Camp Manhattan, Iraq – Although it brings me great pain to sit down and write, I am happy to provide an opportunity for the strongest support group of soldiers some information and insight as to the latest and greatest. During the past three months, you have not been the only one left in the dark. Each passing day has provided many strange and unusual experiences for all of us. From the day we received news of this deployment in Korea through an intense field train-up until now life has not given us many opportunities to slow down and reflect. I know most of you would like to know what is going on over here with regards to what you see in the news and most importantly when you will get to see your loved ones. I will attempt to give you the best answers possible to both of these questions.

First, I would like to take the opportunity and share a most sincere, "Thank You," from all the soldiers of Destroyer Company. The loving support, blind faith, trust, and understanding from everyone back in the states remains with us here. It carries us through from one day to the next with the growing anticipation of getting on with our lives.

We have been very busy securing critical portions of highways between Ar Ramadi and Al Fallujah. There are several suburbs spread out between the cities that surround these highways. With the close proximity of houses and people, our soldiers are constantly face-to-face with the local communities weeding out criminals who attempt to seek a safe haven inside these areas. This task is difficult given the language barrier and difference of culture; however we are adapting very quickly to these differences and are beginning to separate the local community people from those who are determined to stop democracy.

Soldiers from within 2BCT have begun taking leave. Soldiers from Destroyer Company will also begin taking leave this month. Leave will be granted from November through May 2005. We do not have specific leave days for the soldiers until the beginning of that month. Even then, it is up to the soldier to notify family upon when he will return and even that may be off a day or two. In order to take leave we must move through several different camps based upon availability of aircraft and convoys. Leave is granted based upon mission requirement, soldier performance, and family emergency. Please do not assume that your soldier is being punished if he does not come home for leave or get leave when you want it. There are many factors that drive this equation and we are making every attempt to spread the wealth equally to everyone.

In conclusion, hearing your soldier on the phone or reading an email from them is vitally important to us all. We are doing the best we can in regards to telecommunication facilities, power, and contracts to keep them up and running. There is not one soldier that is banned from using any of the facilities here on Camp Habbaniyah. I trust that all of you will appreciate and understand that when a soldier becomes critically wounded or killed that these lines of communication are temporarily shut down in order to allow proper notification to the next of kin as to the "truth," of how the soldier is doing. This prevents undo stress and heartache fed through a rumor mill from one soldier to another or from family to family who are not really aware of the current situation.

CPT Jason Sabat
Company Commander