beach in the world :) It may take some time for communications to get up with regards to e-mail etc... but as far as mailing old fashioned style goes it is allready active. My address is as follows...

       Lcpl Jones, Nicholas D.
       XXX/XXX BN. (xyz Plt.)
      (FPO address modified/deleted for security)

Looking forward to hearing from anyone that wants to drop me a line from time to time :) I will respond all that i can. A little background on this operation, basically we are going over there to relieve the 82nd airborne of command, so that we can really start to make things better for the Iraqi people. There are a lot of little shitheads still running around trying to be closer to Allah and the 70 virgins by shooting at us satan worshiping zionist americans. Our basic job is to put a stop to that by stabalizing the area much like the army's prestegious 82nd airborne has been working very hard at doing. Difference there being, we will not fail.See you all in about 7 months, have a good Spring/Summer and all that includes.

See you on the flip side...
Later
-Nick

Nick, if anyone sends you a trackback from my blog and you see this later, you know the Old Major is pulling for you from back home. Take care of yourself, your equipment and your buddies. I'll write some snailmail, I think I can still do that.

If any of my regular readers want Nick's real address to drop him a line, email me and I'll send it.

UPDATE: Now I remember why this post hit me a little hard. Nick Jones put the title on it "Leaving on a Jet Plane", I didn't. But that was my music to ship out to the 'Nam war by only 34 years ago!