WRITE A THANK YOU NOTE TO A SOLDIER IN IRAQ THIS MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND

5-29-04 | patriciaruth

[patriciaruth]

Please support our troops this Memorial Day weekend by writing a note or letter to a soldier. They will be sent to Balad and Mosul in care packages that should arrive by the Fourth of July.

You can get my address by FReepmail and send a hand written letter or thank you card to me and I will put it in the next box or manilla envelop going to Iraq,
or you can FReepmail me a note or letter and I will print it out and put it in the Fourth of July packages.

Also, if you have any used books or movies or magazines that you enjoyed, you can mail those also to me to be included in the packages. If you use book/movie/magazine rate, they may arrive too late for this wave, but they will go in a future package.

Monetary donations for care packages are also always gladly accepted.

Finally, I'd appreciate suggestions of good books, movies that could go in the future. I've just subscribed for Sports Illustrated, Road and Track, Men's Health, American Heritage, and U.S. News and World Report so I can send them regularly (until my introductory offer runs out....) I get the women's NRA mag and AUSA and Army regularly now.

Last year and this year, these are the packages we have sent to Baghdad, Balad, and Mosul.

BALAD
Magazines: People, Men's Health, Army mag, NRA mag, latest women's NRA one on training puppies, and an AUSA one,Sports Illustrated, AUSA, Decision
Books: Clancy's Without Remorse; L'Amour's Last of the Breed; Koonz's Icebound; Wister's The Virginian; Heinlein's Glory Road; a biography of Washington, the Indispensible Man, Bill O'Reilly's Those Who Trespass, Random Harvest by James Hilton, Goodbye Darkness (WWII in Pacific memoir)
Movies: DVD's Seabiscuit; Mystery Alaska; Gettysburg; Open Range; Last Action Hero; Stand and Deliver; Fifth Element; Glory; Shanghai Knights; Die Another Day; We Were Soldiers; Last of the Mohicans; Antwone Fisher; Windtalkers; October Sky, Enemy at the Gates, Gladiator, Young Frankenstein, Ghost, Moulin Rouge; and VHS Die Hard, Witness, Baby Boom
Misc: 2 disposable cameras, 2 phone cards with 120 minutes, 4 envelops with 4 sheets paper, pens, envelops, note pad, pkg 2 small flashlights Card games: poker chips, 4 decks of playing cards, Skipbo
Snacks: 2 boxes Wheat Thins, 2 boxes of brownies, can Lays potato chips, box Cheezits individual size 2 starburst, 2 pistachio nuts, Snickers, Kitkat, Reese's Peanut butter cups, 2 fig newtons, 2 chips ahoy, 2 vanilla cream cookies, 3 berry Skittles, 1 tropical Skittles, 2 pack sugarfree spearmint gum, 2 bread sticks/cheese, 2 cheese and peanut butter crackers, 3 long smoked deli jerked sausage, 6 American cheese sticks with jerked beef sausage, 4 lemonade Crystal Lite cups, 4 raspberry Crystal Lite cups, humungus decorated chocolate rocky road Easter egg, 2 bags Reese's peanut butter cups; bag Jelly Belly; bag regular jelly beans; bag mixed hard candy, bag candy corn; 3 cans mixed nuts, 2 cans pringles potato chips
Toiletries: lip balm, 4 wet wipes, 3 Kleenex, toothbrush, toothpaste, 3 bottles 45SPF sunscreen, Sunscreen Shade SPF45, 2 chapstick SPF30, hand sanitizer, Charmin t.p., Old Spice aftershave[Post office thought it was an IED due to alcohol content and had me remove it], indulgence items for female soldier: tampons, facial cleaning wipes, night moisturizing face cream, manicure set, nail file, cuticle cream, nail hardening and repair kit, bar mild soap Jergens

MOSUL
VHS recording of Pres. Bush talk and Jay Leno monologue at WH Correspondent's dinner 5/1/04.
15 DVD movies: Gettysburg; Glory; We Were Soldiers; Die Another Day; Tears of the Sun, Galaxy Quest, Total Recall; Second Hand Lions; Independence Day; Last of the Mohicans; Shanghai Noon; Along Came a Spider; Open Range; Signs; Moscow on the Hudson. VHS: Fletch
Books: On War (Clausewitz), Tunnel in the Sky (Heinlein), Tactics of Mistake (Dickson), Scrabble dictionary.
Games: Tin of poker cards, chips and dice; travel Scrabble in case with pencil
Toys: Radioshack radio control racer (yellow wheelies jeep) and batteries; 2 Liquidator supersoakers; 250 water balloons
Snacks: 1 bag mixed hard candy; 2 bags Tootsie pops; 1 bag Lifesavers assorted flavors; Reese's peanut butter cups (double wrapped in Ziplocks); 12 packs Juicy Fruit gum; 2 cups raspberry Crystal Lite drink mix; 1 can deluxe mixed nuts Magazines: AUSA's Army on WWII memorial; Truckers
Toiletriesone each for recipient: bandaids; foot powder; fungal cream; deodorant; hand sanitizer; Charmin t.p.; wet wipes; floss; toothpaste/toothbrush; shaving cream; Q-tips; Kleenex; chapstick SPF30; sunscreen SPF45
Misc: 6 envelops with 2 sheets writing paper in each; 2 retractable ballpoint pens

