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Emails from Lt. Josh ArthurGreetings from Kuwait!Tuesday, November 7, 2006All, Well, first thing's first: I apologize for not writing sooner! I still owe many of you more personal responses from your replies to my last e-mail; announcements of marriage and the like, I think, warrant more than a mass e-mail in return. I'll do so when I get up to Baghdad - remind me! Hopefully you all haven't been worrying about me just yet; Kuwait isn't exactly the most dangerous place in the world, particularly here in the middle of the desert. But I'm doing well, and greetings from this oasis that is Camp Buehring, Kuwait! I kid, but although we are smack in the middle of nowhere, this place does have just about anything one could want: Burger King, Taco Bell, Baskin-Robbins, Subway, a 24-hour gym, multiple internet cafes, multiple AT&T calling centers, a pool room, etc., etc. Life, on the whole, is not bad, and there are plenty of offerings for soldiers to waste their time (and money) while they're not busy doing other things. We arrived the night of the 22nd after leaving around noon on the 21st, stopping in Bangor, ME and in Germany on the way. The reception in Bangor was amazing. There's a group of volunteers there made up mostly of veterans and their wives who keep track of military flights passing through, either to or from theater, and the volunteers form a reception line to greet the soldiers (or sailors, airmen, or marines) as they come off the plane and wish them well as they re-board. It was pretty humbling, even though I'd been told beforehand about the group. Here at Camp Buehring, we've been principally concerned with final training, classes, and familiarization before we head up north to Baghdad. Things were fairly hectic in the first few days after arrival; we spent lots of time at ranges located, if possible, even more in the middle of nowhere. In the past week or so things have calmed down, and at this point, quite frankly, everyone is just eager to get out of this place, get to Baghdad, and find some place to call home for the next year. There's lots of sitting around, playing video games, watching movies, reading books, and going to use the phones and internet. Accomodations aren't fantastic here, but they're not spartan. We live in large tents with dozens of guys per tent. The tents are semi-permanent, have wooden floors, and have A/C, so don't think of us under some olive drab canvas things flapping in the wind, blowing sand everywhere. In that respect, things are just fine. There's a certain funk that is unavoidable after two and a half weeks with 60 guys living together, but things could certainly be worse. There are shower trailers with running water (hot water, on occasion) and sinks, and there port-o-johns as latrines all over the place. You can get a feel for the landscape from the attached photos. For the most part, though, it's just waiting at this point. Everyone's eager to go, get up to Liberty, and get somewhat settled as we begin the next year. Don't worry; I'll be sure to update everyone once I get up to Baghdad to let you know how things are at Liberty; chances are they'll be a good deal better than here in Kuwait, believe it or not. In the meantime, some of you may be happy to hear that we were given our mailing address the other day! Now, a caveat: I'm not sure this address is 100% correct. This is the latest one we have, but it's already changed once. As long as the APO doesn't change, though, then mail should find its way at least to the battalion and then they'll get it where it needs to be. If you're thinking of sending anything, I might suggest waiting a few weeks until I make sure the address works with letters and the like. But, nonetheless, here it is:
I hope you all are doing well. For the Brooke Pointers on the list, for fun, one of the attached pictures is of me and Justin Becker at a machine gun range - small world, huh? He's in military intelligence in our brigade. The other pictures are of my cot (with assorted gear), a poster in the gym at Ft. Hood that the wives made for our platoon that we saw as we prepared to board the plane, me re-enlisting one of my soldiers, and a random photo of PT in the morning showing the tents in the background.
Love to all, "Let me give you a word of the philosophy of reform. The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims, have been born of earnest struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the time being, putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it does nothing. If there is no struggle there is no progress." - Frederick Douglass
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