American Intelligence sources say Iraq has moved artillery and missiles to within range of US troops stationed near the Kuwaiti border. U.S. and British troops continue to take up forward positions in the Northern Desert, near the Iraqi boarder. You cannot possibly leave any of the base camps without getting the impression that we are getting closer and closer to war. US Marines from Brooklyn held a ceremony Friday, determined to remember three of their fallen comrades.

Seven thousand miles from the Brooklyn Bridge, to a patch of sand no larger than a New York City block. It is a place that has nothing in common with the place they call home. What they do have is each other, and on Friday the Sixth Communication Battalion gathered to remember three of their fellow soldiers who died on a different kind of battlefield: Lower Manhattan, on September 11, 2001. Sgt Major Michael Curtin, of the NYPD's Emergency Services Unit, Gunnery Sgt Matthew Garvey of the FDNY's Rescue 1 and Sgt Charlie Anaya, a probationary New York City firefighter. Staff Sgt. Pete Calderon, NYPD: "The second that we saw saw the towers fall, somehow, inside me, I knew that they were around there somewhere. It's unfinished business, and that's how we look at it over here." The hand-painted wooden memorials will be used to mark the sandy streets of their tent city. It will also be used to inspire younger Marines, like Lance Corporal Lentz Lefevre, of Dix Hills, Long Island. Lance Cpl. Lentz Lefevre, Dix Hills: "If need be, and we have to die for our country, then that's what we're going to do." There are other signs of home throughout the camp. Where else in the desert would you find a street called Flatbush Avenue. Lance Cpl. Justin Nimoli, Plainview: "Flatbush Avenue, that's a little bit of New York right here in Kuwait with us. Every time we pass it, we feel the slightest feeling that we are back at our reserve center, back at Flatbush Avenue, in Brooklyn." The soldiers of the Sixth Battalion are so homesick, that they reach out for their New York fix whereever they can find it. Lance Cpl. Christian Tomas, Bayside, Queens: "We miss everybody. We love them very much. Just keep the letters coming and we'll be home soon." NJ Burkett, Eyewitness News: "You think so?" Lance Cpl. Tomas: "Yeah. I hope so." Of course, it is impossible to say when the war will be over, because no one seems to know when it is going to start.

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