E-mail from Shawn

I thought I would share a part of Shawn's last e-mail....

From Camp Buehring Kuwait / USO tent‏:

Everything is hot to the touch. You walk through a gate or open a door and the metal is hot to the touch. The walk back from the chow hall is ten minutes and I got way too much sun today. For the most part, everything is just fine. We are heading to a firing range at 3 am to do our training early so we can be back and out of the hottest sun by 10 am. I guess we will be here for a few days until we get space on a transport to Baghdad. Because we have a large amount of gear(3500 lbs) and such as small unit, it presents a challenge for transportation. Big birds are used for big units, we need a big bird, but are a small unit.

It's cool to see all the different national forces here. You hold a door for an Aussie and they say "Cheers Mate!". And the British ship in biscuits and jams for the chow hall. The base is large with a few hundred trailers and lots of large quonset hut type buildings evenly spaced with huge AC units running non stop. These AC units are about the size of a large SUV and there are three on each side of the tents that run non stop. Today at about noon even with them running at full capacity, the tents are hot. Its always hazy here. if you look out its like being on the salt flats of Utah but with no mountains in the background. The sand stretches out until you can't see anymore. On the way here the bus would be driving down the road and then the road would disappear under the sand for a while and then pop back up again. There is sand and then there is the sand dust. The sand is not that bad, but the sand dust coats everything. Not too hungry as the heat takes away appetite. If we are here on the 6th, we are going on a camel ride out in the desert, but just around the base. To be honest, I'm excited. I will be riding a real camel in a real Arabian desert.