May 3d, 2005
News from Matt Barbour:
-----------------------
hey gary,
wellim back in bagram for now.  they had us escort the rest of the company to jalalabad and mehterlam.  the roads here are terrible and it takes for ever.  after riding turret for 18 hours straight you kinda go nutz.  we had a grenade thrown at my vehicle in jalalabad (J-Bad).  everybody is ok and we are happy to get back to bagram.  when we aren't on missions they have me carrying a 12g mossberg shotgun, alot lighter than my M240B machine gun.  well gotta go,
essayons,
spc. Matthew Barour
ps we are putting together a letter to Newsweek for their lovely, well thought contribution to the riot problems over here.

May 15, 2005 

Darlene and I are back in Phoenix now after swooping through the Grand
Canyon and Sedona. What a trip! "Grand" is an understatement in the
title "Grand Canyon." More later, we're missing out on our
complementary happy hour. Here's a missive from Matt Barbour.
 
Gary and Dar
 
-----Original Message-----
From: matthew.t.barbour@us.army.mil
Subject: afghan kibits
 
May 15, 2005

Gary,

all is well. we are getting ready to go on the move for a while and my
access to the internet and phones will be close to or nothing. Things have
heated up, a couple riots, rocket attacks and ieds have been reported in the
area. 3 marines were killed a couple days ago in firefights not far from here.
the dodgeville guys that are just getting home are the same ones that i
replaced over here. supposedly the dodgevill unit has made the deployment list
for Iraq in 2007. which means (knowing my luck) i will be headed out again.
nothing going on in bagram other than the ongoing battle against boredom. they
call us an anti-terrorist task force but ithinkof it more as an anti-boredom
task force lately. well ive gotta get back to work sandbagging vehicles and
packing my stuff. hope all is well.
 
essayons,
spc. barbour, matthew t
 
ps. the locals have a surplus of enfields from the 1850's ('tower'
enfields included). some are in ok condition others are scrap metal. the prices
range from 100 to 300 dollars and are very nagotiable. im trying to figure
out how to get some for cheap and get them home. many other antiques are floating
around. "take no prisoners!!" can't wait to get back on the line!!!
 
Attached Message
 
Hi guys,
 
Here's a little news from home. Eight members of the Army Reserve
engineer unit in Dodgeville, (the unit designation escapes my feeble
memory) came home yesterday, and their main body is due in today.
That's Matt Barbour's unit, the Reserve Center I was company commander
out of.
 
Gary 
May 2, 2005
Hi all,
 
Well, David Listug, Roy and I shook out the cobwebs at the N-SSA skirmish in Illinois last weekend with the 114th Illinois.  
We were all glad to be sleeping in a camper with a furnace!  Everyone came home with medals of some sort, so it must 
have been a good trip.
 
Thanks to the expert gunsmithing of Jim Leinicke, Gwen's Maynard carbine is now operating smoothly, and she promises to never 
miss another target ;-)
 At our annual meeting, we scheduled a practice at the Yellowstone Park range near Blanchardville, WI.  Unfortunately, 
I can't make that date.  I'll be bumming around with Miss Darlene on a business trip in Arizona, checking out Talliesin West 
and the Grand Canyon.  I encourage everyone to still get together, or at least get out and shake off the cobwebs before the
 first skirmish in June.  
 
Bill Graff returned to Madison in early April, and now Matt is in Afghanistan.  
I just got an e-mail from him this morning.  Here it is:
 
"Hey Gary,
I'm here.  Bagram isn't that bad.  It's more like a resort.  They actually have us salute officers here!! 
(glad it's them and not me)  Anyway, they have us put up in wooden hooches.  The mountains are beautiful but the elevation sucks 
because of the thin air.  They have soldiers from all around the world here, Korea, Turkey, etc.  It's pretty interesting.  
Illegal drugs are all over along with minefields.  Bagram is the second heaviest mined area in the world (second to the DMZ in Korea)  
The weather has been nice but it keeps getting hotter and hotter everyday.  I'll send some pictures eventually.  
Wish I could get out on the line with ya'll this season.  The army is teaching me the good ol' "spray and slay" again.  
They gave me the 240B Machine Gun!!!  Oh well,  I can definitely understand the 99% boredom and 1% shear terror that 
those good ol' boys experienced back in the day.  Well gotta get goin stuff to do and a bed to sleep in.  (that's right, a bed with 
a mattress and sheets!!! I've got it soft!!!!)
Essayons,
Spc. Barbour, Matthew T."
 
Let's hope Matt's luck holds and he stays safe where he's at.  Note: "Essayons" is the motto of the Army Corps of Engineers.  
It's Latin for "we'll try", and of course, everything said in Latin sounds profound....
The day after Darlene and I get back from Arizona, Roy, David Listug and I leave for the N-SSA Nationals in Winchester. 
 If anyone wants us to bring back anything, e.g., caps, etc., please let me know ASAP.  
I'll be incommunicado from May 10th through the 23rd.  
 YOS,
 Gary