ERIC: I’ve been thinking about you and hoping you’re on the mend. My tour of duty here in Qatar will be ending sometime this summer, at which time I’ll return to

Houston and hope to see you. My best wishes to you and to Gretchen till then, CHASE.

CHASE UNTERMEYER
US Ambassador to Qatar



May 1, 2007

CHASE UNTERMEYER
US Ambassador to Qatar

Dear Chase,

Thanks for your note of concern above. I guess you've heard the bad news that I have been diagnosed with ALS ( Lou Gehrig's disease). That being the case,

there's little prospect -- barring a medical breakthrough -- that I shall ever be "on the mend." Not to mend is not to end, though, and I am bearing up to this adversity

well, thanks to the loving care of my wife.

Though my body is weakening, my spirits are still high, especially as today is May Day, and I've had the dual pleasures of finding my most recent newspaper interview

on the cover of the Lone Star Iconoclast, and my most recent radio interview heading the home page of Cloak and Dagger radio. I think you'll find the subject matter

of both interviews to be of as much interest in Qatar, where you are posted, as it is here in the States.

In the interviews I offer a poignant indictment of General Petraeus, and a much-needed reexamination of the dubious death of his deceased subordinate, Colonel Ted

Westhusing, the former West Point ethics professor whose devotion to duty and aversion to corruption earned him a bullet through the head. Needless to say, I

have much more than this suppressed story to offer, and I think my geostrategic assessment and predictions are better than anything available elsewhere.

You can find my Lone Star Iconoclast interview at: www.lonestaricon.com/absolutenm/anmviewer.asp

You can find my Cloak and Dagger interview at:

www.cloakanddagger.de/

It's a especially nice to be able to remind you that five years ago,on May Day 2002, you did me the honor of standing beside me as my best man when we celebrated

my marriage to Mrs. May. I still remember the kind remarks you made to our families at the reception, at the Monument Inn at the San Jacinto Battleground, and

never think of them without smiling. It is one of the great ironies of our friendship that a year after that happy occasion I was mobilized on a mission of conscience

against George W. Bush as the Ghost Troop Commander, and a year after that you were serving him as his Ambassador to Qatar. History will have to decide which

of us has enjoyed the more interesting and illustrious position. Perhaps when you return from the Middle East this summer we shall discuss it ourselves.

My best regards to you and the ladies Untermeyer,

Eric