Cpl. Brett G. Coughlin arrived with Delta Company in Saudi Arabia at the port of Al Jubail on September 13, 1990. For the next three months the company trained in the northern desert of Saudi Arabia. By Christmas, its headquarters were near the Al-Wafra oil fields of southern Kuwait. Coughlin wrote this Christmas letter to his girlfriend, Catherine, whom he later married.

A full transcript is available.

Transcript

Dec. 26

Dear Kit,

Happy New Year! I opened your presents on Christmas morning and they were great especially the Ray Ban’s They are great & even though there was a Toz (sandstorm) blowing all day, I wore them anyway. I really miss you and wish I was there to hold you.

These really obnoxious camels showed up yesterday and tried to make off with our Christmas tree – swear to God. We had a real tree about 1 ½ ft. tall that another of my mates parents sent and its gone. These camels came into our net yesterday, and this had never happened to us before, and started eating socks and cardboard and all sorts of shit. So anyway this one real balsy one steps up and chomps onto our Christmas tree. Candy canes and all, and Proceeds to drag it away, now we are Pissed off right? So we chase this dirty Camel out of the net and he doesn’t drop it, he’s really set on making our tree breakfast, so we start growling at him, and he drops it, then another guy gets some popcorn and leads all 9 of them to the next tank down (we were pissed at the guys on that tank anyway and anything to keep these hellbound camels away) Not your run of the mill Christmas mourning! Hope yours was less eventful. I took pictures so maybe those will convince you. [struck: Anyway I can’t wait to see you [illegible]]

I love you
Brett