US soldiers with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) pray during Easter celebrations at the Kandahar aire base on March 23, 2008. Seventy thousands western soldiers are stationed in Afghanistan.
Photo from Getty Images by AFP/Getty Images
Dear everyone:
Photo from Getty Images by AFP/Getty Images
Dear everyone:
We have had a great time with Megan, Ryan, the kids and my parents being here in Florida. Amy was with us for one of the weekends and it was good to see her. She is barely even showing and she is having a nice normal pregnancy. My brother and his family joined us for two days as well.
We have heard from Neal from time to time in the last 12 days, the last time being this morning. During that time frame, he called once and told us to keep praying for him because he had "seen the hand of God so strong". On that day, a rocket was fired at him, hit his boot, stopped, but did not go off...he literally thought for a second he was going to die.
On another day, shrapnel flew within 10 feet of him...and there have been many other stories he has told us. He found a dog....really liked this dog as it followed him everywhere, so that gave a bit of "normalcy" to his difficult days. A few days later, the dog left. Neal was really down about it - he had saved his cereal to feed the dog. Sometimes, we can judge situations like this, but we all decided (our family, since we were altogether) that if we were Neal...we would be glad to have a dog for any amount of time too...just to have your thoughts be on something other than death/bombings/killing. Anyway...before he left that area, the dog came back so at least Neal was able to see it before he loaded onto the helicopter for another mission.
There have been many missions...and he has seen much...we could tell in his voice and even sense his spirit at times - he was exhausted, hungry, thirsty, dirty...yet, they still move forward and do the best job ever. We are amazed at the stamina of our military men and women. No wonder when they come home many of them just fall apart - I really don't know how they process all they see or do...but then again, I am a girl!
They have cleared the Taliban out of the areas where they were doing all their missions. He even thinks his unit will be in Time magazine next month...we will just have to watch for it. I have attached a link for you to see a picture of Neal and Amy. This was taken in Afghanistan before Amy was sent home and they were at church for Easter service.
You can also see many more pictures on this site if you go down and put marines in Afghanistan in the search box. It will bring up pictures of the 24th MEU and you can see how they have had to life for the last 2 months. He has gotten his combat commendation and some others...I can't remember them all :) His team has done a great job and that is one reason they are still out there, they keep sending them on more missions. Right now, they are in a safe place and the Afhan farmers are making them a big feast tonight and killing a lamb. They are thrilled to have the Taliban out of there area so they can farm, live and work just like regular people. Neal was excited about them fixin' up some good food! Plus, as we were talking with him, the mail truck was arriving so he was hoping for some mail.
Again, we thank you for your prayers. We know they are working and Neal for sure knows they are working and that God has certainly protected him this far. We all pray for his safe return and that he gets to return to Kandahar soon for a nice shower and rest. You guys have all been a great encouragement to him and he appreciates all the packages and letters....many of them, he will get when he returns to the base and it will be like Christmas!
Our love to you all,
Cathy and Mark
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