I thought I would share...
I thought I would share a Christmas view from Iraq with you all. This is from my brother-in-law, the LT Colonel. Put's the holidays in some perspective....our men and women are doing a great job! The first email is the one I sent him yesterday wishing him a Merry Christmas.
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Merry Christmas Ty. You are in our thoughts as the festivities progress (we are in Kentucky for Xmas this year). We love ya...and thanks for making the sacrifice for OUR family and for the rest of the families in our little corner of the world. You are our hero! LoveD, J, H and L
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From the LTC
Merry Christmas. I serve the true heroes, those that are worth making the sacrifices for, you and the many American families. I love the feedoms that we enjoy, they are a gift from God. The sacrifice is my way to worship and give thanks for those feedoms. I answered an e-mail from Hunter but then it went quiet, not sure what happened. I have to run and participate in my Christmas day activities but thought that I would keep this cut and paste going. Attached below is what I sent to L, D and H. It talks to a couple of things that we have been doing.
Merry Christmas and I love you all.
___________________________________________
L,
I am going to include a copy of the e-mail that I sent to Dad so that I can share some of the same information. I hope that the family is all doing well and that you are able to have some wild game over your holidays! I miss being home with family and the holidays are a time to think of it more but I am proud of what my battalion is doing. We are making contributions that others chose not to. I may be pushing them too hard but time will have to tell me that. The morale still seems to be pretty high. I think that I have the command climate that I want when two lieutenants decked out my Polaris (it is like a golf cart with more speed since it has a gas powered motor). You should have seen the battery operated Christmas lights, garland, candy canes, and other ornaments. Just to take it over the top (and where they accepted risk at my reaction) they put a poster on the back. It was a picture of Will Farrell as an Elf but they had digitally replaced his face with mine! They had the unit crest on the poster and it said Merry Christmas. When I ran into 2LT Richardt I told her that the poster was just wrong. As the blood ran from her face and you could see that she then acknowledged that she had gone too far, I told her that our unit crest has 6 white points going into the brick wall – not five. There was much relief as a smile broke out on her face. If a 2Lt that has been in my unit for just over 2 months feels that comfortable then I have things just the way I want them.
Well below is what I send to Dad and H. I am going to go out to one of the guard towers and take the place of one of my Soldiers as a Christmas gift. It will give me time for solace and provide them with time that they did not expect.
Love,
Tyler
___________________________________________
Great to hear from you and I apologize for not sending Christmas greetings earlier. I am not very good at keeping in touch or writing in general for that matter. I will cheat a bit and paste in some of the stuff that I just sent Heather.
I will tell you that I am taking advantage of my time here. I have a Chaplain that is such a good and close friend and provides me with such motivation to have a closer walk with Jesus Christ. I am having a great time in command even though there are plenty of challenges, trials and tribulation. For the most part I could not be more proud of the Soldiers that I am responsible for. They are true heroes and they are able to keep my spirits high. I do miss being with my family but I am able to focus on enough of the positive aspects of the deployment to get me through day to day. I have been busy enough that I have not had the time to sit and have a good cry about the things that I miss in my children’s life. Alex keeps me up to date with pictures and stories. I do get to talk to them occasionally. Alex does such a wonderful job at minimizing my pain in that area, she truly is a saint.
We have been busy here getting into the flow of things and figuring out all of the aspects of our mission. We were able to save a couple of lives this week as well as demonstrate that we are very agile in adapting to mission requirements. My companies are making great strides in assisting the Iraqi forces in their training – even though we are not formally tasked with the mission. I just keep forcing our way into the process. I am going to keep some of the teddy bears and the like from what you send so that when we have kids (unfortunately we have had at least 4 so far) come through our medical facility we can provide them some comfort. I will have to get you some of the pictures of the 12 year old by that had his foot shattered by a bullet. He was all wrapped up in blankets for transport with a bag of candy in his hand, one piece in his mouth, two teddy bears under his arm and his thumb in the air for the picture. I will not soon forget the site. We have to provide comfort for their family members as they sit and worry about their children.
And now some more. You would be proud of the Soldiers that I have serving. I know that my background and my way of viewing the world are a bit different than what they are accustomed to but they have to adjust since I am the boss. I am certain that they are safer due to the procedures that I have put in place but then again I do get them committed to more risk since I have them ready. I pray that I do not have to perform a memorial service like my counterparts in the maneuver battalions. We have lost eight soldiers from the brigade (two more that were not part of the brigade but working with us) since we have been here. I have been to memorial services for eleven and they choke me up each time. I am convinced that we are involved in a fight that is worth fighting, I just pray that we are executing it the best way that we can. I see people that seem to jump to hatred too quickly. It is easy for my unit to stay compassionate, even though we run the detention facility. Everyone of the ones that we have in our custody or in the medical facility are disarmed and pose little threat. I believe that a certain amount of compassion and common courtesy will not worsen the situation.
Well time for me to get some sleep. Merry Christmas.
