Cemetery Street

Count

PS. I figure you'd want to know why we call the Arabs fan belts. It's 'cause of that rubber thing they were to keep their headdress in place. Get this, one retard in my squad insists the headdresses are call yarmulkes - the asshole don't know the difference between a Jew and an Arab. And this clown is my squad's explosives guy. Go figure!

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Shannie, September, 3rd, 1990

Goddamn it girl, you don't know how good it feels to get a letter from home. Thanks for writing! It's cool to know that home folks are behind us. It means a million! I can picture the yellow ribbon on the elm tree in your yard. It makes me feel what I'm part of is almost worth the aggravation.

To answer your question, I don't know how much I can tell you. If a censor gets hold of one of my letters, at the least it's gonna be all blacked out. And I may get a nice visit from some counter-intelligence goon. I don't want my life being any more miserable than it already is. I think I can tell you this much, we're setting up base about 5 clicks Northwest of King Fahd. The base is nothing but a tent city that the yahoos in our outfit dubbed Fort Camel. Camp Eagle II is its official name. I don't know why it's II. Someone said there was a Camp Eagle back in Vietnam. Your guess is as good as mine.

Besides drinking water and pissing all we do is train, train, train. Our immediate job is basically providing ground coverage for Fahd if Saddam decides to visit. What I don't get is if that crazy fuck wanted, he could dance to Dhahran or Riyadh. We don't have much on the ground and he's gotta know it. I figure he's gotta know we have a lot of shooters in the air, he knows we can make them bleed, but ain't no way we could stop him. Not now! Not with so few troops on the ground! Like I said, if he wanted it, he could have Riyadh. I don't think he wants it, that's my gut feeling. I hope it's right; I hope the asshole says put. I'm telling you it's sobering knowing there ain't anything but a few hundred miles of sand, a bunch of camels, some scorpions and a few Saudi National Guard units between his tanks and us. Although, it helps being this close to Fahd and seeing the never-ending train of transports land. With every transport we grow a little bit stronger. It's kinda reassuring.

Count

PS. You have my word, soon as anything happens I let you know.