Pat & Sharon O'Toole

Kevin with a chick
Baghdad, Iraq

Faithful blog readers know that our nephew Kevin Lidstone is serving in the Army, 82nd Airborne, in Iraq. Kevin earned a Master's degree in International Relations a couple of years ago. He came to the ranch and worked for us for about nine months, while he pondered what to do with the rest of his life. Kevin is a thoughtful hard-working young man, and he decided to join the military. His grandfather, Ken, served in World War II, and his Dad, Herrick, was a Vietnam era Navy vet. Kevin shipped out to Baghdad in late December and has been serving in the Baghdad area. He came home on leave for two weeks in early July and spent a lot of time on his family's place in the Little Snake River Valley. He was here for the local rodeo and got to spent time with his friends and family. We love him very much and are proud of him. Here is an e-mail we received recently which I wish to share.

Subject: Back in the Devil's Cauldron
Kevin Lidstone

Well, after two glorious weeks back in Colorado I was lucky enough to get a chance to return to Baghdad! I got back to my platoon about a week and a half ago and everyone was still there (less those who were on leave), though they moved without telling me. We moved from a large COP to a smaller COP (Combat Outpost). We are now closer to Sadr City, though that doesn't make too much of a difference. Luckily, the A/C works most of the time, though our generators have been overheating. Try as they might the bad guys keep trying to hit the generators with mortars but have missed thus far...I think they are really trying to piss us off. We get hot food about every other day and were supposed to be getting weights to use in our downtime. Other than that things are pretty much the same, though LOST has been replaced with the TV show Heroes...alas we finished the seasons the other day so we're moving onto 24 or Deadwood, we'll be counting the ballots soon. It's gotten a lot hotter since I went on leave--our average temperature is around 120 or so and it gets hotter than that in the trucks. Luckily most of the a/c's in the trucks work wonderfully though unfortunately mine is not one of them. It blows cold air albeit at a trickle and what air does come out is blocked by my body armour. Every once in a while I'll contort my left arm so that I can get a cool stream of air up my sleeve but I can only hold that position for a little bit because it's quite unnatural. I'm still loving my job, though I can't wait to get home and not worry about snipers and IEDs. Keep your fingers crossed because we've been lucky thus far and only had one casualty (knock on wood). For those of you I didn't get to see I apologize, two weeks flew by but the fishing was great, my Mom cooked amazing food, and the beer was plentiful. Well, take care one and all and we'll see you soon.
Peace,
Kevin

Three guys at the Dixon rodeo
Eamon, Seamus and Kevin
Dixon arena, Wyoming
photo by Pat O'Toole

Kevin, Seamus and Meghan
Dixon arena, Wyoming
photo by Pat O'Toole