st REVERSE Newsletter to Our Fir YOU!

Our First REVERSE Newsletter to YOU!

December 2011

Family Readiness Officer: Mary Mathews

As we get closer to the Holidays I was thinking that we always get word from the command about how well the Marines and Sailors are doing. The families get word that helps to calm nerves and the excitement of looking through the photos in the newsletter to see if they can spot their loved one. Well the thought crossed my mind, why do we not do one in the reverse, where we the families send out a newsletter to the troops. So that is what we have done, out very first Reverse Newsletter, to let you know just how much you are missed and loved along with a few pictures too. I hope that you enjoy the newsletter and know that even if you do not see your family in the photos that they do all love and miss you very much. They all wish for your safety and comforts while you are away and wait patiently for your return. With many wishes and blessings, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy Kwanza, or a Happy/Merry Holiday

Inside this issue: Lots of Love and adoration!

whichever one you celebrate. Miss you all dearly and cannot wait for your return, your FRO. Mary

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Hey baby/daddy (Cpl grant) We love and miss u so much we hope all is well with u and the troops we pray every night for safety and well everything is going good Nathaniel is getting big and missing his daddy here to play with him everyday hahaha well the weather has changed to cold and we r loving it feels so good I hate the heat and well we r starting to go to the events that Mrs. Mary sets up to get us involved in things to make the time go faster. I hope u r staying and monkey says he loves and misses u so much and can't wait for u to play with him well I'm going to school everyday and monkey doesn't like that but he will be fine well he likes watching cartoons so y'all can watch them together when y'all get back well I'm going to end the letter we love and miss you so much baby stay safe and god bless you sweetie....

Dear Travis! (Mather) So, as we write this, it is the Marine Corps Birthday celebration. Tomorrow is Veterans Day (and, of course, you are now a vet!). Two days ago it was your birthday! This week is the anniversary of your first date with Hannah. How much more can you fit into one week? Well, lets add the fact that two days ago it was also Election Day. Trav, this is a great week for us to remember what you are doing, and why it is so important that you be where you are. It is a time for us to reflect on the role you are playing in an organization that has played a role in the safety of our country for 236 years! It is because of men and women like you that we can vote this week. It is because of veterans like you that we salute (or burn) a flag with freedom and safety from persecution. It is because of you that we went to a church of our choosing on Sunday. Love Nathaniel and Alyshia Nathaniel's mommy Yes, your girl misses you, as does your sister, your Mom and I. What gets us through this is our pride in you! Our firm and certain knowledge that God is in control, and the excitement of thinking of all we will be doing when we celebrate your homecoming! In the meantime, our love, faith and pride in our Travis will get us through these next few months! Semper Fi! Bes Fris Fevr, and love from all of us! Mom, Dad, Meagan, Hannah and, of course, Oscar! (and Max and KiKi lol)

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Dear Travis, By the time you see this, it'll hopefully be less than 3 months to go!! I miss you very, very much and cannot wait for you to come home and then there are only a few more months til I move down there! You're going to be missed this holiday season but I promise we'll make up for it when you get home. I love you so much and am very proud of you! (Oscar says he woofs you too!) Love always,

Hannah Hi Matt, (LCpl Brunsman, Matt) How are things going there? Home is good, but missing your fun and energy spirit. Fall has arrived, however, today it is 71 degrees. This Summer went fast and boy was it hot, probably not as hot as your temps were, but miserable hotness here. We could not even get out to ride our bikes. Summer was busy too with all the weddings. You were home for Kyle's then Andy's .. His was fun but I don't think as much fun as Kyle's so you were there for the best one. We went camping at Camp coma. Swan in the pond. and just had a great time. The Westendorfs came up too for the afternoon. Now the seasons are changing This is our Indian summer thou. We had had a heavy frost here. All the banana plants are in and tucked away for the winter..leaves are falling and crisp winds.

This weekend we are heading for Toledo for Ashley & David's wedding.. I am looking forward to it. I think it will be a lot of fun. We will send you pictures. Then Uncle Gary get married to Diana next weekend the 18th of Nov. It is going to be at Kolping, then it will be time for getting the outdoor Christmas lights up... Boy we could use you home for this... We are all going to Aunt Eileen's for Thanksgiving this year. I am really looking forward to that!!! Aunt Mary is going to be a grandma for the 1st time any day. Tracy has started showing signs of the baby coming. His name will be Parker Owens. I will let you know or just check your facebook! Anyway, I am anxious for the holidays to get here and the be gone, and into 2012! We are awaiting your return with much anticipation! So I just wanted to say Hope this letter finds you healthy and happy and I hope you get to have a turkey dinner or something delicious for dinner for Christmas. I love you and miss you very much as does everyone... Talk to you soon , love mom and dad