BAGHDAD
The 4 Valentine care packages that went out 1-16-04 contained 26 movies, 14 paperback books, 6 decks of cards, a Frizzbee, 4 thingees of Crystal Lite mix, 45 sewing needles and 2 spools of thread, 23 notepads of paper (50 ct each), 600 envelopes, 47 packages of Bic pens (11 to a pack), 4 calendars, magazines (3 Army, 2 NRA, Star with Mel Gibson cover, Time with Saddam capture, a Schwarzenegger bio in pictures), 15 packs of gum, 6 each personal care items: travel size Kleenex, wet wipes, toilet paper, hand sanitizing gel, mouthwash, toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, shampoo, shaving cream, disposable razors, dental floss, lotion, Q-tips, deodorant, chapstick SPF15, baby powder, 8 mild soaps, special wrapped 6 tampons, 6 small leatherette bag to carry travel toiletries. 2 boxes of bandaids. 1 small package of M&M's. And over 300 Valentines. 5 packages of Hershey's kisses (~670), 5 bags and 5 boxes with 506 lollypops (300 Tootsie Pops, 96 Charm bubblegum cherry and berry pops, and 108 Charm Valentine cherry suckers.
Movies are DVD: Gov. Schwarzenegger in Total Recall and The 6th Day, Crichton's Andromeda Strain, Antonio Banderas in Mask of Zorro, Kurt Russell in Stargate, Finding Nemo, Heinlein's Starship Troopers, Star Wars II, Tim Allen in Galaxy Quest, The Matrix, Samuel L. Jackson in Shaft, Harrison Ford in Air Force One, Will Smith in Independence Day, Tom Berenger in Last of the Dogmen, October Sky, Carl Sagan's Contact. VHS movies are Bruce Willis in Die Hard, the Sixth Sense, and Unbreakable; Jurassic Park, Jurassic Park III, Morgan Freeman in Along Came a Spider, Good Will Hunting, Mel Gibson in What Women Want, Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet, Casablanca. [Movies previously sent to Baghdad are Die Another Day, Collateral Damage, True Lies, Windtalkers, We Were Soldiers, Lawrence of Arabia, Last of the Mohicans, Return to Me, The Rookie, Antwone Fisher, Shanghai Knights, Tears of the Sun, Sum of All Fears, Panic Room, Ghostbusters, Frequency, Remember the Titans, Forever Young, Predator, Men in Black, The Great Escape.]

Books are Crichton's Timeline, Clancy's Without Remorse and Sum of All Fears, L'Amour's Last of the Breed, Heinlein's Starship Troopers and Double Star, Larry Bond's Red Phoenix, Stephen Horn's Law of Gravity, Don Coldsmith's Runestone, T.E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, Olson Scott Card's Postwatch and Enchantment, Zane Gray's Riders of the Purple Sage. [Books previously sent to Baghdad are Ice Station Zebra, Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength, Manifold Time, Manifold Space, The Pilgrimage, No Different Flesh, Glory Road, Tunnel in the Sky, Ender's Game, The Virginian.]

June2003 personal care items sent to Baghdad: 3 bottles sunblock 45 10 each travel size, gum, eyedrops, wet wipes, toilet paper, pens, small notepads, SPF45 chapstick, Kleenex, 3 magazines, music CD Have you Forgotten, music tape, q-tips in a baggie, box of Ziplock baggies, Box Cheezit crackers.

So far In the next boxes:
Mosul: Book's: Clancy's Without Remorse, Sun Tzu's Art of War, Goodbye Darkness (WWII Pacific memoir), Olson Scott Card's Enchantment, Heinlein's Starship Troopers, 50 Pocket constitutions (at cost by Vetscor
Movies: Fifth Element, Count of Monte Cristo, True Lies, Starship Troopers

Balad: Book's: Nevil Shute's Pied Piper and A Town Like Alice, 50 Pocket constitutions
Movies: Last of the Dogmen, Moscow on the Hudson
Envelops, Writing Pads
President Bush Address to the Nation on Iraq 5/24/04 recorded on VHS

[patriciaruth]

All my APO's get We Were Soldiers.

I just got an APO for Afghanistan, and they're gonna get a copy of We Were Soldiers, too.

Fabulous movie.

Cheers!
Patty

[patriciaruth]

I'll be sending them off to ya

Fabulous! What did you get?

