03/08 Thank you letters

Jennie and everyone else,
I just want to thank you for the Christmas and Easter packages you sent. I and all of our Soldiers appreciate the time you took to pack the boxes and write your notes. You may be wondering why you are getting this note now. I have kept all the notes in a reading file in my office for our Soldiers to look at so that they know who exactly it is who cares enough to send things to us. After 13 months here in Iraq, I will be retuning to Fort Eustis, VA to prepare for the Brigade's return in mid-December and I wanted to thank you before I left. Unfortunately my Soldiers will spend 2 Thanksgivings here, but they will be back for Christmas this year.
Our Brigade is a bit different than what you might envision or what
you see on TV. Most support units in the Army are modular, which basically means we are deployed composite and not necessarily the way we
look at home station. At Fort Eustis, VA we are known as the Army's Navy and we have 85% of the Army's watercraft. However, we deployed the Headquarters that is the supervisory capacity for the Brigade. Under us are 4 BN from different locations. Three of the Battalions are Active Army and one is National Guard. The Battalions all have companies under them that are not of their normal structure. We cover all of Iraq south of Baghdad to support the combat brigades and coalition forces (Poles, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Romanians, Mongolians, British, Australians, Georgians). (It was pretty interesting for us when we had to help the Georgians redeploy back home when they went to war with Russia.) We move or escort movement of food, bottled water, ammunition, bulk fuel, repair parts, or engineer material. The average convoy is made up of 30-40 semis with a 6 six gun truck escort. We've been very lucky and have not lost anyone or had any serious injuries while on the road. We are also the upperlevel vehicle repair facility in souther Iraq and we run all of the warehouses in the south.
Again, I'd just like to thank you for taking the time to show the
Soldiers that you care.