I talked to Jennifer last night. She has arrived at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas for further processing and training prior to her deployment in Iraq. They ended up with 11 of the communications specialists from Fort Gordon leaving on the trip. One of the original group couldn't pass his clearance and they are trying to replace him and that person may arrive this week. The group of 11 includes 3 sargeants and 8 specialists. Jennifer said that Fort Bliss has processed over 200,000 personnel leaving for Iraq and the base is one of the major processing stations for military personnel going to Iraq. Jennifer also said that unlike the norm in the Army, she and her unit are being treated exceedingly well by personnel at Fort Bliss and she is being shown a degree of deference that she hasn't seen in two and a half years in our nation's service. She will be at Fort Bliss for a week of training and processing. Her training will include Guerilla warfare and her gear includes helmet, M-16, flak jacket, boots, gas mask and tent and sleeping bag.

Darla has a coworker whose brother is an Army reservist and has been called up as a convoy driver in Kuwait. He and his group shepherd the troops from Kuwait to Iraq. He has Jennifer's name and will look for her on the manifest and introduce himself to her. It's a small world.

Two of the women in my office belong to a professional sorority and they have "adopted" Jennifer during her tour in Iraq. The group will send Jennifer care packages consisting of audio books, cds, letters, food, hygiene products, etc. The women in the group range in age from 21-28 and are anxious to support one of their age group in the war effort. I was touched when they approached me and asked if they could adopt Jennifer. I gave them her cell phone number and will follow up with how they can reach her in Iraq once she is stationed.

There is widespread support for our troops within this country. Perhaps not in Canada, but currently Canada is too much like the French, their politics are soft in the head and especially soft in the backbone. As I've said before, if Canada was ever a target of terrorism, Cretien would come crawling to the United States and beg for our help. And, of course, he would get it. We don't hold grudges, we simply call a coward a coward and move on. Are my politics too transparent? With a child heading into harm's way, I don't have time for the idiots that want to debate whether we should be in Iraq or not. When Howard Dean said "I've never supported the war in Iraq and I never will", I immediately labelled him "UnAmerican" and was thrilled to see him make an ASS of himself on tv after the Iowa primary. What a prime example of a politician. Hey, Howard, we have sons and daughters, mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers being killed in Iraq. Shut the Hell up and support our troops! Their blood may not be on your hands, but a true American supports the men and women who fight for our country and politics has nothing to do with it. Figure it out...or move to Canada or France with the rest of the world's ostrich population.

Jennifer said that the military is chartering a commercial airliner to move the troops from Fort Bliss to Iraq. The military does not have airliners capable of moving hundreds of troops at a time and uses the commercial airliners to handle large troop deployments. She will leave sometime between Friday and Sunday. If you haven't called her, get off your hands and wish her well.

Again, I can't discuss the mundane in this epistle and will leave it at this. I'm concerned for my daughter's safety and again ask for you to pray for her wellbeing. Ken