Chris Hurst, a Black Diamond police commander, has a picture from that day showing his son wearing a bushman's hat, a day pack and sweatshirt with the word ARMY emblazoned on it and holding a walking stick.

After five months of intensive training, he said, his son was in shape. The 5,000 foot climb was not a problem.

That seems like a lifetime ago, Hurst admitted during an interview last week.

Looking at the pictures his son has sent home from Iraq where he has spent nearly seven months in combat, he sees a different face.

"It's like watching Oliver Stone's `Platoon,' seeing the change take place," he said.

On March 26, Andy Hurst jumped into the night over northern Iraq in what was billed as the first airborne night combat assault since World War II and only the 26th combat jump in U.S. history.

The photographs he has sent back to his dad and mom, April, show a combat veteran though still a teenager. He turned 19 last month.

Hurst agreed to share the few letters his son has been able to write home. A few of them are handwritten on cheap-looking Republican Guard stationary he found that includes a picture of Saddam Hussein.

The letters home are important to family, Hurst said. While no news may be good news for some, "the letters bring some sense of calm. They give you a connection to what is happening."

When you don't hear anything for a long period of time, like the nearly 2½ months his unit was south of their normal operation area, he said you get worried. News of fatalities conjures up visions of an Army car waiting in the driveway to give you bad news.

Letters relieve that fear for a while, he said.

"I'm very proud of my son," Hurst said. "I'm very proud he is serving in the Army. I'm very proud of the Army and its professionalism."

He is not that happy about the Army's mission in Iraq. He said many parents of 173rd Airborne soldiers he has talked have doubts about the after-the-war plan that doesn't seem to exist.

"I don't think there is a soldier in Iraq who doesn't know we are in deep trouble and things are not going well,"he said.

The Hursts are members of an informal group of family members of 173rd Airborne soldiers who keep in contact via e-mail. They trade e-mails and pass on information they get from their sons via letters, e-mails and telephone calls.

They include the sister of one soldier in Andy's company who became the first solider from Washington state killed in Iraq. PFC Justin Hebrew was killed in an ambush. His sister lives in Granite Falls.

"I just want you to be all OK," she posted via e-mail after learning of her brother's death. "I'm a bit shook up now and I don't want anything to happen to anyone else. Please be safe and may Justin be watching over your soldiers through this sad time."

Andy Hurst's letters

April 2, 2003

"As you probably know, I jumped into Iraq on March 26 with over 1,000 other paratroopers. The jump was nice but I thought I killed myself when I hit the ground. It wasn't a nice landing. When I finally came to 'bout 3 minutes later, I found myself in a swamp. ... I thought Iraq was supposed to be all desert. ... to make matter worse the Air Force dropped us in the wrong place."

April 25:

"We have moved and seen a lot of different things in the last few weeks. After leaving Bashur, we went to Irbil for a few hours; picked up some ... Bradley Fighting Vehicles and headed south again. ... We stayed at an Iraqi air base outside Kirkuk the morning after the city fell to the Kurds. Then we moved to a hospital providing security for those inside.

"It is sickening to see so many little kids that end up on the receiving end of these conflicts. From the hospital we moved out of the city to set up a traffic control point where we were taking all weapons going into or out of Kirkuk. After three or four days we had a tent filled with AK47s, AK74s, assorted machine guns, anti-aircraft and, believe it or not, more than an entire battery of artillery. Also at the same place some(one) took some pot shots at my platoon sergeant and platoon leader from a car as it drove by. Somehow they got away from there.

"From there, we went to a `safe house.' It was the Baath (Party) HQ, but now it's ours. We stayed there for a few days doing patrols in the city at night. The building was also where Saddam kept and interrogated prisoners. My squad stayed in the infamous torture chamber; the rest of the place was pretty nice, though.

"All we are doing is trying to keep the looting to a minimum and try to keep the Kurds from killing the Iraqi citizens. ... not much going on here at present time, save the local firefighting and explosions throughout the city ... most of the time we are bored out of our minds. There is only so much eating and sleeping you can do when not pulling gate guard."

