My friend, Peter, is a Marine Reserve. He was sent to Iraq and this is an email I just received from a friend of his.
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For those who don't know me, I am Kathleen Mak. Peter's lil' sister. He wrote a letter home, but it is from March 29. (mail takes a while to get here) I'm going to just type the important parts that he wants to you ppls to know. Here it is:
March 29, 2003

Life is hard. I'd never imagine myself in a combat zone. We passed by many towns and cities already. Although we're scared, we're here for a reason. We're here to free the people of Iraq. Saddam threatens to kill their families if they do not cooperate. Farmers get killed gecause the soldiers use their homes as shleters and bunkers.
I've never seen so many people killed in my life. As we drove through towns, tanks & armored vehicles fire heavy machineguns at people and buildings. Loud explosions lid off at night as artillery and planes bomb the towns.
A few days ago, we got ambushed by a group of Iraqi soldiers, it was the first time I got shot at, and I got really scared...but I kept going and going. Later, we killed them with all sorts of weapons. Many gave up and became POWS. The smell of bruning flesh makes me sick. I haven't changed clothes in 7 days. We've been in Iraq for ten days now. I heard this war is going to take a while
There are more places to go and more missions to complete. If you look at a map of Iraq here are the towns we passed: Nassirya, but we are near Al-fajr (I'm not sure that's correct, I'm trying to read it off his letter), next town up is Al-KUT, then Baghdad is the last.
I miss y'all a lot. I miss eatin all the foods at home. We are short on supplies, down to one meal a day. Weather is fair after all those severe sandstorms hit, but it gets extremely cold at night.
Oh, this sucks -> I broke my machine gun, so they're trying to fix it. This is like playing those games on the computer, but this shit's for real. People die, cars get blown up, humans are burnt to crisp, women and children die along with the rest.
Yes, I mayber scared, as any man would, but the ____(I can't read the word) that we're helping the people here makes up the sacrifices we all make. Well, don't have much time. So again Kat, Happy B-day, study hard, help mom and dad out as much as possible and tell them not to worry. I love you all.
Peter Mak
030329 0930
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Peter sent his sister some sand from Iraq as well. I'm hoping and praying for his safety.

Things like this make my worrying about which Graduate program to apply for seem very silly.

Make Mine Music

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