Babe, ( Cpl Hall, Jonathan) I wanted to say happy late Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year. Even though we cant be together through all of these holidays i hope you enjoy them as much as you can. Skylar and i miss you more then ever and we can't wait to have you home. She's so much like you, it's hard to believe. Everyday i think she looks more like you. We have a very beautiful and amazing daughter. But, im going to enjoy my time with her because i know once you get home she will be stuck up daddy's butt. :) We will be thinking of you through these Holidays, but one good thing about them is we know you will be home soon. We are so very proud of you and everyday you make us more proud. We love you so much and Miss you! Stay safe and happy holidays. Love you, Skylar and Danyel

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Hi Love!! (LCpl Brunsman, Matt) Can you believe it's November already?!! (Finally, huh?) If only I was saying can you believe it's February already! Not too much longer, though : ) Your Bengals are having a great season! I'm sorry you're missing it! Maybe they'll go to the Super Bowl and maybe you'll be home in time for that! Only 298 days to go until OUR WEDDING!!!! That's pretty crazy! I'm sure you can't wait to get home and jump right in to all the fun planning! Time is going to fly once you get home, then it will only be 6 more months! There isn't a day that goes by that someone doesn't talk about our wedding and how fun it's going to be! I hope you know how proud I am of you and how proud I am when I get to tell people my fianc is in the Marines and he is in Afghanistan right now! I'm the luckiest girl in the world and I can't wait to see your smiling face again! Stay safe and happy! See you soon! Love, Brandi LCDR Green, Michael (from his daughter) Dear Soldiers, I just wanted to say hello and hope they you are all safe. I know your families cannot wait until you come home. I know we can't wait for daddy to come home too! It will go by fast, we are halfway done! Be safe and we miss you! Love Jaymee My daddy is Dr. Michael Green. I love you very much daddy!! You are very special to me

Dear Jason, (Cpl Bywaters, Jason) As we write this letter it's almost Thanksgiving. Most of the leaves are off the trees. At least this year we didn't have to rake all of Grandma's since she had the big tree taken down. We'll head to the tree farm next week and Hannah will pick a tree thats too big again, but thats not unusual. Your packages have been sent, and I've bought most of what Hannah will get. I guess the boys will get gift cards to GameStop or Best Buy. Since we don't have a Pastor yet we'll go with Hannah to her Christmas Eve service and back to her church again on Christmas morning for Sunday service. All of the Christmas movies on Hallmark channel have begun and Hannah and I already watched White Christmas. We can't wait for next year to do special things with you. We hope your day is the best it can be while you are there. We miss you, and are very proud of you. Take care till we see you again. Everyone here says" Merry Christmas and Happy New Year". Lots of Love, Mom, Dad, Hannah, Aunt Linda, Uncle Rick, Tony, Matt, and Pap

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Dear Stan, (Capt Bednar, Stanley) I guess it is time again to write and let you know whats happening on the beautiful hillside of Anchorage. All is pretty good here. It is quite cold though, between 0 and 5 degrees all day today. Supposed to go quite a bit lower tonight and tomorrow. We already have over 24 inches of snow so I guess winter is officially here. We still have 7 or so hours of daylight but we are losing ground fast. So hows the weather by you? Any snow angels in your future? Love, Mom

Jason, (LCpl Moore, Jason) It's hard to believe that it is November and December is right around the corner. The leaves are about gone and the cold weather is starting to appear. Hopefully we'll have one or two more weekends before it really settles in. Jaycob's (younger brother) first football season has come to an end. It was a good experience and injury-free. The 5th Grade Western Irish's record was 3-3-1. Jaycob scored one TD and had many tackles/sacks on defense. Basketball

bled Christmas Stockings for the troops, and ended the week with a very moving Veterans Day program for our local Veterans. Your Aunt Val, Jaycob and I drove to Wheeling, WV and delivered the stockings and other items collected and helped assemble more stockings for Boatsie's Boxes "Operation Christmas Stockings #8" at the Army National Guard Base. We did a little shopping and Aunt Val visited the casino. Your Dad has been pretty busy at work and looks forward to your calls.

season has just began and the team looks pretty good. He is playing on a travel team this year. It looks like our weekends will be pretty busy again! School is going well for him. He had a great report card - all A's and one B. He has a great class of kids, just like yours. They had a very full Veterans Day Week. They enjoyed several speakers, assem-

