Phone Call 04/22/2008

Brett was able to call and we talked for quite a while on Tuesday. I was able to get some answers to questions that you have been asking. The day Brett and I spoke I had seen the temperature was supposed to be 103 degrees. I asked him how bad that was and he said "103 degrees here is still not as bad as a hot irrigating day in Nebraska!" Now does that mean that 103 is tolerable or that he hates irrigating that much?? Knowing Brett, I'm thinking it's the latter. Actually he said if they stay hydrated it really isn't that bad. It's mostly a hot temperature and not so humid.

I had also been asked if they have air conditioning there. Brett said they have lots of air conditioning...even in the tents! He said they do have random power outages and that can certainly warm things up for a while.

Another question had been does he carry a weapon with him at all times. Brett said he is required to have his weapon on him at all times but it isn't as much because of threat as it is about responsibility. Once your weapon has been checked out to you it is to be on your person at all times except for using the restroom, showering or physical training. During those times it is permissable to have it locked up or have a buddy watching over it.

Brett told me his allergies aren't nearly as bad over there. He is taking Zyrtec but that has controlled the nose fairly well. Anyone who has ever been around Brett in the morning realizes the importance of this!!

One thing that he commented is that the bugs over there are pretty bad. He asked if I would send him some ant killer. He said the flies are pretty bad too. One thing that he commented (if you're eating right now you might want to come back to this...) is that they have tall poles and at the top of the poles are buckets with poison for the flies. To lure the flies to the poison he said they have bags hanging underneath the buckets and he didn't know for sure what was in the bags but it smells like "corpse." Now I'm not sure how many corpses Brett has smelled in his lifetime but he swears this is the nastiest thing ever. (He also said cattle manure was like perfume compared to this aroma. Ewwww!)

Brett's job is in the post office system over there. The post office is actually run by a contracting company as is the housing, laundry, chow hall, etc. Brett has to pickup the mail, separate it and put it on the website which notifies the soldiers that they have mail. Brett said everyone is always happy to hear from him because that means they've received something from home and that's very important to them.

Speaking of mail, I'd like to thank all of you that have sent notes to Brett. He has commented how awesome it is to get mail and to hear from home. Our soldiers really need that to get through and know they aren't getting forgotten while they are gone. (If they only realized the amount of time we spend thinking about them!)

On a personal note about the conversation, as I was talking to Brett, all of a sudden I heard LOTS of gunfire in the background. As my heart was pounding in my throat, I asked Brett if gunfire was indeed what I was hearing. He calmly stated that yes I was hearing correctly. I asked if that unnerved him or was of concern to him and he said, "Oh, there's a shooting range just on the other side of this wall that I'm by." He could have spared me the 5 years that were taken off my life if he would have mentioned that first!!

Until next time.....