Letter From Joel Sloss

On that ill-fated September 11th, I was a fifth grade school teacher and soon to be named assistant principal of one of our local schools. My wife called me and said that I should turn on the news and see the crushing blow that the United States had received by a bunch of terrorists. I had since retired from the Army in 2000 and simply thought it was a tragic day in American history.

Then the email came and asked that I get ready to go and fight the Global War on Terrorism. It shocked a lot of my students and friends because the effects of one September 11th now reached down and touched the people of my school in a way that none of us would have imagined.

I was returned to active duty in the Army and the military decided that I should be in charge of security for the first National Elections and the first Parliamentarian elections in the country of Afghanistan.

They then decided that I, as an educator, would make a good embedded trainer responsible for training an Afghan National Army and I am now in Kandahar Afghanistan. It has its rewards and it dangers. I feel like we are doing what is right and necessary to give them a country that is safe from terrorism. Someday my hope is that they will have a country that can stand alone and many of our soldiers can go home and know that this is a safer place for people to live and prosper. Two years later I am still here and hopefully I will come home soon, not a hero but someone who did what their country needed them to do.

The country of Afghanistan is in desperate need of assistance in the areas of quality of life that are those items which we, as the Coalition, consider basic needs, i.e., education, water, medical and general quality of life services.

Luckily, I have now been put into a position that I can build schools, provide electricity to villages and give school supplies and gifts that have been sent to me by organizations like the Operation Dreamseed. Without their help and hope there would not be much of a difference made here.

In spite of all the chaos and pain created by September 11th, the American people are still the most giving and caring people. I thank all of you for caring and I hope that you will work hard to continue to make our country an even better and safer place to live.

Hopefully, I will come home soon and go back to my family and the children in my school. Please just know that we are sacrificing and caring a lot to try and make the world a better place.

Lastly, my Task Force is Task Force Phoenix and we are trying our best to take a country of Afghanistan and make it grow and prosper as it rises out of the dust and ashes of September 11th.

Thanks for caring about us on this day and please try to learn from our mistakes and move forward and make the world a better and safer place to live.

Joel P. Sloss
LTC, FA

9/10/06

Would you like to send supplies to Joel Sloss? His address and what to send are available in How it Works.