May 22

"We were running patrols all of the time, mostly just so the people would know that we are here. When we are around the locals keep the fighting to a minimum. They don't like it when we have to intervene, mostly because we don't like running across town in full battle rattle to settle a dispute and if we can't find who was doing the shooting we just search everyone's houses within several blocks.

"I can't imagine that the Iraqis like our `dynamic entries' very well. It's got to be sort of a pain to keep fixing doors frames, getting new locks, and replacing the chains on their gates, not to mention the fact that we are heavily armed and armored guys busting into your house looking for weapons. We have found lots of weapons.

"A few days ago we went out on a three day mission to another city about 60 clicks (kilometers) away from Kirkuk. We were looking for several `high value targets.' ... When we got close to the city all we could see was tracers flying all over the place. Then over the radio we heard that a tanker from the 1st Armored Division got hit. It turns out he took four rounds to his chest. 3 were stopped by his body armor plates but the fourth went through one of the parts without the plates and went through his side. He's fine though. Our body armor without plates will stop 9 mm submachine gun fire and fragmentation grenades but with the plates in it will stop (the enemy's) 7.62 machine gun fire. It will knock you over, knock the wind out of you but it protects your vital organs. So when you get your breath back, you can jump up and unleash the "fury from the sky" (their unit's `Greeting of the Day') on the offender.

No one from Alpha Company got shot at that night and fortunately none of our boys were injured. We did capture the Jack of Diamonds though in the military card deck. Not bad for one night.

"I pray you are all well and doing good and not worrying too much about us. We are one of the most high-speed and well-trained bunch of guys in the Army. We know what we are doing and are careful doing it. Even the 4th Infantry Division who is better equipped and much larger than us is envious of us because of who and what we are ... no other unit in Iraq has cleared as many towns and covered as much ground as us, not to mention the jump into a combat zone hundreds of miles behind enemy lines with no resupply or reinforcements for a couple of weeks. ... a little scary but at the same time gives you a good feeling you have something in your Army career, let alone made your place in history.

"I can't wait to get out of this godforsaken country and it is so hot here. It's been in the hundreds for several weeks now and at night it drops down to mid-80s to the 90s."

July 28

I know you have not heard from me in a while, but don't worry. I'm okay. We have been very busy. ...

"... everything was quiet till we had a couple grenades and a pipe bomb thrown at our present compound. Last night, though, our platoon was ambushed at a TCP. ... we only had two causalities though ... both were medivaced by Black Hawks to either Kuwait or Germany. I don't know. ... Their 5 ton truck got hit with two or 3 RPGs. One truck was totaled; the other still driveable. ...

"Oh I've got even more good news. It looks like we may spend a year in this hell hole. Blech! so much for our original mission that was supposed to last 8-14 days. We were supposed to jump in to scare the ... Iraqis but four months later I'm still here. Why do we have to be so good. If we weren't so effective on our missions we would have been out of here long ago."

Aug 11

"Missions, missions, missions, oh yeah, and more missions. Mostly we are looking for the b---- that keep ambushing us. We have been ambushed three times in the last two weeks. So now we are going to basically hold the attackers' home town hostage until we get these pukes. ... in a few hours we are going to destroy a fortune in doors mostly, maybe some vehicles and a lot of furniture looking for weapons ... and to put the icing on the cake we are bringing the engineers and plenty of demo (demolitions) for `dynamic entry' to anything we can't kick in or bash down with our `hooligan tools.' Spirits are high right now. I just hope we get these guys."

Sept. 14 (E-mail)

"We've been very busy trying to get the guys that have been trying to do some not very nice things to our boys; killed 6 or 7 of them a couple days ago. They ambushed one of our convoys and blew up one of our fuel trucks. The guy in the truck survived the ordeal. They managed to jump out of the vehicle before the RPG (rocket propelled grenade) actually hit the truck. They got burned pretty bad though.

"Anyway it's 2 in the morning here and I have to get up in a few hours to get all my como (communications gear) cleaned up and ready for inspection."

With love always,

Andy