[the following is a letter from a US soldier stationed in Iraq] ...I never thought people really cared what happens here with my Maslow's needs. Apparently you do. Well here is an update-we have Filipino dressed in Blue that move sand from one area to another with shovels to then put them in a sand bag. This happens everyday and I have yet to see any changes. They are like clockwork and are affectionately called SMURFS. They must have some friends because we now have the mopping crew 8 ladies who use old T-shirts to mop the entire palace. They have used the same shirts for a week now. Sounds odd, but the place is looking better. They even put in toilet paper. Things are looking up. I live in the luxurious and lucky Tent 13-affectionately known as the feet tent. It smells like feet all the time as ten soldiers walking around in the 105+ degree heat at 30-60% humidity for 10+ hours get some funk spewing out of the shoes. I am no rose myself, but I am armed with Febreeze now thanks to all my care packages. You guys are great-thank you. What we do is share everything here. The Army are here for 1 year plus and cool snack food like that is passed around. Some I kept, but most I shared with the group I work with. A lot of "Hey cool brownies", "Awesome-- Hostess cakes", and "what green beans?" (thanks to Carrie) Echoed throughout the office. We all thank you. I have a new favorite-Chocolate Carmel Cream savers-yum yum. A request for the Wiskell family-next time send wine in the Charles Shaw box. I wish, but we are not allowed. I did keep some and thank god they use hot water in the laundry service so I can say it is my clothes shrinking, not me gaining weight. Your letters were great. As you can imagine, the country is in turmoil, but going the right direction. We joke that when they have their first golf course (maybe even a PGA tournament) they will have made it. Stability is the key they will require. It is hard to have a government if the leaders keep getting killed by crazy factions. Seeing this makes the development of our country even more amazing. Yes, we did not have the technology to cover oceans in hours and fight like we do today, but there was still a lot of hostilities and instability-yet we made it through because we had one thought-freedom. It is a very powerful word and even more powerful being here. The anniversary of D-Day just makes it even more amazing to think how far we have come in this world. Thank you all here and passed on who have served and supported those who have served. We are free to receive "cans of green beans" in the mail because of you. Today was a very special day here-Ted Nugent and Toby Kieth visited our workplace for 30 minutes on their world tour. They actually broke out their guitars and played for a half hour for us-about 150 people. I have some digital pictures, but it will not do justice to the feeling felt being there and watching the reaction of the soldiers around me. Ted Nugent and his star & stripes played Route 66 and other songs, but really his comments are what really got the guys fired up. You felt his patriotism through his words and it became infectioutous. This played off great with Toby Kieth music. When Toby Kieth played "Whisky for My Men, beer for my horses" the crowd was happy, when he played "Amercian Way", the crowd erupted and sang along. But when he played "American solider" I do not know one person who was not touched, did not have a tear in their eye as they thought about home and family. To top it off the Hellos flying around at 50 feet all the time passed over head I have attached a picture of my workplace and me sitting in "THE CHAIR". It is located in the front foyer and is old smelly, but very cool looking. I am collecting photos as we go and hope to send more out to you. We are limited to 1 MB of information at a time. I did get to see Quinn combat crawl from video Nickole sent and I loved seeing/hearing Brennan singing to me. Technology is awesome. Nickole and I spent our five year anniversary away-again-I LOVE YOU. I know it is tough me being here, but as I said before I left-this is for a good cause. -Phil