Like thousands of other soldiers participating in Operation Iraqi Freedom, Lt. Col. Woody Radcliffe, who commands the 3rd ID Detachment, kept in touch with friends and family via e-mail. Here are exerts from his electronic letters home, along with photos taken by Radcliffe and other members of the detachment.

March 27 — We are deep into the country by now and are VERY close to the front. Closer than I would have ever imagined. All is well, but I haven’t slept in the horizontal position for about one week. Sleep comes in spurts and in the front of a Hummer or in a chair… We don’t really know what is going on with the big fight, but we know all about our own…Soon it will be over, but there is a good fight ahead…Oh, we just had the most amazing two-day sand storm that can possibly be described. The sun was blotted out during midday as if it were night. Then it rained mud, REALLY… Please take care of yourselves and of our families; please continue to pray for all of us and for a speedy return of our unit and for all of the 3rd Infantry Division.

April 7 — We have been quite busy and have moved further forward again. Our unit is now located about 6 miles from Baghdad; I don’t anticipate that we will move any further north than we are now for quite a while…The Division has achieved all of its objectives related to ground operations, but we still continue to conduct lethal operations…All unit personnel are doing great, but we all miss our families more than ever. We don’t know when we will be home, but a very rough guesstimate is that we will be here two - three months after the point that the Iraqi regime collapses. We are all amazed that this event has not occurred yet… We are actually working out of a building now. We liberated a large sprawling desert industrial facility and now have walls and electricity for our use…We are all safe and healthy and are beginning to work on schedules that will allow us to have a little bit of down time. We are on the downhill slide of the warfighting stuff, but now have a long road home. We all miss our families and friends.

April 11 — All is still well for the ROC here in Iraq. We are able to actually get some down time now that the fight begins to slow down. It is not over by any means, but we are able to begin to focus on longer-term issues instead of the immediacy of the hard and sustained fight… SPC Baker turned 21 years old today; no cake or first legal beer/drink, but lots of pats on the back and congratulations. Mail began arriving again just yesterday; this was the first time we received any large amount of mail since the war began…We are located very close to Baghdad, though we have not crossed the Euphrates as a unit. We make arrangements for unit personnel to cross the river to coordinate with some of the forward units each day, but our Command Post is not scheduled to move in the near future. We move so far so fast that we now have an opportunity to slow down a bit. We are occupying an Iraqi industrial facility at this time. We are able to work and sleep inside of buildings (tents inside of warehouses)…There is no way to make up for the lost time since our deployment, but I know for a fact that all of us have great respect for the sacrifices that all of you are making. In reality, you guys have the hardest job of all; you take care of our most prized possessions in the world.

April 18 — Went into downtown Baghdad; what a slum. The nonparty Iraqis that have the best life are the small farmers who live and farm close to the rivers. The city dwellers live in absolute squalor and filth.
Hope all is well back home; we’re looking forward to seeing grass and trees and to eat hot food.

April 27 — Just a note to say that I am fine...The war is rough, but nothing I can’t handle.