Charity for Charities

Dear Julie at Books for Soldiers,

Hey Julie whats up, first off ur awsome! That by far was the best thing ever sent to me! Most soldiers don't respond to letters only because there so stressed out from their job. But I had to write to u and thank u personally for ur gift. I am an combat infantrymen my job by far is the hardest in the army. Everyday I get shot at, blown up, and watever else those bastard arabs can think of to get us. But because of letters from u and people like u it reminds me their are good people out thier still. I'm 21 and from dirty Jersery, my nationality is puerto rican and italian. Anyway its cold as hell over here believe it or not and that blanket just is perfect, my christmas sucked, I spent the day on a sniper patrol staring out a 5 story window with a machine gun into one of the worst areas in bagdad:( I've seen some cazy shit, and seen people do pretty bad things but, I know war is war so I will have to deal with it. My job is a machine gunner/driver/humvee gunner/ and rifleman.(damn that sucks let me tell u) I do it all /raids/ assults /patrols and last but not least help the people of Iraq live in some kind of sanity. Alot of TV is bullshit don't listen to them, these arabs do have it bad and most dead bodies we find are women and children so they do need us there. So I'm sending some pics of who I am and hope to have showed u what this shits really about sorry for my languge, but doing my job changes u. But thanks for everything and even if I don't hear from u again it ment alot to me. Stay doing ur job in the states and Always rember if something gets u down it could be worse(u could be doning what I do ha,hahaha)

Thanks alot Julie, from a greatful soldier just trying to go back home.

--R