Stahlke Adoption

In this letter, Paul mentions his friend Neal, who is our pastor’s son, stationed in Washington State with the Navy.  A few years ago, Paul and Neal took a fishing vacation together to Seattle, where Neal's family had lived when he was a young boy.

Hey everyone,

Hope your guys trip [to Virginia] was fun. So I had a couple of fun days this last week.  We are learning how to move and fire in squads.  It’s about 4 guys per squad, and I’m the squad leader of mine.  Tuesday we shot at a range again but we shot the 40 mm grenade launcher machine gun.  It shoots about 60 rounds per minutes.  That’s pretty fast for grenades.  After that we shot the 50 cal mounted machine gun, that was even more fun because we got to shoot at old tanks, also there are tracer rounds like every 3^rd bullet.  A tracer round is a bullet when fired will start to burn and you will see it fly through the sky, it’s really cool it’s like a bright red color.  After that we shot the rocket launcher and that was okay, the explosion when you fire it is louder than the one when the rocket hits whatever you wanted it to hit. 

Today we did the 10 mile road march, it’s a 80 lbs ruck sack FLC (for amo and water), helmet, and weapon, and the bullet proof vest.  All together it’s about 160 lbs so not too bad.  I did it in about 2-1/2 hours.  I now know where I’m going but not sure how long I will have till I have to report to base.  I’m going to Fort Louis Washington, so I’ll be stationed at almost the same place as Neal.  It’s pretty much in Seattle.  Well that’s about all I got to say, not much else is happening.  Well I can’t wait to see you guys.  I miss you all and love all of you.