when you say that "We are frugal with our money", did you mean like you and guys in your group? im fairly inexperienced with how things go on overseas...aside from movies, and i put little trust into those.

a friend of mine was in desert storm, and he said that towards the end, their being there was a complete waste of time...i think that he said that his group would go out on patrol 2 out of 7 days, and the other days, they just sat around waiting for something to happen...

a few movies, like saving private ryan, or blackhawk down, do what i would imagine is a fair representative of how crazy things are, even with the modern communication technology...and it all seems very unreal, although i know that it is probably similar to what goes on...

my grandfather was in the first wave of boats at normandy, and he survived. the group that he ended up in, was one of the groups that got up around and took out one of the gunner stations...he was the only person on his boat who made it home. it really makes you think about your own life really...

take care of yourself over here mike...[sm=americanasmiley.gif]