Recent emails form Iraq.

Hunter and Class,

Greetings from Central Iraq (BALAD), this is Spc Brandon Delvo,

First of All let me apologize for the late arrival of this email, with missions and the daily of routine of work it is hard to write a letter.

Let me take sometime to tell all of you a little bit about myself, I was born in Williston, North Dakota.
I Graduated from Skyview High School in 2003.

I joined the Army when i was 17 and was on my first combat tour in Iraq by 2004. Things were pretty bad back in 2004, I remember us having to use sheet metal on our vehicles to protect us from roadside bombs.
My main job last tour was dealing with Ordnance, such as bombs, explosives etc. We would go out and blow up weapons caches of captured weapons and roadside bombs.

This current Combat tour I am an Infantrymen 11B. Our main mission is guntruck security, which means we provide security for KBR truck drivers hauling supplies. Our missions have taken us as far east as the Border of Iran, as far south as Basrah, and we have even been to the infamous Green Zone in the middle of downtown Baghdad, that place is the most amazing thing that my eyes have ever seen. There are several palaces and old thigns left behind from when Saddam Hussein was in power.

Currently we have less than 3 months left over here. I figure when I get home if my home unit is not going to Afghanistan, I am going to try to get over there and be a memebr of a METT team, which provides guidance and trains foreign armies, you are embedded with a platoon of Afghans and go out on raids and patrols with them. I figure that the war needs me elsewhere.

Thank you for all the great letters and sorry for the lateness of this email Take Care SPC Brandon Delvo


Dear Mr. Jones,

I would like to say thank you for the many packages and letters you and your class has been sending me. I want to apologize for the lateness of my reply. We do tend to stay pretty busy, and I am the world’s worst at writing letters. I really do appreciate all that you and your class has done for me. I am a SGT in the Oklahoma army national guard. I am from Elk City OK, but now live in Norman OK where I am finishing up my college. I coach High school football. I was coaching freshman in Norman, but when I get home I will be coaching varsity at Western Heights in Oklahoma City. I am very excited to start my new job. I have a girlfriend named Kassy who graduates this year from OU, and a cat named Theo. Well he is really more her cat, but I paid for the shots and some food so I have some clam to him. That is what I do when I’m not “playing army”. Here in Iraq I work in the communications shop. We are in charge of all the communication in our battalion. We are scheduled to work 8 hour shifts but it usually turns into a 10 or 12 hour shift. After I get off work me and a friend go to the gym and work out. Some days it’s hard to go to the gym after work but we keep each other going. In the evenings we will get together and watch movies or play station. I’ve gotten really good on the drums on guitar hero. That is pretty much all we do here. It gets pretty boring, and we are all ready to come home. This is my email feel free to write me anytime. I will send some pictures as soon as I take some good ones. Again thank you for all the care and support.



SGT Chris Malone