Is the Brett Hut US soldier in Iraq letter home to parents legit?

[_Wayne_]

I can't find a link to give some credibility to this letter from Brett Hunt, 2nd lieutenant to his parents. Is it legit?

Brett Hunt, a 2nd lieutenant with the Army's
11th Signal Brigade and a Globe native, sent this note
to his parents a week ago. His unit is north of
Baghdad.

Hey Mom and Dad,

Things are fine here. It is soooooooooooo hot
and nasty, but what are you going to do? It is just
getting worse every day. I think I may have lice or
fleas or something.

Our living conditions are just so difficult to
keep clean and maintain it all. I washed my one
blanket and my cot, but I do not have any hot water
(well the water is hot but you know what I mean, like
hot in a washing machine to kill the buggies in the
clothes stuff). It has not been bad today, but I wake
up with all of these tiny red bites. My hair is long
and does not itch, but I think something is still
going on. I am using all of your bug stuff, but I
think they are stronger than what we have in the
States. The mosquitoes laugh at me when I put OFF on.
You have to put on the straight DEET and hope you will
not have cancer in a year.

We have been hit 18 of the last 19 days. I feel
like I am at Da Nang or Phu Bai. It just sucks.
Luckily, "only" about 45 people have been hurt. Yeah,
a lot, but considering how many they lob in here, that
is not too bad. It is wearing on me along with the
constant oppressive heat, no sleep, no food (yeah,
they shut off our food resupply without any warning,
things are getting slim, we are fine but it is not a
good feeling to have so little spare food and water)
and spending every night and day now trying to dodge
mortars. More than half a month under siege and
luckily we are all still safe.

They have frozen all redeployments, so no one is
going anywhere anytime soon, and our Congress goes on
vacation July 25 so nothing is going to happen until
mid fall. Not what we all want to hear out here. We
are under siege out here, without supplies, without a
mission and we can only roll the dice so many times
and not get our (expletive) shot. More and more body
bags and amputees will be coming home.

Really, though, I am not in bad shape. I escape
to my job and my books and it keeps me sane enough to
get by. I will be safe and stay healthy here.

I love you guys.

[pnorman]

1. Here's what a Google-search came up with:

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0728militaryletter1.html
It's from the Arizona Republic, dated: Jul. 28, 2003 12:00 AM

I couldn't nail down any particular slant in a quick skim-through, but check out this Editorial Cartoon by their Pulitzer Prize winner: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/benson/

On edit: HEY!! ... Check out ALL those cartoons!! ... They're really GOOD!!

[MoonGod]

2. Dunno, but here's some links...

All of these links feature the same letter:

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/newsArticle.asp?id=925

http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=03/07/28/4147988

http://projects.is.asu.edu/pipermail/hpn/2003-July/007510.html

http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/073003C.shtml

http://www.notinourname.net/gi-special/65.htm

It looks like the original source was azcentral, but both links are now dead:

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0728militaryletter1.html

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0407war-front07.html

Here is another reference to Hunt at azcentral, though (towards the bottom of the page, under "I'm a little scared, but who isn't"):

http://www.azcentral.com/news/specials/iraq/retro-part2.html

on edit: For those who aren't aware, Globe is the name of a city in Arizona.

[IranianDemocrat]

3. He says they are dodging mortar fire!

Iraqis are still firing mortars at them?