Mamaw and Papaw are doing well, should see them next week for Thanksgiving dinner. But of course, we will celebrate Thanksgiving/Christmas/ Birthdays when you get home. I'm sure we'll leave the tree up again until you get home. By then, I should be working for the new company, Buckeye Partners, and hopefully the change-over will have gone well. We are starting to countdown the weeks (11 weeks to go) and ready for the change. I am going to close for now. Remember, we are very proud of you and we all send our love. Send our best wishes and prayers to all your guys. BE SAFE!!! Love ya, Mom

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(LCpl Weyerhaeuser ,John) "Corydon! I miss you so much, everyday all day long. You are my hero babe. I am beyond proud of you and amazed by your courage daily. I cannot wait to see your handsome face and fall in love with you all over again. Stay strong and I will be patiently waiting for you always. I love you. xoxoxo <3" (Kayla)

GySgt Serpa, John

From the Geren Family to all of the CLB-6 Family:

We send our Appreciation and our Support for the job you do everyday in the Fight for Freedom. May God bless you and hold you in His hands. Sincerely, Bruce and Launa Geren and family CPL Alan Geren and (most of) his brothers and sisters

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GySgt Martinez, We are right here waiting for you.. "Behind every strong soldier, there is an even stronger woman who stands behind him, supports him, and loves him with all her heart"-Unknown

Sgt Jeremiah Rees, Oh how we miss you! Nathaniel, Aidan, Tyler, and I are so proud of you for what you are doing over there. While we miss you tremendously, we know that it wont be too much longer until we have our hero home again. The boys look forward to having you home to play with them at the park and to take them to all the fun places like the toy store and to Cicis. I cant wait to have you home. Without you, Im just a mess. You are the missing piece to that keeps this family together. While I try to keep it together and stay strong for the boys while you are away, I am counting down the days until we are together again. We love you and miss you! We cant wait until homecoming! Stay Safe! Merry Christmas, baby! Love, Traci, Nathaniel, Aidan, Tyler, and of course Diesel

Stay Safe. love your Girls

This is SGT Ashley Andrews niece, Peyton Andrews hard at work...just like Aunt Ashley!

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LCpl. Coulson, Joseph S.

LCpl Ritchie, Daniel letter 1: Dear Danol, I am so proud of you baby! I know that you are working hard over there and you still manage to make time to get in contact with home. I love you more than anything in the whole wide world. Words can not express the amount of love, and devotion I have for you. I know you worry about things back home but I promise that everything is going good. Im finally settled in to my new job at Victoria Secret. I have also got my schedule straight with school work and that stuff. When you get home I have soo many

yummy recipes to cook for you. I really cant wait till we can be together again. I must say though you were completely right about deployment. It is really not as bad as I thought it was going to be, and time is flying just like you said it would. I still feel like you left only a few weeks ago. But then I have to remind myself that we are for sure more than 50% done. I want to thank you for giving me the strength and reassurance that I could get through this. You are amazing baby and I really wouldnt be able to do this without you. I have my bad days but it always brings a smile to my face to think about all the amazing times we had together before you left and how much more amazing the time we spend together will be when you get back. Mejo is doing good and getting so big. She cant wait for you to come home and play with her. She always curls up with your cutoff and trys to play with the big elmo that smells like you all the time. I cant wait until you get home and we can be a small little happy family again. I love you so much baby. You are the most amazing thing that has happened to me. Even when your more than half way around the world youre the reason behind everything I do. The reason behind my smile. And the reason I have motivation to get through every challenge that arises. I can not wait until the day that you are stepping off the bus and I can run and jump into your arms. I cant wait to have my whole world back baby. They always say home is where the heart is, and my heart is with you so the day that you come home we will finally both me home again in a sense. Your mom wrote a letter also so dont forget to read it baby. I cant wait to have my back woods prince charming back. I love the real life fairy tale that we are living baby. something like this just dont exist between a backwoods boy and a fairy tale princess people said it would never work out but living our dreams, we shattered all doubts it feels good to prove 'em wrong just livin' our love song. I love you baby sooo sooo soooooooo much! Come home safe baby! I love you Your princess,

May May letter 2: Dearest Son, Hope you are doing well. Thanksgiving is tomorrow and while in there cooking away I was thinking about you. You always loved Thanksgiving and eating that turkey leg. I sure wish there was some way to send you one. I also made a cheesecake but I left the blueberries off. Its hard for me to put them on one knowing how much you like it so the next time I put blueberries on a cheesecake it will be for you... Payton is doing great and misses you so much. Dad is well I guess I can say dad is dad...you know how your daddy is this time of the year. We never see him because the woods take over..ha..He sure loves that deer hunting which is OK because we cook it a lot. Mike and Brandi are doing good too and your little nephew is growing like a weed. Your dad and I talk about how he reminds us so much of you because he loves throwing balls and stuff like you did when you were little. Potttsville has the Christmas lights up already and Christmas is fast approaching and then after that it wont be long and you will be back in the states. I'm excited about you and Meaghan.I think she fits in our family perfectly! Nothing new going on much around here. I love you son and hang in there and tell all those Marines thank you from all of us. We appreciate them and we love you son! If you need anything you just let your mommy know. Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Love you so much! Mommy

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when daddy wont come home and it scares me even thinking that we will be alone. My daddy is a Marine hes often gone away And I am so very proud of him each and every day. Come home to us daddy When your job is done I know that those people needed you But they arent the only ones.

