The holiday season in Iraq has been cold and rainy, with the U.S. military facing some of its greatest challenges there since the start of the war.
But for Lt. Andrew Seal, 25, of Eldersburg, who is commander of 36 Marines stationed in Ramadi, the temperature and intense violence against U.S troops aren?t reasons to feel distraught. They?re reasons to fight on.
“As you have probably seen, it has been a tough month for coalition forces,” Seal wrote in an e-mail earlier this month. About 100 members of the U.S. military were killed in October.
“You may think that the situation here may have us scared, especially going downtown, but I?ll be honest, we feel more like we are going hunting for terrorists,” Seal said.
“There is most definitely a feeling of exhilaration of going in to dangerous areas, but my Marines have handled themselves with professionalism and poise.”
Seal is one of 2,371 Marylanders deployed worldwide this holiday season.
Such times are tough for soldiers serving overseas, but the military tries to make them feel at home, said Army Sgt. Matthew Roe.
“We?re having big spreads at the dining facilities, little bazaars with things set up to buy Christmas presents and recording holiday greetings to be aired to friends and family at home,” said Roe, who is stationed in Baghdad.
Columbia resident Bradly Irish, 41, who was part of a top Army bridge-building unit during the Iraqi invasion, said that during the initial stages of the war, communications home were more difficult to achieve than now.
“Now they have all the satellite hook-ups they can send messages home and the messagesback,” said Irish, who is a teacher at Wilde Lake High School.
“During my 14 months in Iraq, I probably talked to my wife only about three to six times every six months. It?s still hard but I understand it?s getting easier. I was there for two Thanksgivings and one Christmas, and the military did as much as they could delivering decent meals.”
While stationed in Ramadi, Seal, a graduate of Franklin & Marshall, has been receiving care packages from friends and family.
“It brings me such pride to be able to bring a full box of food and comfort supplies to the troop hooch, that very box being so unselfishly supplied by my friends and family,” he said.
But Seal can never take his mind off the duty at hand and the dangers that surround him.
“Al Qaida is in Iraq, they are in Ramadi, U.S. troops fight and kill them every day,” he writes in a second e-mail from the front. “They want nothing more than for us to leave and allow themselves to consolidate and organize in order to fill the power vacuum in Iraq and extend their terror attacks to the West.”
On Sunday, Seal?s troops engaged in a “firefight” with insurgents in Ramadi.
“We went toe-to-toe with about a half-dozen insurgents at night,” he said, adding that he estimates his platoon killed three of the fighters that night.
