William says he'd defend the 'blame-America-first' crowd to his death

Gratitude Letter From William

Editor's Note: "We sent out about 25 care packages. These are the letters we got back. I have all the original envelopes and handwritten letters and have transcribed them faithfully..." ~Sally Vaci"

Letter dated May, 2003
Received May 12, 2003

Dear Sir and Madam,

Received your package here in Saudi Arabia today and wanted to send you our sincerest thanks for your efforts. Your package was very well thought out and meant a great deal to us.

At this location we live on an air force base in relative comfort; we are forwarding on some of the more field-oriented items to our more forward forces in Kuwait and Iraq. Most of us at this element are scheduled for immediate redeployment. I would like to suggest your remove my name from your shipping list and replace it with the one listed below. This soldier is serving at a much more forward deployed field unit and he and his soldiers need your support much more than we do and will be extremely grateful for your contribution:

PV2 Jonathon [name withheld]
HHC DISCOM

Please thank everyone who has and continues to contribute to our forces through your program. We are all aware that the vast bulk of the population supports us, and I have not yet met a servicemember who would not defend to their own deaths the right of the dissenters to oppose our efforts and our nation with their most vile and baseless resistance.

Everyone who serves with me does so to rid Iraq of a cruel tyrant and to expose that nation to the freedom and liberty we enjoy. Please strongly consider a suggestion that many of our most forward forces have repeatedly expressed to me: The people of Iraq, especially the children, will have a much greater need for the support of the American people than our forces, and the charity and caring of our nation will send a strong signal to a people desperately in need of help. Please consider establishing the same kind of support program for them that you have for us, especially towards clothes and shoes and school supplies for children. I am sure that many communities already have done so, and that there is plenty of information available for these ideas to come to fruition.

Who we are: My section is comprised of U.S. Army Military Intelligence soldiers located at a U.S. Air Force operations headquarters. There is little I can tell you about our work, but please rest assured it was incredibly effective against our enemy, far beyond our own expectations.

There are many problems within our nation's military establishment--please don't forget that when talking about our victory and when voting for our elected leadership. Our personnel management system is broken, much of our equipment is obsolete and unreliable, and our overall ability to maintain a sustained campaign for any significant length of time is questionable.

Here's the tremendously good news: Our people, especially our young people, are spectacular beyond belief. Our young men and women of the so-called Nintendo generation have just clearly proven they have the right stuff in a thousand ways. I have been incredibly proud of our people's behavior on television and with the embedded media. I hope the public is aware of our servicemembers' sacrifice and commitment, as well as their ability to fight and win.

Please pass on to anyone who will listen that our young military personnel are the cream of the country and deserve their respect. My own cell included members of the U.S. Army, Air force, and Navy, both active and reserve components, and it could not have worked any better or more professionally.

Again, many thanks for thinking of us and for expressing your support for our people and our actions -- my poor words cannot adequately tell how much our people appreciate it!

Sincerely,