My Prayers For You

Dear blessed and forgiving God, we pray this morning that we may turn to you and lay our sins at your feet. Help us not to run and hide and deny our sins but to open our hearts to you O Lord; to look deep inside ourselves and admit to the wrong motives, actions or hurting words that have pained others. In our confession we seek healing, reconciliation, and your uplifting grace knowing your love and spirit are with us despite who we are or what we have done.

Father, we humbly pray that you will continue to guide this church, its members and its Pastors as you have for the past 60 years. Thy will be done O Lord that we may be your servants of faith, a beacon in this community. Let us have an outward focus, leading by example to serve those most in need, while lending a helping hand to our friends of Christ Lutheran.

Almighty God, we thank you for your healing presence this past week as we prayed for all of the victims and families on 9/11. For all those brave and dedicated men and women serving this great country we say thank you for keeping us safe from our enemies, on our home shores and through out the world. We pray your blessings for a safe journey and return. For all, God speed.

Lord, how blessed we are to have you by our sides and in our lives. You are all mercy and justice, full of loving kindness and compassion. We pray this coming week that each one of us will walk a step close to you. That you will reveal yourself to us in some small way and that we might have the courage to share your story and loving ways with others.

FINAL THOUGHT...

FINAL THOUGHT...

Col. Michael Garrett

Your hard work has paid off in the past 11 months. We have seen many, drastic changes in our area. You should be proud. Many of our areas are safer for the common citizen and easier for the Government and Iraqi Security Forces to operate.

We now have less than 100 days to the transfer of authority of our Brigade Area of Operations. I am asking you to put this well into the back of your minds.

In the final months we have to take care of each other. The final months of deployments historically bring many negative trends. Watch each other and stick together. Historically, the rate of sexual assaults climbs by 75% in the last three months of deployment. The possibility of depression and combat stress should be at the forefront of our minds. As redeployment nears problems at home become more real and stress us out more than they have in the past. Leaders, must identify Paratroopers that may have problems and keep an eye on them, assist when necessary, be proactive as you care for your Paratroopers. Paratroopers must stick together and watch each other.

The patrol that you execute tomorrow is the same, if not more dangerous, than the first one you executed in October. The enemy has adjusted to many of our TTPs and is desperate to inflict damage on us. Don’t let your guard down, review the basics, remember the lessons we have learned so far, conduct pre-combat checks, and be vigilant.

Now is the time for leaders to get back to enforcing the basic standards. Our unit has higher standards than most, don’t let that fool you. The enemy will do what he does, we can only affect that so much. You have to be ready and make sure your Paratroopers are ready. Get back to your SOPs, make sure your vehicles are ready, check and clean your ammunition, and enforce
the uniform standards. Take care of your Paratroopers, laziness gets people killed.

Continue to be aggressive and take the fight to the enemy. I am very proud and you should be as well. Your performance has been sensational thus far and your efforts will be recorded into
the chronicles of history.

SPARTA LIVES, SPARTAN 6

Unstoppable Sappers

UNSTOPPABLE, or almost.

When it comes to deadly roadside bombs, the Sappers of the 425th Brigade Special Troops Battalion are experts at finding and destroying them. Even when nothing else is on the road, the engineers are out clearing the roadways and making them safe for everyone. With all of their expertise and machinery they are nearly unstoppable. However, they recently met their match, a ten year old boy, his two brothers and their flock of sheep. Just when the engineers thought it was safe, along came another young boy and his cattle. In the large agricultural region of the Euprhates River Valley south of Baghdad, sights like this are a common occurrence.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spartan Sentinal Sept. 1, 2007 Vol. 4 No. 2

Wx Here, Wx There

Observed at: Elmendorf AFB, Alaska

50 °F / 10 °C
Light Rain, Humidity: 100%
Dew Point: 50 °F / 10 °C
Wind: Calm
Pressure: 29.90 in / 1012 hPa (Steady)
Visibility: 10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Observed at: Baghdad, IQ

95 °F / 35 °C
Clear, Humidity: 15%
Dew Point: 41 °F / 5 °C
Wind: 5 mph / 7 km/h / 2.1 m/s from the NW
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Observed at: Fort Drum, New York

66 °F / 19 °C
Mostly Cloudy
Humidity: 49%
Dew Point: 46 °F / 8 °C
Wind: 9 mph / 15 km/h / 4.1 m/s from the West
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Observed at: Fredericksburg, Virginia

82 °F / 28 °C
Clear
Humidity: 37%
Dew Point: 54 °F / 12 °C
Wind: Calm
Pressure: 30.03 in / 1017 hPa (Steady)
Heat Index: 81 °F / 28 °C

Matt Gregor in Kuwait

Hello from Kuwait!
I'm fine, got here a few days ago, with a few more days here before we head north.
The flight was fine, only 2 hours layover in Germany (no sightseeing, awww), and then south to Kuwait.
Our acclimation period here is get up early, PT, a few classes and a bunch of sitting around.
It's been about 105+ degrees here since we got here, with 2 of those days of constant wind and sand blowing.
The base here is huge, with a lot of amenities to soak up our hard-earned deployment money. I try not to be
tempted.
I just wanted to give you all an update. I don't think I'll be online much the next week or two; hopefully we
get better access to the internet where we are going, but I won't hold my breathe.
Later,
Matt
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Matt is my nephew (sister Lisa's son). He is a recently commissioned 2nd LT, artillery officer in the 10th Mountain Div, 1-87 IN Battalion out of Fort Drum, NY. He will be deployed to Task Force Summit, FOB Warrior near Kirkuk, north of Baghdad.

Sappers Rule

Before

(click on any image to enlarge)

After Didn't there used to be a bridge here?

Sappers Rule, legs drool

Friends and Family,

I had the Sapper mission every combat engineer officer and non-commissioned officer dreams, drools, and begs to get,. DESTROY A BRIDGE WITH DEMOLITIONS (1300 lbs. of C4) DEEP IN ENEMY TERRITORY. With only a few photographs and Intel beforehand we decided what charges to use prior to setting out on mission. With aircraft circling over head, and possible IED's laid in our path we drove cross country to this bridge site being used by the enemy to move across country and attack several Iraqi Army and Coalition patrol bases. After several hours on site prepping the bridge and placing the charges we pulled the M81 initiator and watched the bridge disintegrated.

Love,

~Sam

FBI Director Mueller's 9/11 Comments

It will no doubt always be very difficult to look back on the events of September 11, 2001. No one of us will ever forget the tremendous losses suffered that fateful day -- of life, peace, and security.

In marking the sixth anniversary of 9/11, we honor those whose lives were taken from us and those who gave their lives so others might live. In remembering them, we also can discover renewed purpose and resolve in our primary mission of protecting the security of this great nation from terrorism.

In the words of Franklin Roosevelt, "...with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph."

With great appreciation for all that each of you contributes to that effort,

Robert S. Mueller