Letter From The Front - Feb. 19, 2005

Hi, Mom.

Sorry I haven't written in a few days. Things have been busy here, and we're all getting pretty tired. War kinda wears you down after a while, you know?

Anyway, it's all mostly good news. We've had some fits and starts in our offensive the past week, but still we've been making steady progress, and the commanders told us today that we are over 80% complete with our objectives. According to the casualty counts, we have now slain 41,389 unwritten words. Only a mere 8,611 unwritten words stand between us and complete victory.

The commanders have been stepping up the attacks, anxious to put an end to the conflict and be able to win political points by sending us home as early as possible. They say we'll be running sorties nonstop over the next couple days, and my own unit will conduct at least eight more 30-minute raids, in just the next two days, so that we can get this mess mopped up and go home. So we've been working pretty hard, and we're pretty tired. But I guess I already said that.

The other good news is that only a couple days ago, as we were closing in on our final objectives, the whole grand strategy became brilliantly clear to me. I understand in wonderful detail exactly what the main characters were supposed to be doing, how they would get there, and how we would know when the story had ended. It's hard work fighting a war not really knowing what the big picture is all about. Not knowing where your orders are gonna send you next. You see some pretty crazy stuff out here, and you can't always tell whether it makes any sense or not. But like I said, when I finally got the whole picture, I could see how brilliant this February offensive is going to turn out, despite my ignorance throughout most of it.

We're so close to victory now, it feels like a perfect certainty. Now it's just a matter of how quickly we can clean up the last pockets of resistance so we can pack up our gear, head for the helos, and chopper our way out of here. I had hoped to be home by the 21st. I won't make it. But if our final raids are as successful as I hope them to be, we will have completed our objectives on Monday, the 21st. We'll probably have a couple of days of clean-up and outprocessing out of the country, then I'll be home to enjoy the rest of the week with you, Dad, and my sweetheart.

Well, it's late and I need to get my sleep. The next two days may very well be the hardest and most demanding of the war, but they will be our last!

See you soon! Get that cake baked! Junior's comin' home!

Love,
Your boy