Staff Sgt. Jason Hughes, Squad Leader, 1st Platoon, Charlie Co., 1-17 Infantry, writes a letter home to his grandmother at the Baba Saheb district center in Kandahar. He often takes up to three days to write a letter, taking his time to figure out what he wants to say.

I'd suggest he could let her know that the unit has the finest coffee I've ever had in the military, made with a truly mind-boggling piece of equipment, too. Can you tell these guys are based near Seattle?