Letter 3/15/03
The last few days were not so good because there was a bug going around and about half of the people at the camp got it in some way or shape. Ray got it pretty bad and had the stomach flu for like two days. He actually got an IV because he was so dehydrated. He is getting back to full strength though. He said that talking to me on yesterday helped lift his spirits ( I know, I know - everyone say "awwwwww"). Ray is glad that I have been getting his letters because he was afraid the whole free mail thing wouldn't work. He got some disks from his parents so he will put some pictures on it and send it to me. He says that it has been over two months since he has been activated and he has adjusted to active duty "ok." He is glad that everyday there is one day closer to coming home.

Letter 3/18/03
Ray was saying how he thought that the war would be over when I get this letter. (Guess he was being optimistic or thought that the mail would be super slow because this letter was one day before war broke out) He says that he is doing well that and he will probably be in Iraq somewhere by the time I get this letter. He says that he will have some interesting stories to share with all of us shortly. He is hoping that the humanitarian aid experience will help him find a good job when he gets back. They have told them that the mail they receive will be forwarded to where ever they are so please keep the letters coming. He will try to keep sending letters too. If he can't send them then he will write them and save them until he can send them. He may have email or a phone by then though so who knows?
posted by Ray at 10:10 PM

Letter 3/11/03
Things are pretty slow out there and they don't do much during the day anymore. Everything is set and they are just waiting around now. He says that one thing is for sure - it is not a glamorous life out there. He thinks about how little they are doing out there and on things he would rather be doing. However, he will not dwell on that because he is glad to be able to make whatever contribution he can. He thinks that they will be able to help the people of Iraq greatly. While he is writing this, there is thunder, lightening and lots of rain....then it is gone. He says it will pour all of a sudden and then stop.
posted by Ray at 4:16 PM

Hi again...Sorry I have not been writing updates lately. I had the stress of finals and then the whole war put me under the weather with the flu and general depression. Anyways - to the matters at hand. Here is information from letters Ray has been sending. I will update hopefully again if i get anymore letters this coming week.
Letter 2/22/03
Ray finally got my package with pictures and a book for him to read so that his mind does not turn to mush. (For those of you who are interested - the book is The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by author and screenwriter Miachael Chabon). He says that he has been reading pulp fiction that is turning his mind to mush. They are having hot food trucked from local contractors which is good except that he thinks the meat is lamb. They have hot showers in these air-conditioned trailers, and he said taht it was nice to take a shower after being so dusty, but it is disturbing how dirty the water draining away is. He has been working out every day - something that he feels is not best since they don't get time to heal their muscles. He says that he knows what his unit's mission will be and that it will not entail being on the front lines. He asks to rest assure that he is safe.
2/24/03
Ray says how he is sore from a 5 mile hike yesterday. However, he points out that he is lucky because others have sprained ankles and blisters whereas he is relatively unscathed. The rest of his unit is being activated and will be flying over there. Ray says that it is unfair, but that it was kind of neat to be a ship. now he can sat that he has been on one and he gets a sea service ribbon probably....not that it matters because he just wants to get home. He still hadn't gotten the MP3 player at this point which is odd because I had sent the book after his mother sent the MP3 player.
2/26/03
The mail drop has not been regular so he hasn't been able to get much from anyone. They have ben practicing different scenarios for missions that they may get. They are mostly dealing with situations that involve people getting displaced by the war. Because Ray has some aptitude for Arabic, they have asked him to be a secondary translator. He says it doesn't mean much though since he will just be saying things like "stop" or "where are you from?" or "raise your hands." He can't erally carry a conversation with that. He then starts writing from the 27th when they are going to the seaport to pick up and drive some vehicles back to the camp.
3/2/03
Ray just got back from the port that he was talking about in his last letter. Unfortunately he thought that he was only going to be there a day and didn't bring a sleeping bag. He had to spend two cold nights on the floor of a tent :(. Besides that, he says that the base there was pretty neat. They had a really nice chow hall with soda, ice cream, and ice. There was also a rec room with ping pong, board games, and a movie room with a big screen TV. He didn't get to play poing pong though because no one else really knew how to play. He did manage to catch part of Star Wars : Episode 2 though. He says that the Army probably built the base - which figures :). There were lso British troops there who were running a little store and he bought a survival kit from them. They were watching a BBC program that Ray said looked really shody just because the lighting was off and the weather guy was holding a clicker. Then he asks me to go on his aim screenname to make sure it doesn't get deactivated - I explain this in case some of you are wondering why Ray's name is online sometimes.
3/6/03
They have been pretty busy lately because all the gear from the other ships have been arriving and so thay have been busy getting things ready. He says that today has been the worse day out there so far because it has been really windy and rainy. When it wasn't raining there was a sandstorm. They also had a gas drill tonight which was not pleasant. He is hoping tomorrow will be better. They started receiving mail now but he hasn't gotten any. He thinks it may be the delay from the west coast to the east coast. There is also a two week gap in February where no one has received mail from. He has been a little down lately and wishing he could be back at home. Ray writes this as he is doing "fire watch" guarding on teh vehicles to make sure that no one steals anything from them.
3/9/03
Ray finally got the MP3 player, the shortwave radio, and the CD I burned him. He says it is pretty cool because he can scroll through the different folders and it displays the infor about the song. He has been listening to it a lot so he hopes that he does not run out of batteries. The shortwave radio is pretty neat and he has it on BBC but they keep playing British sports news. There is a program called The Voice of America, but it doesn't go into depth and often replays the previous stuff. Last night they had a steak dinner that was not very good at all, but he says it was the thought that counts. Today is suppose to be a holiday schedule which means that they supposedly have the day off....then he says how he just went to do some work so he didn't get the whole day off. Then he resumes the letter after getting some mail and happily talks about what I wrote in my letters to him. He also says that he heard on the radio how PETA was starting a campaing at UCLA that compares eating meat to the Holocaust (which they did do on Bruinwalk a while back). Ray says that it is outlandish just so that they can get media exposure. He says that there have been some pretty interesting developments that have been occuring that he cannot talk about but that we will see.

