11 April 2009

22:09 hours local

Re: P.O. Ryan Hill, U.S.N.

To all personnel,

Happy Easter to you and your families.

Attached is a dispatch from our Captain Gayle Hill, M.C., Flight Nurse at the 918^th Bomb Group (H).

Her son Ryan is serving aboard the U.S.S. Boxer in the Indian Ocean against the African pirates.

Please send Captain Hill and her son Ryan your best wishes for a happy Easter and a safe voyage during this time of hostilities.

Good luck to Ryan.

God bless the U.S.S. Boxer and all who serve aboard her.

Harry B. Higginbottem

Harry B. Higginbottem

Colonel, Air Corps (ren.)

Deputy Commanding Officer

120^th Provisional Combat Bombardment Wing

APO 856

Archbury, England

From: Gayle Hill <opalgayle@...>
Subject: Message from Ryan
To: "Cindy W" <ninpoo74@...>, "Dennis Nagy" <ngydns@...>, "Gail Drillinger" <gdrillin@...>, "George Housley" <bopbop.george@...>, "Harlan Hock" <bsargs@...>, "Jan Leimbach" <dmltruk@...>, "Julie Manuel" <jeshortly@...>, "Karen Cooper" <krnhcpr@...>, "Kris Nagy" <kris@...>, "Marcia Paetau" <illinicu@...>, "NagyHome" <nagyhome@...>, "Sara McPherson" <wattyram82@...>, "Vicki Housley" <vhousley@...>, "Winki Grover" <winki21217@...>, "Bruce Poehlman" <bipoehlman@...>, "Frank Nagy" <arfnuj@...>, "Sandy Pratt" <Sandra_Pratt@...>, "Mary Lou Derhake" <mlderhake@...>, "Jerre Honke" <honke@...>, "Reid Marie Stroud" <ReidyLMA@...>, "Mia Solomon" <mia@...>, "Kim Pope" <kimpopealton@...>
Date: Thursday, April 9, 2009, 9:30 AM

I thought I'd share this message and pictures from Ryan.  If you'd like to send him a short "Hello", here's his address.  I believe he is somewhere in the Indian Ocean, Gulf of Aden or maybe the Red Sea.  According to the USS Boxer website, they have been deterring piracy in these waters.  The USS Boxer is an amphibious assault ship.  God bless our men and women that are protecting our country!
hillrp@... 

 

Hey all,

The other day we had our 45th consecutive day at sea. After 45 days the ship is authorized to have a beer day. We had a bbq up on the flight deck. There were bean bag games (kinda like washers), people were throwing footballs around, and everyone was allowed to have 2 beers. All I got out of it was a headache. It was hot outside probably high 90's. So I spent about an hour at the festivities and then went back to my shop to watch movies and play video games.

Coming up soon we will be going to port. I cannot say exactly where or when for reasons you all have heard plenty of times before. Be expecting a phone call sometime next couple weeks. If you see a funny looking number its probably me =) I will try to call on the weekend but I cannot promise anything, I get off when they tell me I can.

Thanks for the package g&g. All those treats are nice to have I don’t get many here. The beef jerky didn’t last past the first day sadly ;P  Been working the sudoku puzzles when I have some free time.

Mom I havent received your package yet.. We are supposed to be getting more mail beginning of next week. I still appreciate it very much.

I cant wait to get home.

 

Pictures attached:
<<1.jpg>> <<2.jpg>> <<3.jpg>> <<4.jpg>> <<5.jpg>> <<6.jpg>>
1 Me in Hawaii outside the Hale-Koa millitary resort
2 Hale-Koa resort
3 Coconut I opened at a Japanese stronghold base from WWII in Guam
4 Looking down over a bay from a US stronghold base in Guam, Magellian landed in the cove off to the right
5 Riding an elephant named Bae in Thailand
6 A dog named Lucky that followed us around for most of the day in Thailand. You can see the mopeds that everyone drove

Hope to hear from you all again soon.

Love,
Ryan