|
| |
 A LETTER FROM THE COMMANDER:
200-CDR
30 September 2005
SUBJECT: Commander’s
Update
- To the families of
our soldiers; as summer in Iraq has come and gone, the changing of the season brings us
ever closer to that day we all are waiting; our homecoming.
Hope you all are doing fine as we continue our mission here in Baghdad. The weather seems to be getting cooler in the day
(temps down to 99 – 101) and the 70s at night. Believe
me, that’s a break in the weather.
- The highlight of
this month was being able to pin promotions on the following personnel: SFC Vickers, SSG Irving, SSG Mills, SSG Sourbeck,
SSG Barnes, SGT Mack, and SGT Lovelace. We are
very proud of these individuals and I will let you know they are very deserving of these
promotions. Kind of helps out on the home
front financially also.
- We are in our
ninth month of deployment now, and as every letter, let me take this opportunity to thank
all you families for you enduring support of the troops. The number one combat multiplier
of this deployment has been your solid support of your soldier. As I said many months ago, a happy soldier is an
effective soldier. You have certainly done
your part and I ask that you continue this for a short time more until we come home.
- We have been
fortunate that all soldiers have an opportunity to go on leave over the past month and we
have only five remaining that chose to go late in the year.
We are thankful to our Brigade Headquarters for allowing all of us to get a chance
at leave.
- Well, I hope this
bit of news helps ease your anxiety. We will
continue to press forward with the mission and try to keep everyone safe. I apologize for not publishing a letter sooner but
we have been quite busy. Thank you all again for the outstanding support. God Bless you all, and God Bless America!
Sincerely,
James E. Porter, Jr
JAMES
E. PORTER JR.
LTC,
USA
Commanding
200-CDR
28 May 2005
SUBJECT: Commander’s
Update
- To the families of
our soldiers, we wish you all a blessed and happy Memorial Day. Rest assured that we are still missing you all and
the upcoming holiday seems to reinforce our separation.
On a positive note, that is also a sign that time continues to march on and we are
even closer to being reunited with you all again.
- I continue to be
amazed at the professionalism and endurance of your soldiers. It’s beginning to get hot and the days are
long, but the laughter and camaraderie is never in short supply! I must say that being allowed to command your
soldiers during this operation is the highlight of my military career and I think I will
never have another assignment that is more rewarding.
- We are approaching
our 4th month in the war zone and I was privileged to be able to award all our
soldiers their combat patch. We did this at
our quarterly “cook out” held at the Joint Visitors Bureau. We had grilled chicken, home cooked pintos,
butterbeans, and other treats you all had sent us from home.
For a moment we were back at home, all together, and the deployment was not in the
picture.
- I hope you were
all able to see the news articles on some of our troops this month. SGT Sourbeck and CPL Segrest along with some help
from 1LT Witherington, did a jam up job on modifying our gun turrent mounts that really
caught on with other units. It also got some
good publicity on www.army.com website. Another story was done on the MEOICC in general is
good reading. I will ask Mrs. Cranford to post
it on our web site for you. The entire Commo
Section continues to perform excellently in all duties.
SGT Mills has proven his expertise is worth gold in keeping our computer network in
tip top shape. SFC Lewis has figured out that
there is life after SINCGARs radios! He has
perfected the Explosives Hazards Database crew and I am proud of the job they are doing.
- We’ve had a
couple of promotions and reassignments since we seen you last. First MAJ Hill was promoted to LTC and has assumed
the C7 Facilities Chief. MAJ Cranford is the
new Executive Officer for the 200th Engineer Battalion. Not that he didn’t
already have his hands full as Chief of Operations, now he does all the hard work for me. CPT Chunn was promoted to MAJ and has replaced MAJ
Cranford at the Chief of Operations. CSM
Nichols continues to be my right hand and keeps morale at a high peak. I cannot tell you how much John means to me and the
command.
- I guess you all
know that we have started our midterm leave? We
have been able to send 9 soldiers home for 15 day leave so far and everyone seems to have
had a wonderful time. We are grateful to our
higher headquarters, the 20th Engineer Brigade for the generous slots.
- Well, I hope this
bit of news helps ease your anxiety. We all
continue to press forward with the mission and long for the day when we will be back in
your presence. That will be a joyous day! Thank you all again for the outstanding support. I know I tell you this every letter, but I am proud
of all of you, our families, for holding down the home front till we return. God Bless you
all, and God Bless America!
