RICKY OF ARABIA

My little brother, Rick, is a civilian, but just arrived in Iraq for a year to maintain the computer system set up on one of the bases...this base is called "TQ", and it's about 25 miles west of Baghdad. He's just been there about a week, but has already sent pictures of the dismal circumstances under which he will be living. The U.S. took over old Iraqi military bases and they are scattered all over the country. Before leaving he assured me that the base was surrounded by a fence and manned by "big, burly Marines." Oh, yeah. I expected walls when he told me the base is fenced in and what do the pictures show but chicken wire, which looks as if it would go down in a stout wind. And guess what? Not a Marine in sight. Outside his room are big dump truck loads of dirt. That's what's between him and a bullet from an AK47. Of course, as luck would have it, the very day after he arrived another U. S. civilian was kidnapped 10 miles north of Baghdad.

Actually, I'm sure Ricky of Arabia, as he's taken to calling himself, is in a safer place. It is not an isolated one-man operation and if there can be any safety in a war zone, I think he's probably in a safe area. And I can tell that he's really digging on this adventure. He'll have lots of war stories to tell us by the time he comes back home in a year.

But I've worried about him and I will send postive energy to him, that he will come back safely.