Thanks for the good wishes yall... from the sounds of it our boys need em. Tmjohnson is right, we're taking heavy contact on a daily basis. I was talking to a buddy over there in the same AO I'm going to, said he was in an 8 hour firefight last week and that even the long drawn out ones like that are pretty intense.
Anyway... I set up an automatic transfer to my stepbrother-in-law's(?) account to send me a log of Cope every couple weeks, so I'm good there. The stuff for the kids is a great idea. I can't really consult with my NCOs cause I haven't even met them, the rest of the unit is already over there and my little group is heading out to link up with them.