Many of our members have recieved letters from Baghdah thanking CASI for providing the CCO that occurred last Sunday.

This email was received by Kathryn Guzman from Staff Sergeant Julio Aleman, a member of the Texas National Guard in Baghdad. He is the Platoon Sergeant of "Team Rhino" and enclosed a picture of his chili cooking team.

The cookoff was great it gave the troops a chance to get their mind off the war zone and enjoy themself with friend and members of othrer arm forces they trully apreciate that some people take their time to help make sure they have a little piece of home out here ,we did not place on the competition but did had a blast and got to meet a bunch of great people and reallized that there is a whole lot of people at home that think about us and really care about the troops thanks again, here is a pict \. of Team Rhino.Hope you like it and share with friends.

Connie Collier received this email from the person that used her recipe.

Ma’am,

My hopes were fulfilled on Sunday as I placed second with my chili recipe. I was very excited about that and would have been happy just placing in the top ten. This has given me some encouragement to continue honing my skills to see if I can do this again sometime. Thanks again for your donations and good wishes, it all paid off!! I’ll try to get a photo with my plaque and send it along sometime in the future. Take care.

VR,
SFC Jason Pollack

Another letter:

Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen,

I wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude for your generosity of the items used and prizes awarded during our recent “Last Battle Over Baghdad” Chili Cook Off. It was already a beautiful day being Easter Sunday, but not only that the weather was wonderful to boot. I would have never imagined participating in a Chili Cook Off in April, let alone in Iraq. I was a member of the Emergency Management Team that placed 3rd in the Chili Cook Off and 1st place in Best of Show.

I hope each of you understand how much this really means to the morale of the deployed personnel on this installation (Air Force, Army, and Civilians) just to be able to relax for a few hours make a big difference. Captain Ponce-Deleon the event coordinator is preparing a Newsletter about the event that will be available soon.

Thank you all for your continued support of our United States Military across the world and back home.

Very Respectfully,
SMSgt Elliot W. Adkisson Jr.
447 AEG/ECES/CEX
Emergency Mgt/CBRN Flight Chief
Baghdad, Iraq

From Mama Sue Caffey:
We,too,received this email from SMSgt Adkission this AM. Never mind the 3rd place Chili, how about that lst Place SHOW.......WOW...

Tuesday in the mail, John and I received a letter from SFC Pollock thanking us for the participation. I assumed he had received one of our pots.

I told Ken Rodd that I cried twice that day, once when I heard about Hot Rodd, then when I read the letter from Baghdad.

All I can say is that it is pretty damn awesome what was pulled off to make that cook off happen. Thank all of you for what you did to make it go.

GOD BLESS US ALL AND GOD BLESS AMERICA.

Here's hoping everybody has a great weekend and that many of you get chili points!