In the beginning...
Forward...
This is based in part on a diary I kept during Desert Shield, and then Desert Storm. This is also based largely on the correspondence I received from numerous people "back home", which started with the "Any serviceperson" mail we were receiving so much of. We were receiving more mail than we were able to reply to, so since I had brought my computer, I made up a form letter, answering 20 of the most common questions everyone was asking, and then I tried to answer as many personal questions as I had time for.
My normal working shift was 1800-0600, so much of what happened during the daylight hours is not included, as I slept through it. As such, I will not pass this off as an accounting of the war, but rather as my impressions and feelings as things progressed that I actually saw. Besides, the average second grade kid saw more of the war on CNN than most of us out in the Gulf did. I was working 12 hour shifts during most of the time we were on station, 7 days a week, so I was writing back to people when I could fit it in, without loosing too much sleep. The saving factors were 1) the postage was free, since we were in a war zone, 2) people were sending out envelopes and stationary, and 3) I had my computer with a printer with me, to take care of the mailing list and doing the letters.
From the one hundred people I pulled from the bag, I ended up with about 40 or 50 who were writing back at least once in a while, up to people who sent food, cookies, video tapes of TV shows, paper clippings, cards, etc. Since my transfer to California, I still have about 20 people who are writing fairly regularly, none of whom I have at yet met, but I do plan on it, sometime in the future. Maybe that would make for a second book: ANY SERVICEMEMBER: 5 YEARS LATER.
(You'll notice a lot of jumping around from present to past tenses here. The above post was edited back in 1993 or 1994. I'm just now looking at this again, and finally going to finish it, one way or another!)
Thanks for reading!
Carlin
follow me on Twitter for updates
http://twitter.com/carlincomm
This is based in part on a diary I kept during Desert Shield, and then Desert Storm. This is also based largely on the correspondence I received from numerous people "back home", which started with the "Any serviceperson" mail we were receiving so much of. We were receiving more mail than we were able to reply to, so since I had brought my computer, I made up a form letter, answering 20 of the most common questions everyone was asking, and then I tried to answer as many personal questions as I had time for.
My normal working shift was 1800-0600, so much of what happened during the daylight hours is not included, as I slept through it. As such, I will not pass this off as an accounting of the war, but rather as my impressions and feelings as things progressed that I actually saw. Besides, the average second grade kid saw more of the war on CNN than most of us out in the Gulf did. I was working 12 hour shifts during most of the time we were on station, 7 days a week, so I was writing back to people when I could fit it in, without loosing too much sleep. The saving factors were 1) the postage was free, since we were in a war zone, 2) people were sending out envelopes and stationary, and 3) I had my computer with a printer with me, to take care of the mailing list and doing the letters.
From the one hundred people I pulled from the bag, I ended up with about 40 or 50 who were writing back at least once in a while, up to people who sent food, cookies, video tapes of TV shows, paper clippings, cards, etc. Since my transfer to California, I still have about 20 people who are writing fairly regularly, none of whom I have at yet met, but I do plan on it, sometime in the future. Maybe that would make for a second book: ANY SERVICEMEMBER: 5 YEARS LATER.
(You'll notice a lot of jumping around from present to past tenses here. The above post was edited back in 1993 or 1994. I'm just now looking at this again, and finally going to finish it, one way or another!)
Thanks for reading!
Carlin
follow me on Twitter for updates
http://twitter.com/carlincomm
posted by Carlin at
11:19 PM
5 Comments:
Carlin - I can't say how excited I am for you and the project!
I remember sending letters to soldiers back in Desert Storm and receiving a couple of responses back. Of course, I'm not as organized as you...nor did I have the foresight (as I so wisely do now - lol) to have kept the correspondence. Very, very cool project!
Hey Tina, I'm planning to post some select highlights from the book here, not full chapters obviously, but the diary / book are based on daily entries, so I might pick part of 1 day from each week or something. That way when people buy the book, having read the blog, it won't be a surprise what they're getting.
Carlin...followed your link! This is very cool. I don't suppose you have some letter in there from me :) I am pretty good at writing and editing since I went to school so long so if you ever need a proof read or something let me know! You should have seen my master's project!
Glad you found me. Hope to chat with you soon and I can't wait to read more about your book.
Hey this is great seeing people commenting on this already! Thanks guys! For anyone else who reads this, Tina will be helping on the book project, I'm hoping to do some kind of cross promotion with Trish, and Sam is one of the people who wrote me letters while I was on the ship during Desert Storm. What a great team! Thanks again!
Carlin
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