Hi Everyone,      Just wanted to take the time to tell everyone HAPPY NEW YEAR from Iraq.  I’ll just give you a little taste of how mine was.  I woke up at 2331 (11:31 p.m. for you civilians) and got Stolz up and tried to get Conner up.  Stolz and I got out to our truck around 2357 so we had three mins until New Years.  We sat in the truck and got our...

Hi Everyone,       Just wanted to let you know that my UWW E-mail was shut off now so you can E-mail me at joshuakoch52@yahoo.com.  My x-mas eve was spent driving from Baghdad to Navistar about a nine hour drive.  I returned to Navistar at 0830 on X-mas day.  Thank you all for sending me packages they were much appreciated.  As for New Years it is New Years...

With 2007 almost upon us, it is a time to celebrate — this is the year that Josh will come home.  In April he’ll be back for too short of a time, and then he’ll return to finish his tour. He indicated to us that he’ll always take Beef Jerky but at this point he’s not in need of too many other items.  Let there be no doubt, the Army has...

As I’m without internet most of the time now, I am posting this a day late but the sentiment is true nonetheless.  Josh called his grandmother and grandfather on Christmas Eve to let them know he loved them and was thinking about them.  Ironically, Mary Ann had been home all day and took 15 minutes to run and get a loaf of bread to simply get out of the...

Colin Powell, a man who happens to know a thing or two, in an article on Military.com describes the Army as broken: Former secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday that the U.S. Army “is about broken” and could not support sending a significant increase of Soldiers to Iraq. “That surge cannot be sustained,” Powell said. “The current...