I got a couple of interesting emails this week, including one from England and one from Australia. I guess everyone likes Fugly! Still hot and dusty out here, nothing really new to talk about. On the bright side though, I should be leaving sometime in early August to go on R&R leave back to the States for 2 weeks. Florida here I come!

One of the questions I got asked how much more money I make from being deployed. Since anyone can find a military payscale on Google, I don’t mind answering that one. Since I’m deployed here, I’m receiving Imminent Danger Pay, Hardship Duty Location Pay, and Family Seperation Allowance. All of those total up to about $475 extra per month. And of course, all pay out here is tax-free, which is a heck of a bonus. With all of that added in, I’ll make about $40,000 for my year spent over here. It would be a lot less if I wasn’t married, though.

Now for some more questions:

Aren't biological weapons considered WMD's? My understanding is that they have found hundreds of biological weapons but aren't reporting them in the press since they are old and "probably" are degraded since they predate the 91 war. Have you heard anything about this?

Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical weapons are all considered Weapons of Mass Destruction. That was the easy part. As far as the second part of the question, I have no idea. I haven’t heard anything about it. It is well known that Saddam used WMD’s in 1987 against the Kurds, so I’d say he definitely had WMD’s before the war in 91. However, I have no idea if he still had them or if we found any over here. If they did though, I would imagine they would want to report it in the press since that was one of the reasons given for the war in the first place.

Next question:

What fund or charity can we donate to that will get our armed forces in Iraqi some tangible proof of appreciation?

Great question. I can’t even think of too many off the top of my head, which is pretty bad. I think the USO would be a great one. They’re always working on getting entertainers and celebrities out here for us. Like Toby Keith on Memorial Day, that was all the USO. I looked into the other one you mentioned, Sean Hannity’s fund. I had never heard of it, but here’s what I found for everyone else who may not know about it:

Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund

The Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund honors the bravery and dedication exhibited by Americans in our armed forces who have sacrificed life or limb by providing educational scholarships to their children. 100 pecent of Scholarship Fund donations go to the Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund. Donations to cover the administrative costs of the program are raised seperately. Thanks to the support of Sean Hannity, over the last four years we have raised over $6 million dollars and given out hundreds of scholarships. I assume that’s the one you were talking about, and that sounds like a great charity, too. I had never heard of it, so thanks for bringing it to my attention. I’m not going to tell anybody to donate to any specific charity, but these are two great ones. Sorry I can’t think of any more right now. Here’s the websites for those two charities: http://www.freedomalliance.org/scholarship.htm and www.uso.org That’s it for this update. Thanks for writing everybody.