Letters arrive from the front line — on an MRE box
Published 5:58 am Thursday, February 28, 2008
This is the second story in a series about local resident and US Marine Scott Hagen, who is currently serving in the Middle East.
In only three days, the Hagen family got what they had been waiting for since January.
On May 3, they received two letters from their son, U.S. Marine Scott Hagen, who is currently serving in the Middle East. On May 5, they received an early-morning call from him. It was the first time they had heard from Scott since he left to fight the war in Iraq almost five months ago.
“When I head his voice, all the questions I had planned to ask him went right out the window,” Scott’s mom, Kathy Hagen, said. “I just wanted to hear his voice and hear him tell me he is OK.”
The letters Kathy Hagen, a teacher at Woodside Elementary in the Everett School District, received from Scott, were almost thrown in the garbage can.
“When I opened the mailbox, I saw these two pieces of cardboard and thought, ‘what did the mailman do, and why is this trash in here,” Hagen said.
Luckily, before Hagen threw the “trash” away, she noticed the letters “MRE” on them, and took a closer look.
“Scott had written the letters on the back of MRE (Meals Ready to Eat) boxes, probably to see if he could really send this kind of a thing overseas,” Hagen said.
The letter to the fourth graders was a thank-you from Scott and the other Marines in the third battalion fourth regimen. The students sent gifts, cookies and letters to the troops several months ago.
“Letters make us feel like part of us is home. We miss our families, and all of the choices we used to make. We sleep in the holes we dig and eat MRE’s (Meals Ready to Eat) three times a day,” Scott wrote.
“We are stinky because we haven’t showered in almost a month. Living without a home to go to helps us realize how lucky we are to have one.”
The letter to his parents, Hagen said, offered a little of the comfort she had been needing.
“Rumor has it that my unit is one of the first to go,” Scott wrote. “… I miss and love you. I dream of the future. I’ll see you soon.”
