Call From Phillip and Happy Birthday, Aiden

First of all, happy 6th birthday to Aiden!! Secondly, we heard from Phillip! He called today and said he's doing fine, but it's really stressful over there, because you're always on, as in on duty or on call or on PT (physical training), and so on. I can imagine that. Being deployed to fight in a war is very grinding, to say the least. There are a lot of missions where you drive for hours and hours, where you get out and measure things, and there are so many, many aspects to it that are just logistical. He has one guy in his platoon that he knows from Basic, and he says his platoon leader and the officer he drives for are both cool guys. They rotate six days of missions with 3 days off, if I heard him correctly. The off days are filled with cleaning and keeping in shape, etc. I asked him if they get much mail or pkgs., and he said they don't, which is surprising to me. They are able to share a laptop, though, and check emails and blogs. He enjoys hearing about the little kids, he says. It's not really sandy or rocky where he is, a number of hours south of Baghdad. It only seems really cold when the wind blows, and he said there are tons of sheep, and many stray dogs. His group isn't interacting with the populace a lot right now, but staying with their platoon. He said there are mostly Shi'ites (sp.?) where they are now. That's so interesting! I'm going to try to find a movie he told me about, that he said is very realistic. I think he said it was The Freeing of Haseeza, or something that starts with an H. If I find it, I'll post the right title. Anyway, contact me if you still need his address, okay? I'm sure he'd appreciate anything that you could send him, by way of letters or packages. Also, email is very appreciated when he gets an opportunity to check it. Thank you!