1st. Lt. Stephanie Melton - October 2, 2009
1LT Stephanie Melton
551 MP CO
FOB Prosperity
APO AE 09348
October 2, 2009
I just finished putting up a bunch of new pictures on Facebook for you to see. And I saw this morning that you have already made comments ;) Some of them I've had for a while it just takes so long to download anything on this internet that it takes forever to get anything up on Facebook. Alot of my IAs have changed out so I actually don't have any of the one's in the pictures anymore. It's a shame cause they were nice guys, easy to work with.
I'm still trying to get Meisra, the six year old girl, to sit still for a picture. She's always bouncing around I can't get one that doesn't blur!
The one's of the ballroom are from the roof. On top of the palace is a dome that was a grand ballroom. The dome opens up onto the balcony that covers the entire roof. It's all carpeted in that green felt. The ballroom itself had floor to ceiling windows and fancy chairs and tables. The ceiling still has bits of the wood carvings and mirror inlays in it but most of it was knocked out when the missles hit.　The chandelier that hung in the ballroom is destroyed but you can see the frame still laying on the ground, there's a picture of it on Facebook.
I was going through the rubble yesterday and found a bunch of the chairs and some small tables as well as what was left of the curtains. the room is covered with dust and broken concrete. Beneath the pile soft rubble you can see glimpses of the marble floor. It doesn't look to have suffered any real damage. The stone pattern is complex and swirling, something you doodle over and over again when you're bored in class.
They only cleaned up a path through the remains to get through the room because we have our radio antennas on the roof and they need put up and maintenance. That's really the only reason anyone goes up there. We went up there to do some promotions. Three of my guys and one from headquarters promoted to Private First Class yesterday. They were pretty excited to see the roof.
The picture is of Stephanie on the roof of the palace.
Stephen Melton
