Dear Families and Friends of the 24th MEU,

The eyes of the world are now on Fallujah, where Iraqi and U.S. forces are dropping the hammer on terrorists. Less visibly but just as relentlessly, the 24th MEU and its Iraqi allies are pressing the attack south of Baghdad.

In three months of operations, we've rounded up roughly 600 insurgents and seized hundreds of weapons and ammunition stockpiles. More important perhaps than the numbers is our demonstration - to those we're here to hunt and those we're here to help - of unwavering resolve to see our mission through.

Even as we maintain the offensive, we pause this month to celebrate the birth of the Marine Corps, to honor our nation's veterans, and to give thanks for our many blessings.

Foremost among these are your love and support, which continue to strengthen us. High atop the list, too, is the land of the pilgrims' pride, our magnificent nation.

If service in Iraq, as in most of the world's hotspots, reveals anything to us, it is how fortunate we Americans are. We consider seven months here a hardship tour. For the people who call this beautiful but tortured country home, theirs has been a hardship life. Millions of long-suffering Iraqis have known little but deprivation and despair, the byproducts of three decades of tyranny. My prayers go out to those Marines and their families whose sacrifices have won for the Iraqi people unprecedented freedom and the prospect of security that will permit them to pursue happiness in peace.

This month we set aside a special day to express gratitude. There's nothing we're more thankful for than to have you waiting for us. I know the months drag by, and it seems we'll never get there. But of course it will pass, and we'll soon be home.

Some among us have less to be thankful for than others. The people of Iraq want peace and prosperity, just as we enjoy in the United States. Our contribution to that noble endeavor is enormous, and despite the difficulties, I can assure you this is no lost cause. The sacrifices we have made and the blood we have shed are not in vain. We're making a difference, and we see it on the faces of children in school yards across our area of operations. I thank all of you who sent so much to help us help them.

It is my wish that when you sit at the dinner table this Thanksgiving, you add a prayer for them. For long after we are gone, they will still be here, bravely building on what we have begun.

We miss you, and we love you all.

Semper Fidelis,
R.J. JOHNSON
Colonel, U.S. Marines