To the editor,
June 28th, 2007Greetings from Iraq. I am just writing in response to the article involving the mayor volunteering to pay for the packages the city sent us over here.
The first thing I would like to say is thank you to everyone that has sent letters and packages to us in the 21 months that we have been deployed. I hope the public truly understands how much we appreciate the support and the feeling that a soldier gets when he receives mail from friends, family, and especially the community he represents and has left back home. To many, our small town is not the most glamorous or exciting place in the world to be. On the other hand, for us it is something we dream about on a daily basis and can only imagine the feeling of pride we will have the day we get back to it. So again to those that have sent mail to us, thank you. It is you that helps to remind us who we are and where we come from. It is you that remind us of just how good we actually have it in an unfriendly world. It is you that remind us that we really do come from and represent a place that we can be proud of. If you think I don’t know what I’m talking about then just look around the community and find the veterans that have served before us. I’m sure that any of them would be able to vouch for the appreciation that they might have had. That is if they were as lucky to receive the support that we have been blessed with.
The second thing I would like to say is thank you to Mayor Quast’s family for volunteering to pick up the tab on such a “controversial” city expense. I think that act alone speaks highly of the Mayor’s support of us, even though he might not personally know some of us. I’ll be honest, I’m shocked that he would have to do that, but if it is really a legal issue, then bravo to Brenda Pautsch for standing up and righting the wrong. At the same time I’ll be sure to remember that any package that I received here was really from the citizens of our town and the Quast family, not the “City of Gaylord.” I’m also a person that doesn’t feel right that a lone family had to volunteer to pick up the tab because of a reference to a memo from a “League of Minnesota Cities.” Forgive my lack of education, but who are they anyway and what right do they have to say such an act might not be legal? I don’t know how League of Minnesota Cities feels about supporting us, I just hope they realize what we have given and endured while representing our communities and state. I just want to let the Mayor know that I will spread the word to the other area troops stationed here on Scania about his good deed.
Well to all that don’t know, we are on our final days in Iraq. Our long awaited journey home has come and we can finally return to the one place we have continued to dream about. I look forward to seeing many of you again and reintegrating back to a civilian lifestyle. It shouldn’t be long until you see a familiar 23-year-old smiling from ear to ear because he just found a new meaning to freedom. One goal I do have though is to find this “memo” from the all-knowing League of Minnesota Cities. I just have the urge to find what legal issues there might have actually been. Maybe Brenda Pautsch would be willing to help me find reference to the memo. My gut tells me it might be a bunch of B.S., but I’ve heard that knowledge is power. Thanks again and see you soon.
Sergeant Scott Peterson
CSC Scania, Iraq
