I heard back from my adopted solider!
 

Hello everyone!

Last month, many of you e-mailed me with notes of encouragement for Corporal Lee Molson, the British soldier with the Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers who is stationed in Iraq. Since so many people wrote in, I couldn't fit all of the well-wishes into an e-message. Instead, I printed them up and mailed them to him along with a box of "supplies" such as toiletries, a few bags of hard candy, a disposible camera, instant coffee/tea and dried soup packets.


He finally had the chance to write back a few days ago! In his letter, Lee writes, "Say thank you to all your friends/relatives for their support. I'm thinking about going to America after this tour of duty, so you never know!!" hehehe I think he's a big fan of Americans now...he even addressed his letter to "my American Angel"! :)


In his letter, he told me about his time there. Lee reports that it's 46ºC over there....that's 114ºF!!! I mean, come on, that's hot even by southwest US standards! He said, "I'm not coping. I have to slow down at 12 [noon] everyday otherwise I pass out. But, you don't want to hear about that!" He also apologized for his poor handwriting and mentioned that he broke his thumb when he fell off a ladder while on Guard Duty. Poor Lee! :(


He told me that the locals are very poor and that all the girls do all the work ("Lazy men" he says :) ). So, he thought he would pass out some of the candy I sent him. He describes, "You should have seen the girls' faces light up. But, before I knew it, my whole box had disappeared with my dinner!! Oh well, they needed it more than me..."


Since several people made comments about "I don't know what you do there..." Lee explained, "My job is Avionic tech which means that I work on aircraft (Lynx/Gazelle [helicopters])..."He also said, "Last few days have been fun; drove a tank 3 days ago. A wee one (Warrior) and a great massive one (Challenger). Boys with toys eh..."


Lee doesn't know when they will be able to go home. He says that some people are saying May 15th and others are saying July 31st. He says that July won't be good because his birthday is on July 13th and he's never been away from home on his birthday. So, if he is still there on his birthday, I will be sure to enlist all of you to send him birthday wishes! :)


I just thought that you all would appreciate hearing about what Lee had to say. Thank you so much for taking the time out to write even the simplest of messages for him. I know that it meant a lot to him to hear that people were supporting him in his job.


.....Kelly :)

Thanks for the update, Kelly!
It's good to hear that he's doing well and will be home soon!:D

how exciting to hear back from him!!! thanks for the update! :D

That's really cool!! :)

Awesome!

Mail: the lifeline for the military. :D

Getting mail out at sea when I was in the Navy was one of the few things that made life out at sea tolerable.

During combat, I can only imagine how much MORE important it is to receive mail.

Also in high demand for soldiers, should you care to send another package to him are baby wipes (they can't take showers all that often, and this is one way to attempt hygiene in the desert)

AWE! That is SOOOOOOOOOO Awesome! I'm glad he's doing well and was able to read our messages. I'm happy that you were able to send him well wishes and supplies!

YOU ROCK!

Hey ya!

I'm five steps ahead of you. ;) In my first package, I sent him several packs of baby wipes. I also sent him about 8 cheap toothbrushes so that he and his colleagues could clean their guns. Yeah, yeah, I also sent him two "good" toothbrushes for his teeth. :) He got toothpaste, chapstick, moisturising eye drops..etc etc. This next package will have some of the same stuff but also a bottle of sunscreen. I couldn't send it last time as we have weight restrictions on the packages we send. The cool news is that PM Blair said that people can now send packages for FREE to the Gulf! Hooray! :)

.....Kelly :)

Thanks, but I don't rock, the soliders do!! It's the least I could do for someone who puts his life on the line in the middle of a dangerous situation out in a climate that is just unbearable.


hehehe...seeing that he's British I decided to tease him a bit. You see, they like their pubs and beer here. So, I told him that, if he gets home in one piece, I'd send him a five pound note (British currency, about US$7.50) so that he and his mates could have a couple of pints of beer on me. He replied by saying that he wants to take ME out to the pub when he gets back. hehehe sweet guy. Anyway, I thought that he could think about that nice cold beer while he's slaving away in the hot desert. :)


.....Kelly :)