This is the latest on Ray. Thanks for visiting the site!
posted by Ray at 6:00 PM

Hi everyone I got two more letters from Ray so I will give you the scoop on what he is up to and take out the personal stuff:
Letter 2/17/03
He said that the ride on the hover craft from the Ashland to the shore was cool. While they were waiting for the bus to pick them up, him and the guys ordered some Pizza Hut (talk about Americanizing the world!) and watched a movie on a laptop. The pizza was pretty gross and he thinks they used goat cheese or something. In any case he still ate three slices. They finally got to the camp around midnight and are staying in a tent that is 40' by 20'. Unfortunately dust gets kicked up when people walk by, but the worst thing is that it gets around 40 degrees at night. It is comfortable in the daytime though - around 75 degrees. He says that they are there early because there isn't anything besides tents and porta-potties.
Letter 2/19/03
Nothing is really going on and they have spent the last two days setting up some tents. They got some boards to lay on the sand so it doesn't get so dusty. There are also some lights so it is not so bad. The last couple of days he had been eatting MRE's but finally got some spaghetti and chicken today. Ray says that it is a surreal feeling - like he is in some movie he can't walk out of. There are all these helicopters just flying about.

That is the latest on Ray - if you want a picture of him with some guys in the desert just email me and I will forward it to you. Pray for peace everyone!

posted by Ray at 11:14 PM

Sorry I have not been updating. Unfortunately I have not had contact with Ray for a long time and so I have not had much to report. Today was a happy day since I got a letter from Ray dated the 15th of February (postmarked 18th meaning it took 13 days to get here). He confirmed that his unit is in fact in Kuwait (something that some of the Marine websites have posted as well) and that he was going to have a "pretty Spartan lifestyle for awhile." He wrote that there are rumors that they may be there as little as 3 months which would mean good news for all of us waiting for him to come home. I don't want to get my hopes too high, but at least positive rumors are being circulated through his unit.
I just want to thank everyone for supporting Ray and sending packages from home. I am positive he is very grateful and will thank everyone personally when he gets home. I know that he has already received some CD's and have been listening to country music :). Hopefully we will be able to hear from him on a more regular basis sometime in the near future.
If anyone has heard of any news from Ray and would like me to post it up on the web, feel free to email me the information and I will post it asap. Thanks again.

posted by Ray at 2:56 PM