There are no words here left to say, it's true God gave me you Gave me you There's more here than what we're seeing A divine conspiracy That you, an angel lovely Could somehow fall for me You'll always be love's great martyr And I'll be the flattered fool And I need you God gave me you for the ups and downs God gave me you for the days of doubt And for when I think I lost my way There are no words here left to say, it's true God gave me you On my own I'm only Half of what I could be I can't do without you We are stitched together And what love has tethered I pray we never undo Cause God gave me you for the ups and downs God gave me you for the days of doubt God gave me you for the ups and downs God gave me you for the days of

"God Gave Me You" LtCol Rizzo, Ralph My Daddy is a Marine Author: Maria Sutherland My daddy is a Marine hes often gone away to some far off country where he has to stay. I really miss my daddy and Im not sure what he does except he helps other people who need him very much. At night when I say my prayers I ask to keep daddy safe so that he can come home to us and sit in his favorite place. Some nights I can hear mommy cry when she thinks Im asleep I know she misses daddy and her sadness hurts real deep. I know that a day may come But you stay here right beside me And watch as the storm blows through And I need you Cause God gave me you for the ups and downs God gave me you for the days of doubt And for when I think I lost my way I've been a walking heartache I've made a mess of me The person that I've been lately Ain't who I wanna be

doubt And for when I think I lost my way There are no words here left to say, it's true God gave me you, gave me you. He gave me you.

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CPL Kosugi, Shosuke " Hi Sho, hope everything is OK. Yuca is trying to transfer the college in California. Kuni is going to Australia in January for 6 months. Dad is going to Japan to see your granpa. And your mom will be going to the first time in Hawaii in December. How exciting...... We are all doing just fine.

I want you to know when I said those vowels on our wedding day, they came from the very bottom of my heart, and the promises I've made to you will never be broken. I will stay strong for us. I will support you in whatever you do, because the nights alone and the moments missed are small obstacles that love will conquer. I will wait patiently for you to come back to me. I promise to love you with all of my heart and soul for all the days of my life. Be safe. Be strong. Be confident. You are accomplishing great things. Never change who you are. Never doubt yourself. Laugh. Cry. Sleep in when you can. Make great friends. Remember where you've been, but don't lose sight of where you're going.

Hope see you soon.

Love you."

missing the small things each day, and making sacrifices. On March 12, 2009 when I saw you for the fist time as a United States Marine my heart smiled. I felt honored to be in your presence, and grateful to have such a strong man in my life. Knowing what you've been through, you decided to take

You are the few. I am the proud. Love, Your wife Samantha Xoxo

Dear LCpl. Pieszak, Nathan. When the Family Readiness Officer asked us to write a couple of paragraphs to our spouses, I waited weeks to begin. I thought I would be able to put into words all the love I have for you, and all the emotions I've felt since you've been gone. No matter how much I write, those feelings are simply indescribable. Over four years ago I feel in love with my best friend. A man who changed my whole way of life. I was no longer afraid of the future, but excited, because I had him beside me. We've had our ups and downs, but I regret nothing. When you told me you were going to enlist, a part of me broke, a part of me was afraid of losing you. It meant nights away from one another, when from the very beginning we were inseparable, it meant us

the road less traveled and become an American hero. I know you have, and continue to make your parents proud. I know they sit next to the Lord, and watch over you through this journey.

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HN Rueda, Carlos Dearest Carlos, Your family wants to share with you a very special Christmas holiday wish, even though to us there is no bigger and better gift than to see you home for Christmas, we know when you return to us safely home, we will be celebrating all those days that we did not get to share together. When you come home, you will see Christmas and Thanksgiving in the summer, tree lit up and Turkey, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pies. But most important a family that is anxious to hold you and cherish every moment with you. Stay safe, and keep in your heart our love and prayers, as we keep you in ours. Your loving family, Momz, Gaby, Alexis, Leo & Ari, kitty & Dustyl

1stLt Robinson, Michael Merry Christmas Daddy! We love you and can't wait for you to come home!! We'll be able to make up all of those missed hugs very soon!! Stay safe!! Love Your Girls, Rachal, Sydnee, and Emma

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