'I Thought I Might Lose It'

The Iraqi Army, Iraqi Police and the U.S. are all working fairly well together, and we go to meetings where we coordinate on missions and bad guys we're planning to capture. At first the infantry guys didn't want to even talk to us when they came out to our police stations, but I've been working very hard to earn the respect of the two Captains that "own" the land my police stations are on. They are both starting to share info with me and we even went out and did a joint raid with them the other night....

Love, Ashley

Huff, 23, of Belle Mead, N.J., died on Sept. 24, 2006, in Mosul when a suicide car bomber drove into her mounted patrol.

Army Sgt. Joseph W. Perry

Feb 4, 2006

Hi, Babe,

Things are going good here working with the Iraqi Police. It's really different than the last deployment. I didn't like it at first because it's not a combat mission but the more I work with and train with them, I get to see their progress and really get a good feeling that they want to help their country. There are some that seem a little shady, but I am getting good at learning which ones I can trust and the ones I can't.

We had a pet dog at the station that we could feed and play with every day ... But it got hit by a car and he came back to the station bleeding so I put him down. It was kinda hard to do. We named him and he was very loyal.

Love,