My brother joined the Marines his sophomore year of college. He has been a big inspiration with my choice of joining the armed forces, namely the Navy. I just received an email from him expressing how much he loves all the gum and hard candy that my family and I send him. He told me “gum and sour punch straws are treasure for my platoon over here…” I was very pleased to hear this and i will keep sending him more.

In more disturbing news from Daniel or “ike” as he is referred to by our family. On his patrol, one of his squad members found an IED or Improvised Explosive Devise and an RPG or Rocket Propelled Grenade shell near their base. This was not the best of news he told me, but i trust that he and his platoon are in God’s hands.

I wish him well on his tour over in Iraq.