Dear Jan!

Well, we had some mail mixups recently as we have been moving around,

but I just received your boxes yesterday. Thank you so much, once

again! Everyone here knows and recognizes your apple boxes when they

arrive, and are usually waiting for me to cut my address off so they can

dig in (the post office won't let them open it until I have relinquished

ownership!)

I have a bit of good news. I think you can stop sending boxes, since it

looks like my unit will be downsizing a bit earlier than expected. We

have already sent back a good number of folks, and in the next month or

so we are turning in gear and eventually coming back ourselves. Not a

big "return" event in that we are arriving all at once like we usually

would, but as the missions decrease and we turn in more gear, we are

trickling back.

As for me, I will probably be the one to turn out the lights and lock

up, but even that should be in the next 45 days. Keep us in your

prayers as many Marines travel back.

I am attaching a few pictures (they are big so you will get several

emails) of our recent sports day-we call it Raider Day, in honor of our

unit forefathers of World War II, the Marine Raiders. A day of fun and

many feats of strength. The winning unit gets to hold the Raider sword

until the next scheduled event.

Please stay in touch, and God bless all of you. I would love to come

say thank you again when I return.

Semper Fi,

Jeff

Maj J.S. Dinsmore

Operations Officer, 1st Recon Bn

DSN: 4403-774

SVOIP: 696-3994