Where every day is "Groundhog Day" (Notes from Iraq)

I nearly shouted out loud when I opened my email today. No, not the shout of horror like when I was last home digging through a box in storage and stumbled across a picture of me in junior high with braces, acne and a Dorothy Hamill haircut, (it doesn't get much worse than that folks!)... but a shout of joy. Joy, because I was greeted by an email from my high-school friend Scott in Iraq and I read it over and over and over as if somehow that would bring him home faster or maybe just to reassure me that he is indeed ok. I last heard from Scott in  early December via a quick email from the heart of Fallujah mid-battle: "Been shot, frag'd, mortared, bombed, RPG'd and still kicking it here..." Click here to read all his notes from Iraq. I also mentioned Scott in my Christmas note asking you to keep him in your thoughts and prayers as he says, “…Can never have enough Prayers (no atheists in foxholes)…” He is alive and well but sadly too many others are not...

---- Original message ----

From: scott marconda
To: cucina testa rossa
Subject: Re: WHERE ARE YOU, MY FRIEND?!?!?!?
Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2005

Laura:

Our battalion just pulled out of Fallujah today.  First chance I've had in months? to check email.  Tomorrow we displace to conduct another mission elsewhere.  I'll probably be incommunicado for about a month.  Battalion Landing Team 1/3 (BLT 1/3) performed wonderfully.  Sadly, we lost 22 Marines in combat and our wounded are in the hundreds.  But you should see the other guy.

I'll write when I'm back at Division when I'm done here and have better communication assets.  Tell everyone "hello."

Happy Valentine's Day from where every day is "Groundhog Day."

SM

Comments

[Abby]

Wow. It's so hard to even know what to say to these people fighting over there. War sucks, and the reason I'm so anti-war is that I'm so pro-troops. I want them safe and back with their families and friends. So glad he's leaving the scary zone.

[Giao]

Hi there! I stumbled across your blog from Pipstar's and just wanted to drop a note. Your blog is amazing! Your friend Scott is a positive trooper. My sister's ex-boyfriend (still a very close friend) is stationed in Fallujah too {his troop is still there}. I think of him every time a news story about the region is broadcast. It brings an incredibly human story home about all the dangers and hardships of living and fighting in this war. Thank you for sharing Scott's.