USA 2017 Wife of soldier in Iraq.

Dear President Bush,

My name is Jennifer Cruise and I am the wife of Robert F. Cruise Jr. from Abingdon, Virginia. I don't know if you will ever get this e-mail but I felt like I must write to at least ease my mind.

I am 28 years old and so is my husband. We have been married for 8 years and we have a four year old son named Jackson. My husband signed up with the Army Reserves when he was 18 years old. We had just started dating and I never dreamed that he would really go to war. My husband is a deputy with the Washington County Sheriff Department. He has a college degree and is a very intelligent man. He got deployed with the 413th Chemical Company out of Florence, SC on March 3, 2003. He has not returned home since except for the 15 day R&R that he received in January of this year. He was supposed to fly home this past weekend April 18, 2004 but on Thursday of last week, 3 days before he was supposed to return his stay was extended. My concern is this - my husband is a reservist - yes, I understand the war but I don't think it is right to keep reservist away from their families for so long. That is what active duty people are for. My husband is now back in Iraq and their mission is this - to ride with civilians who are transporting thing back and forth across the country. He is in a Chemical company - not a security company. Also, this company that they are riding for is supposedly called KBR - owned by the Vice President.

I don't know all the facts because they are not allowed to talk about it alot over the phone but it really concerns me that they are involved in a mission that they are not trained to do. I need my husband home - and my son really needs him. He is growing up fast and has only seen his daddy for 15 days in 14 going on 15 months. This is not right. I know that you have daughters - put yourselve in our shoes. Our husbands need to be home. They have been gone long enough and I feel like they have served their country well. They have sacrificed themselves, their families and their jobs here in the USA to fight for our country. Not only are they physically exhausted but they are mentally exhausted and they are not fit to be over there fighting for their lives and trying to protect civilians from danger. I know that we needed to go to war but we have been here living in good conditions - they have been over there for over a year sleeping in tents in hot and cold weather, eating horrible food and most of the time not even able to take a hot shower.

I will support my husband and this war as long as he is over there but I really think it is time for them to come home. Send more soldiers over to replace them. We can't expect soldiers to function the way they should in a war when they are physically and mentally exhausted. I need my husband home with me to raise my son and to help with our life here at home. We are young and I don't want to spend the rest of my life without him. I love him more than anything and I am really concerned. Please don't think that this letter is meant to be hateful in anyway. I respect you as the President of the United States and I am proud to be a citizen. I am just writing to express my opinion and to get my point of view across as a wife of a young soldier. With him gone I am a single mother trying to do everything on my own - and it is very hard. Please just consider what I have said.

Sincerely, Jennifer M. Cruise, USA.