[patriciaruth]

Wow, that was fast. THANK YOU!!

What a goof!

[ALOHA RONNIE]

.

As Lt. Col. HAL G. MOORE kept saying over and over again to his 7th Cav Skytroopers at LZ X-Ray:

"That's just OUTSTANDING"

.

[patriciaruth]

For general information. The eyeglass cleaner my husband uses is isopropanol, which is an alcohol, and the post office will not accept liquid alcohols, like aftershave and Windex, for shipment. They are considered explosives.

I'll check with an optometrist I know and see if I can find an alternative.

[patriciaruth]

Sorry to keep pinging you, but I've got an APO for Bagram, Afghanistan, now, and want to know if anyone would like to help with a chocolate candy and cookies airlift to our soldiers there?

I know alot of you are involved with other support projects, so I expect you to just ignore this if you can't manage more.

Cheers!
Patty

[Tunehead54]

Ms. Patty: If it helps your planning I'm sending a check out today for $50.00. Regarding eyeglass cleaner - Wow! We never even considered the flammability issue. We sent out two or three large packages (~ 30+ lbs) that included several large bottles and declared them along with cookies, crackers, candy, etc. All packages arrived safely.

I did a "non-alcoholic" eyeglass cleaner google search with poor results but my wife is checking at Target to see what's on the shelf that might be OK. Also have a call into "Eye Magine" which she uses for an ingredients rundown. I'll let you know.

Charlie

---

[patriciaruth]

Good Morning, AFGHANISTAN!

Tunehead's contribution just bought the request from Bagram, Afghanistan for cookies, chocolate candy and microwave popcorn.

24 2-packs of Chips Ahoy, 24 3-packs of Oreos, 60 candy bars (Reese's peanut butter cups, Hersheys, Kitkats, and Fast Break in 2 prepacked boxes), box of 24 M&M's, and a box with 24 microwave buttered popcorn bags. The chocolate will come melted, the cookies in crumbles, so just lick the paper! LOL! It's 93 degrees here and the postal trucks will probably be over 110 degrees.

I'm putting in 6 paperback books (Without Remorse by Clancy, Last of the Breed by Louis L'Amour, Enchantment by Orson Scott Card, best horror novel ever The Other by Thomas Tryon, and 2 by Nevil Shute--A Town Like Alice and Pied Piper), 6 movies (We Were Soldiers with Mel Gibson, Total Recall with Schwarzenegger, Gettysburg, Moscow on the Hudson with Robin Williams, Galaxy Quest with Tim Allen, October Sky and may pick up a couple more before mailing tomorrow--Any Special Movie Requests, Bagram?, 4 Army and women's NRA magazines, and 25 pocket constitutions sent to me by VetsCoR.

DrDeb is sending money that will help cover postage.

Hoping it gets there not long after June 15 to 22. ENJOY! We all love you all out there in paradise!

[Neil E. Wright]

"....and 25 pocket constitutions sent to me by VetsCoR."

I presume this means you got the Pocket Constitutions OK??? :)

±

"The Era of Osama lasted about an hour, from the time the first plane hit the tower to the moment the General Militia of Flight 93 reported for duty."
Toward FREEDOM

[patriciaruth]

Yup, they all came, including the extra 20 you tucked in...:-) THANK YOU!

However, you should think about quitting smoking so you'll survive to vote and support your causes for years to come.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks Neil. :-)

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[CholeraJoe]

and 25 pocket constitutions sent to me by VetsCoR.

Printed with pride in Helena, Montana, I suspect.

[Neil E. Wright]

LOL ..... You betcha ..... and I'm still waiting for the pics from your presentation ..... :)

±

"The Era of Osama lasted about an hour, from the time the first plane hit the tower to the moment the General Militia of Flight 93 reported for duty."
Toward FREEDOM

[CholeraJoe]

Hasn't happened yet. Probably the 11th. Gotta get the CEO in the pics.

[CheneyChick]

Woo hoo! There is going to be a lot of excitement!

Cheers, CC :)

[patriciaruth]

It gets better! I had space left in one of the two boxes coming, and Tex chipped in so I'll fill it with more goodies.

I tried taping Ike, an A&E movie about Eisenhower in the weeks before D-Day, and if it's good I'll be sending it, too, and Saving Private Ryan movie, which is close to what actually happened, after Eisenhower made all those decisions and did all the planning.

You still haven't made any movie requests. HELP!

Got to go now and print out some letters to put in the boxes, now that they're just about packed.

[patriciaruth]

THANK YOU!

[patriciaruth]

Discovered the ping list for troop support, which had to be reconstituted when my laptop broke, had been duplicated accidentally, so most everyone was being pinged twice, and a few people four times!

I've done the editting so hopefully it's corrected now to people who want to be informed about troop support projects.