V/R
LTC Tyler C. Osenbaugh
Commander 115th BSB
Taji, Iraq
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Merry Christmas Ty. You are in our thoughts as the festivities progress (we are in Kentucky for Xmas this year). We love ya...and thanks for making the sacrifice for OUR family and for the rest of the families in our little corner of the world. You are our hero! LoveD, J, H and L
___________________________________________
From the LTC
Merry Christmas. I serve the true heroes, those that are worth making the sacrifices for, you and the many American families. I love the feedoms that we enjoy, they are a gift from God. The sacrifice is my way to worship and give thanks for those feedoms. I answered an e-mail from Hunter but then it went quiet, not sure what happened. I have to run and participate in my Christmas day activities but thought that I would keep this cut and paste going. Attached below is what I sent to L, D and H. It talks to a couple of things that we have been doing.
Merry Christmas and I love you all.
___________________________________________
L,
I am going to include a copy of the e-mail that I sent to Dad so that I can share some of the same information. I hope that the family is all doing well and that you are able to have some wild game over your holidays! I miss being home with family and the holidays are a time to think of it more but I am proud of what my battalion is doing. We are making contributions that others chose not to. I may be pushing them too hard but time will have to tell me that. The morale still seems to be pretty high. I think that I have the command climate that I want when two lieutenants decked out my Polaris (it is like a golf cart with more speed since it has a gas powered motor). You should have seen the battery operated Christmas lights, garland, candy canes, and other ornaments. Just to take it over the top (and where they accepted risk at my reaction) they put a poster on the back. It was a picture of Will Farrell as an Elf but they had digitally replaced his face with mine! They had the unit crest on the poster and it said Merry Christmas. When I ran into 2LT Richardt I told her that the poster was just wrong. As the blood ran from her face and you could see that she then acknowledged that she had gone too far, I told her that our unit crest has 6 white points going into the brick wall – not five. There was much relief as a smile broke out on her face. If a 2Lt that has been in my unit for just over 2 months feels that comfortable then I have things just the way I want them.
Well below is what I send to Dad and H. I am going to go out to one of the guard towers and take the place of one of my Soldiers as a Christmas gift. It will give me time for solace and provide them with time that they did not expect.
Love,
Tyler
___________________________________________
Great to hear from you and I apologize for not sending Christmas greetings earlier. I am not very good at keeping in touch or writing in general for that matter. I will cheat a bit and paste in some of the stuff that I just sent Heather.
I will tell you that I am taking advantage of my time here. I have a Chaplain that is such a good and close friend and provides me with such motivation to have a closer walk with Jesus Christ. I am having a great time in command even though there are plenty of challenges, trials and tribulation. For the most part I could not be more proud of the Soldiers that I am responsible for. They are true heroes and they are able to keep my spirits high. I do miss being with my family but I am able to focus on enough of the positive aspects of the deployment to get me through day to day. I have been busy enough that I have not had the time to sit and have a good cry about the things that I miss in my children’s life. Alex keeps me up to date with pictures and stories. I do get to talk to them occasionally. Alex does such a wonderful job at minimizing my pain in that area, she truly is a saint.
We have been busy here getting into the flow of things and figuring out all of the aspects of our mission. We were able to save a couple of lives this week as well as demonstrate that we are very agile in adapting to mission requirements. My companies are making great strides in assisting the Iraqi forces in their training – even though we are not formally tasked with the mission. I just keep forcing our way into the process. I am going to keep some of the teddy bears and the like from what you send so that when we have kids (unfortunately we have had at least 4 so far) come through our medical facility we can provide them some comfort. I will have to get you some of the pictures of the 12 year old by that had his foot shattered by a bullet. He was all wrapped up in blankets for transport with a bag of candy in his hand, one piece in his mouth, two teddy bears under his arm and his thumb in the air for the picture. I will not soon forget the site. We have to provide comfort for their family members as they sit and worry about their children.
And now some more. You would be proud of the Soldiers that I have serving. I know that my background and my way of viewing the world are a bit different than what they are accustomed to but they have to adjust since I am the boss. I am certain that they are safer due to the procedures that I have put in place but then again I do get them committed to more risk since I have them ready. I pray that I do not have to perform a memorial service like my counterparts in the maneuver battalions. We have lost eight soldiers from the brigade (two more that were not part of the brigade but working with us) since we have been here. I have been to memorial services for eleven and they choke me up each time. I am convinced that we are involved in a fight that is worth fighting, I just pray that we are executing it the best way that we can. I see people that seem to jump to hatred too quickly. It is easy for my unit to stay compassionate, even though we run the detention facility. Everyone of the ones that we have in our custody or in the medical facility are disarmed and pose little threat. I believe that a certain amount of compassion and common courtesy will not worsen the situation.
Well time for me to get some sleep. Merry Christmas.
V/R
LTC Tyler C. Osenbaugh
Commander 115th BSB
Taji, Iraq
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