Mark-

You may already be doing this. Please pray  for our Armed Forces over the next month especially. Op tempo appears to be with us as General P. has the troops in place. It has already started in Baquaba(sp) and will continue for at least that long, possibly longer. I have no loved ones over there right now but spent 27.5 years in the Army Medical Service Corps and am well aware of the absolutely unbelievable sacrifices that troops face today that I did not face in a basically peace time Army. Threats were there but in my whole time on active duty, nothing like this existed. This is maximum stress on the all volunteer Army , the Reserve and National Guard. Things have not been this rough since Vietnam and even worse for the individual soldier, marine. You must remember that we do not have a draft and these young men and women are serving 3, and 4 tours of duty in an exhausting, unbelievably stressful environmement on a daily basis for up to 15 months at a time. They are truly our ultimate heroes. The British too continue the fight. Please pray for them until they depart as well as the innocent Iraq'is living a life of hell in many cases.

I think you are going to need a battalion of people to pray. I know I am not your first volunteer. I pray I won't be your last.

Best regards, Oscar

PS I will be praying for you as well. You must be a real trooper.