It is far too momentous an occasion for you not to share in the lives of YOUR Marine at this point in time and space. What I can tell you is we are in our election set. We have prepared for every possible, conceivable act our cowardly and evil enemy might throw at us, and the Iraqi people. There is electricity in the air! This must have been how the Minutemen felt.

Below is a letter that our S-4 Maj Durham sent out tonight and was kind enough to cc; me on. I think its eloquence speaks for itself. It is followed by the message I sent to all hands of 2/24, to all the Mad Ghosts as we are on the dawn of a new day; as the beginning of the end of terror is announced. A long, hard slog remains, but after tomorrow, there shall be no doubt as to its outcome.

May God Bless and Keep the Families of 2/24, as His Providence begins anew
tomorrow!

All,

I'm sure a few of you disagree with some if not all of what I have written you over the course of the last 6 months or so, and have been very kind and polite not to respond with your thoughts and opinions - I do appreciate your restraint - and I do respect your opinion. You have probably shown more wisdom and maturity than I have been able to muster when my passions flair - I'm trying to be a reserved man, but being in a war zone gets you going some times. All that to say thank you for letting me vent from time-to-time. Having said that, I'm going to violate my own admonition and ask you to think about something on the eve of the Iraqi election.

Lieutenant Colonel Smith asked a question tonight and I think it is worth repeating, passing the question on for you to answer. How many of us would vote if there was a good probability that the polling places would be mortared? How many of us would vote if there were gangs of thugs threatening to kill you in the street - today, next week, a month from now - if we are seen voting?

Tomorrow - which will be tonight for you at around 10 pm US Central time - the Iraqis will begin to leave their houses on foot to vote. They have been told by our enemy that they will die if they do. I don't know if tomorrow will witness a "large" voter turn out - or a "small" voter turn out – I don't know if Kofi Anan of the United Nations will be sufficiently impressed by the turn out to bless the elections he and our "friends" have done nothing to facilitate - or not.

Tomorrow will witness the birth of a new freedom in Iraq - you will see newly free Iraqis exercising their "inalienable right" to self govern.

There are many things I don't like about Iraq and many things I do not like or respect about Arab culture - I could fill a book. But I know courage when I see it, and I can only guess if I would have the same courage for me to risk my life to exercise my responsibility as a citizen.

From my previous e-mail you know I've been reading about our nation's birth (Christmas presents from my Dad,) I have often wondered if I would have had the courage to risk everything for a principle - or an idea. Tie that in with our current situation. I hear the arguments against what we are doing in Iraq - those types of arguments generally come from the same quarter they always have - time immemorial. It's so easy to be a critic - a cynic – a spectator - a drop out - and so difficult to stand up and do the hard thing - to work - to fight - to strive - to get knocked down and get back up - over and over - and make no mistake - this is hard - this is tough stuff - not so much for me, but for our young Marines. They all have the courage to risk everything - and some have given everything - "the last full measure," for a principle - for each other - for our nation.

I've copied and pasted below a list of 56 men - the Gallant 56 who signed the Declaration of Independence - the Band of Brothers and what happened to them. Those who signed below this statement: "We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor." Read this list and again ask yourself the question - "would I vote if I thought I might be killed for doing so." Tomorrow - as you witness the Iraqis shake off the chains that have for all time so tightly bound this region of the world - have some respect for their courage.

The last thing I would ask of you is this, tomorrow the polling places will be visibly guarded by US Marines and Soldiers who will have set up a small cordon of protection around the polling sites. The next time you go to the polls at home - please realize that they also are guarded by US Marines, Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Coast Guard and Policemen --who have a very large protective cordon around you. Understand the enemy that seeks to kill and destroy the new democracy here in Iraq has sworn before god to destroy you.

I wish you could see them - I really do - they want so much for you to see them - to understand them - so many times I've seen them around you at home - at Family Day - or some parade - like my own boys wanting my approval so badly - they so desperately want you to be proud of them - and I know that you are. If you could only see them now - so brave - so confident – such MEN!

Keep our Marines in your prayers - Stay the Course.
David

• Carter Braxton of Virginia, wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas. To pay his debts he lost his home and all his properties and died in rags.
• Thomas Lynch Jr. who signed that pledge was the third-generation rice-grower. Aristocrat. Large plantation owner. After he signed his health failed. With his wife he set out for France, was never heard from again.
• Thoraas McXean of Delaware was so harassed by the enemy that he was forced to move his family five times in five months. He served in Congress without pay, his family in poverty and in hiding.
• Vandals looted the properties of Ellery and Clymer and Hall and Gwinnett and Walton and Heyward and Rutledge and Middleton.
• And Thomas Nelson, Jr. of Virginia, raised two million dollars on his own signature to provision our allies...the French fleet. After the war, he personally paid back the loans, wiped out his entire estate. He was never reimbursed by his government.
• In the final battle for Yorktown he, Nelson, urged General Washington to fire on his...Nelson's own home, which was occupied by Cornwallis. It was destroyed. He died bankrupt and was buried in an unmarked grave. Thomas Nelson, Jr. had pledged his "life, fortune, and his sacred honor."
• The Hessians seised the home of Francis Hopkinson of New Jersey.
• Francis Lewis had his home and everything destroyed, his wife imprisoned. She died within a few months.
• Richard Stockton, who signed that Declaration, was captured and mistreated and his health broken to the extent that he died at fifty-one. His estate was pillaged.
• Thomas Heyward, Jr. was captured when Charleston fell.
• John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside while she was dying. Their thirteen children fled in all directions for their lives. His fields and gristmill were laid waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves and returned home after the war to find his wife dead, his children gone, his properties gone; he died a few weeks later of exhaustion and a broken heart.
• Lewis Morris saw his land destroyed, his family scattered. Phillip Livingston died within a few months from the hardships of the war.
• John Hancock history remembers best due to a quirk of fate rather than anything he stood for. That great sweeping signature attesting his vanity towers over the others. One of the wealthiest men in New England, he stood outside Boston one terrible night of the war and said, "Burn Boston, though it makes John Hancock a beggar if the public good requires it." He, too, lived up to the pledge.

Of the fifty-six, few were long to survive.

• Five were captured by the British and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes. ..from Rhode Island to Charleston...sacked, looted, occupied by the enemy, or burned. Two lost their sons in the army. One had two sons captured.
• Nine of the fifty-six died from the war, from its hardships or from its more merciful bullets.