Sincerely,
James E. Porter, Jr
JAMES
E. PORTER JR.
LTC,
EN, AL ARNG
Commanding
200-CDR
25 March 2005
SUBJECT: Commander’s
Update
- To the families of
our soldiers, it has been a while since I have been able to write. As you already know we have arrived at our final
duty station in Baghdad, Iraq. We again were
blessed with good fortune as we traveled into Iraq and had no incidents while in transit.
- I am extremely
proud of your soldiers and the job they are all doing.
You should be very proud as all of the members of the 200th En Bn as
each is contributing significantly to the overall campaign plan. Several of your soldiers have “stepped
up” to the plate and are doing yeoman work in their areas of responsibility. I hope you all are enjoying the pictures posted on
the web page. I’m sure you can understand
that we don’t give a lot of information as to our specific job to protect our
soldiers from the enemy. I can tell you that
your soldiers do their jobs well and, while we all understand we are in a war zone, they
are pretty safe. This is due to their
professionalism, alertness, and understanding their part in seeing after each other.
- I’m not sure
what you all see on the news but, from our perspective, a lot of great things are going on
here. The Iraqis continue to take charge of
their own destiny and these are truly brave people. All
persons with whom we have come in contact are very appreciative of the work we do and are
extremely glad to be out from under the rule of tyranny.
- We have good
quarters and food, and I see that all are able to contact you at home almost every day if
they wish. We still have quite a way to go,
but time is passing pretty quickly, at least on this end.
Again, I appreciate your solid support of our troops during this deployment. Morale continues to be outstanding and I give all
of the credit for that to you, the families. I
look forward to seeing you all again and giving my personal thanks to you for making my
job very easy. So long for now. God Bless You
All and God Bless America!
James E.
Porter, Jr
JAMES
E. PORTER JR.
LTC,
EN, AL ARNG
Commanding
HEADQUARTERS
200TH ENGINEER BATTALION
MNC-I, C7, MEOICC
APO AE
09342-1400
200-CDR
20 February 2005
SUBJECT: Commander’s
Update
- To the families of
our soldiers, I bid you a warm hello from Kuwait. We
arrived without incident and although it was a very long journey, we were greeted with
open arms. Our first order of business was a
good meal at the mess hall and then a long desert nap to get over the time difference and
jet lag.
- It doesn’t
seem like we have been mobilized for two months, but I guess time flies. We hope so anyway.
I would like to, again, extend my appreciation to you, the families, for your
outstanding support of our soldiers. Morale is
extremely high and you all get the credit for that one.
To my knowledge, every soldier has been able to call or email home on numerous
occasions. This is always good for troop
morale.
- We continue our
mission training and will soon be to our final destination and another phase completed in
our deployment. Your soldiers have done an
outstanding job thus far and I expect it to only get better.
They are organized and efficient, and I wish you could see for yourselves the level
of training they have achieved.
- Don’t forget
to check our FRG homepage periodically. We
will post new pictures as they become available. We
have been very busy these past two weeks. Keep
us informed of the news back home. I would ask
that you keep us in your prayers as we continue our deployment. God Bless you all and God Bless America.
JAMES
E. PORTER JR.
LTC,
EN, AL ARNG
Commanding
MEMORANDUM FOR Family Readiness Support Group Members
SUBJECT: Commander’s
Update – 200th Engineer Battalion Deployment
1. I first
want to take a moment and thank you all for the outstanding support during our preparation
and deployment. The deployment ceremony was
perhaps the best I had ever attended and eased the difficulty of the first milestone in
our deployment journey. I want to issue a
special thanks from our soldiers to the Linden VFW for the phone cards. Gifts such as these are paramount to morale and
directly support a strong family support climate.
2. We have completed our
in processing and some training as this first week comes to a close. Morale of the soldiers is extremely high and I feel
that I have never seen a more motivated group of soldiers.
They have adopted their own slogan for the mission: “Git er done” and this again, is evidence
of their strong conviction to the mission.
3. Our living area
is adequate and the food is great. We were
issued the best equipment and were delighted to receive the latest technology in the
Improved Body Armor. This has been an issue in
the past for deploying soldiers, but we received the best the Army has to offer.
4. We begin our
Engineer Specific Training next week and will continue on this for a few more weeks. Your soldiers seem very excited about the Engineer
Specific training and are studying the pre-instruction packets on their on time.
5. We will keep you all
posted as time permits. Again, thank you from
all of us for the outstanding support. As I
have told you in the past, a strong tie with the soldier family leads directly to the
success of the mission. A happy soldier is a
productive and mission oriented soldier. God Bless you all and God Bless our great
country.
Sincerely,
James E. Porter, Jr.
James E. Porter, Jr.
LTC, EN, AL ARNG
Commanding
|
