Pen Pals

So I have been trading letters with a little boy from Las Vegas. One of the guys out here got a box of letters from a school class and we all grabbed one and started writing back. Andrew and I have exchanged two letters. He thinks it is way cool. He’s gotten two letters from some far off soldier. I like writing him to help in some small way keep the heart of America in tune with the military. I know it’s not much, but I feel some heritage/link with soldiers from times long ago and writing back to the “states.”

My real point in bringing all this up is the change in technology has kind of ended letter writing from soldiers. Even at the most remote places here in Iraq you can get to email on some sort of regular basis. I am sure there are units that do not for security reasons, but most everybody has some connectivity back to the states and they can use email. I try to write the kids and the wife on paper, but I talk on the phone and email them regularly. Letters that take 2 weeks to deliver lose meaning. I can’t give current events because they are long gone. I’m not whining or complaining just commenting on how things are different now with technology. And then the Blog. Well that is a whole new dimension. I can talk with hundreds of people at once. No need to address a letter. I just write the blog. If you are interested you keep reading, if not you click somewhere else. I wonder if people are archiving these words like people used to store old letters from loved ones during times of war?