20070102 Happy New Year from Tom Beyard in Kuwait

Happy New Year from Tom Beyard in Kuwait

Command Sergeant Major Tom Beyard sends “Happy New Year” greetings from Kuwait.

January 2^nd, 2007

CSM Beyard wrote, in part, in a recent e-mail, “We had nice party and all enjoyed the time together. Except that our New Year's celebration was 8 hours ahead of yours. At 12:00 midnight here, it was only 4:00 in Westminster. The time difference when you want to make a call is hard to deal with sometimes.”

CSM Beyard mentions a visit from Milblogger Michael Yon. I follow Mr. Yon’s blog and in a previous post here on “Soundtrack,” I mention his post from Kuwait: “From a Starbucks, on a U.S. Military Base, in Kuwait.”

Image: http://www.michaelyon-online.com/media/images/daybyday/10-21-06.jpg

Location: http://www.michaelyon-online.com/images/daybydaysingles/DayByDay-Pod4.jpg

CSM Beyard wrote: “We had blogger come here just last week. His name was Michael Yon, who is a former soldier who was embedded with an Army unit. He now writes about the military and he was interesting. We had breakfast with him and then he visited our shops and talked with our guys.”

On Mr. Yon’s post he has a picture of “Christmas lunch in Kuwait.” Another picture is “Soldier after soldier lined up to stand beside Santa, maybe to send photos home to children and family to show all is well.”

Perhaps they are Christmas scenes for which CSM Beyard is familiar?

In Mr. Yon’s post he mentions, “Here in Kuwait, where the dining facilities are bedecked in Christmas decorations, soldiers stream in from Iraq on convoys and stream back north along those bomb-laden roads. The service members here are not all rear-echelon people who never see fighting or blood.

Happy New Year Tom – be safe and thank you for your service.

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