4American Braves

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11/9/07

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to let everyone know that I'm still doing well. Here are a few more pictures from over the last month. A few of me at the range doing some training with the Afghan National Army, shooting their AK-47s and learning about the weapons they use.

Another is a picture of our maintenance bay where we work to keep everyone running, in Task Force Saber.

The people in the picture with the flag are the officers and First Sergeant of Forward Support Troop, 1st Squadron, 91st Cavalry, Holding the 173rd Airborne Flag CPT Peter Gilbert, 1SG Willie McClendon, From left to right in front - Chief Klein, LT Matt Booth, Me, LT Cliff Caughron.

The picture of the fields was taken as the locals were working on harvesting their corn crop, entirely by hand. You can see all the stacks in the middle of the fields. They got all of those fields harvested in about 2 weeks.

The last picture of the stone building up on the hill, is the OP above Camp Monti, where I have 6 mechanics working in support of our C Troop.

Thanks for all the support.

Dan Kelly
FOB Naray, Afghanistan

11/5/07

Mrs Deitch, Mrs Henry,

Thank you very much for the 5 large boxes that I recently received from the school. I'm hoping that this note gets passed along to everyone who contributed. My soldier's and I really appreciate all the support. I'm not sure who put the picture of the river and mountain from Wells into the package, but it really hit home for one of our Soldiers. SFC Gray runs the day to day operations here on the FOB, during some of our conversations I found out that he had family from upstate, NY in the Wells area that he would visit when he was younger. When I saw the picture, I showed it to him, and he is positive that he has been fishing in that river, at that very spot. He says that just looking at the picture brought back a lot of good memories from when he was younger, and he sends his thanks along as well. I enjoyed reading the local papers, and catching up on some of the events from back home, and of course the snacks, and hygine products are always appreciated. Thanks again to everyone who helped.

Daniel Kelly
FOB Naray, Afghanistan
 

10/27/07

Dan,

I received your School Partnership Power Point and forwarded it to all Principals and Student Activity Advisors. My students are writing letters as I type. Would you send the names and addresses of any of your men that would like to get letters. I was so sad to hear from your Mom that some of them didn't get boxes. We will take care of them!

I am going to contact the local printing companies to ask for donations of pens etc. We will have something for you soon.

Hope you are well and know that I pray daily for the well being of you and your men.

Regards,
Nancy Deitch

10/28/07

Mrs. Deitch,

Thank you very much for you help in the School Partnership Program, and all of the support. It's not usually my mission, but I'm going to try and go out to the schools to help hand out some of the supplies we have received in the next couple of weeks. I'm not going to have too many chances to do that type of stuff, because I'm going to be moving to work in Jalalabad at my Brigade's Headquarters around December.

I have several Soldiers who do not receive much mail, and would enjoy hearing from back in the States.

• Norman Howard

• Jerome Johnson

• Robert Monast

• Ian Buckley

All of these guys have the same address:
D TRP, 1-91 CAV
Task Force Saber
173rd ABCT
APO, AE 09354

10/20/07

Greetings to everyone. Everything is still going well here at FOB Naray. I have attached a PowerPoint presentation (click here to download PDF version) about a program that my Squadron has implemented in our Area of Operation. The School Partnership Program is our attempt to improve the schools in the region. I am sending this to the teachers, and former teachers that I know, with the hope that you may know a group or class interested in helping with the program. The part that is probably the easiest to help with is the Pen Pal Program. We have already received support from Scholastic Books, in the form of almost 1,500 donated children's books, but school supplies as basic as pens and paper are still in demand. Most of the schools in the area are teaching their students English, and when our soldiers go to visit the schools to hand out Humanitarian Assistance and school supplies, they can usually have a conversation in English to some extent.

CPT Jay Vandenbos is our Squadron's lead on this program. His email is jay.vandenbos@us.army.mil if you would like to help and have any questions, or just email me back.

Daniel Kelly

10/8/07

All,

Here are a few pictures that we took from a patrol that I went on the other day to visit some community projects that we are funding. This project that we visited and inspected was a pipe scheme to give a small town just north of our FOB running water, so the residents do not have to walk down to the river for all of their water. There was also a micro hydro power plant that now provides this town with power.

I'm in 3 of these pictures. The others are of CPT Springer, one of our Troop Commanders who spearheaded these projects, along with the local contractor who installed the pipeline for running water. The other is of my commander CPT Gilbert, with a nice scenic background.

 

Dan
 

9/14/07

Dan's Mom wrote Mrs. Deitch to tell her about things that Dan and his fellow soldiers need.

I'm not sure what an official list looks like of the things these guys need, but here are some suggestions:

I try to send Dan a small box every week. He passes on everything he doesn't need to guys in his unit that are not getting anything...and believe it or not, there are guys that aren't getting anything. So I never feel anything I send is being wasted.

Thank you for doing anything you do for Dan. His spirits seem to be up which is very comforting. He really does appreciate all the packages he has gotten so far. I imagine the holidays are going to be tough for all of them. They sleep in tents and the last time I talked to him he said he felt lucky as he was in the "dry end" of the tent. I guess when it rains the water comes thru the floor. Can't wait to see what it is going to be like in the winter!!!!!!

Again, Thanks for caring. Judy

9/14/07

I just wanted to send a few pictures, and let everyone know that everything is going well out here. I also wanted to thank everyone for the packages, messages, and support I've been receiving, it is really appreciated.

In the picture where you can see the river, that river is the Pakistan/Afghan border.

Dan,

7/30/07

Just a few pictures for everyone. One of me and one of my soldiers SPC Findley with Toby Keith. He stopped at Naray with Scotty Emrick and played 8 or 9 songs not too long after we got out there. SPC Findley won a autographed guitar in a raffle after the concert. The other picture is of some of the houses in Naray, and one more of the view from Manas, Krygyzstan where we stopped on the way here. I'll send more, in the near future.


Dan

Summer 2007

Mrs. Deitch

I am sorry it has taken me so long to write you back, I accidentally erased your last email and didn't have it sitting in my inbox to remind me to write you back.

Attached is a picture of my Platoon shortly before we deployed from Germany (I am in the middle). They are Maintenance Platoon, Forward Support Troop, 1-91 Cav. The bulk of them are currently serving at FOB Naray in the Nuristan province of Afghanistan. I also have soldiers at each of two forward bases Camp Monti, and Camp Keating in the same province. As far as my job description, I am the Maintenance Control Officer, for 1-91 Cav, of the 173rd Airborne Brigade. We deployed in Mid May for a 15 month deployment. Currently I am back at Bagram Air Base working on logistics for my unit, before I head back out to Naray around the beginning of next month.

As far as a little profile on me, I graduated from FFCS in 2001, after that I attended New Mexico State University, where I graduated in Dec 2005 with a BA in Criminal Justice and a minor in Military Science. I was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army at that point, and I went to the Ordnance Officer Basic Course at Aberdeen Proving grounds. After graduating from my OBC in May of last year I went to Airborne School at Ft. Benning, GA, and then headed to Schweinfurt, Germany where I have been stationed until my deployment.

I will send some pictures when I get the cable to hook my camera into my computer, I forgot it in Germany, but my mom is sending it, so I should be good in a week or two.

My address over here is:
Lt. Daniel Kelly
HHC 173rd BSB (SPO)
FOB FENTY  (JAF)
APO AE 09310

Thanks for all the support

Dan Kelly

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