Posted on 02/19/2005 12:40:42 AM PST by patriciaruth
Time for a new thread!
Our Merry Band of Patriots has seen a psy-ops unit at Bagram, Afghanistan, help educate voters in Afghanistan and come home successfully, while we supported them and special forces in the field by sending over 100 movies and many packages of snacks and toiletries and Hallowe'en candy. A Christmas tree and decorations (Daybreakcoming) and stockings (Ican'tbelieveit) and cards and over 400 candy canes were sent for their follow-on unit, and a box with movies and magazines and misc is just beginning to fill for their next care package. The movies and books we sent previously went into the Special Forces library there.
We've seen Beast Battery at Kirkuk, Iraq, through till their deployment home, sending them over 100 movies and dozens of books and a microwave and DVD/VCR player (from arjay) and many big boxes of snacks. Plus a huge wave of goodies was organized by McLynnan for Christmas in Kirkuk (2 prelit trees, ornaments, Santa suit, many stockings with stuffers, many cards, and a couple thousand candy canes to share out with all the forces there).
We've supported the 411th Engineers at Baghdad in 2004 with about 70 movies and several dozen books, a Playstation 2 and a Nintendo console with a couple dozen games (from asgardshill and ican'tbelieveit), a 4 foot Christmas tree and ornaments and boxes of snacks and many cards and 600 candy canes. In the next couple months we will be bidding them Godspeed as they return to their homebase in Hawaii.
We've sent over 50 movies, a DVD/VCR player (from arjay), and a dozen and a half books to an MI unit near Kirkuk, plus some Christmas decorations and stocking stuffers, and many cards and 156 candy canes. They have mostly left for home now and we just sent a package with more movies to their follow-on unit.
Also we have sent some packages to an Aviation unit at Balad, Iraq and to an Infantry Medics unit, and a small Christmas package each to another AVN unit and an MP unit.
Stryker Infantry company formerly at Fallujah and now at Mosul since November has been the major focus of our care packages these past months. All of Stryker at Mosul has taken fire, and our adopted company has suffered a KIA and some soldiers with severe injuries.
Early on we sent food items (mostly power bars and dried fruit and nuts) then Christmas stockings stuffed with goodies and many cards and 200 candy canes, and since Christmas have begun sending movies. They recently received a DVD/VCR player (from arjay) and with the movies just mailed today their collection will total about 75 movies and a dozen books.
And all this happened because our grassroots volunteer group began forming in the early summer of 2001 to send care packages to Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo, when the 101st Airborne and then the 10th Mountain were there.
The contents of packages just mailed will be listed in post below.
The trouble with most places that can supply the documents is the delay in getting St. Louis to respond to the request.
If anyone who is in ST. Louis would be willing to go to the location of the records and expedite the sending of the copies of documents the DFW National Cemetery needs to bury my father, I would appreciate it so much.
I can give particulars on where to fax the document and the name and rank of the deceased WWII vet and retired Naval Reserve officer. His transfer to the Retired Reserve of the U.S. Naval Reserve was March 1, 1954.
I am very sorry about your father. I pray that God will bring comfort to you and your mother.
http://www.cem.va.gov/mhg.htm
The preferred method is the DD Form 214, Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty. If the DD Form 214 is not available, any discharge document showing other than dishonorable service can be used. The DD Form 214 may be obtained by filling out a Standard Form 180...
http://www.militaryfuneralhonors.osd.mil/
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.org/funeral_information/guide.interment.html
Taps - there are no official words to the music but here are some of the more popular verses:
Day is done, gone the sun,
From the hills, from the lake,
From the sky.
All is well, safely rest,
God is nigh.
Go to sleep, peaceful sleep,
May the soldier or sailor,
God keep.
On the land or the deep,
Safe in sleep.
Love, good night, Must thou go,
When the day, And the night
Need thee so?
All is well. Speedeth all
To their rest.
Fades the light; And afar
Goeth day, And the stars
Shineth bright,
Fare thee well; Day has gone,
Night is on.
Thanks and praise, For our days,
'Neath the sun, Neath the stars,
'Neath the sky,
As we go, This we know,
God is nigh.
They were in a flat rate box, but I insured them because of the DVD's and I think I wrote it wrong...it may have been 10.10 for the total.
Since the election when the Democrats were trashing the war, some postal workers who are Democrats have decided it's okay to steal from "baby killers."
And a package with 10 DVD's is more at risk.
The first verse is the one I remember.
Thanks!
Your contributions toward the headlamps were deposited today finally. I normally acknowledge receipt by FReepmail individually, but I'm way behind due to being held over for a couple extra weeks in Texas, so I hope this ping reaches you all.
I'm trying to get confirmation of the receipt of the headlamps in Mosul by our adopted Stryker company. I've an email out to the new captain, and airborne is going to see his nephew who is coming home on furlough this weekend (!), so we hope to have some news.
Meanwhile, thank you all so much!!! Hope to have more news for you within a week's time.
Thank you dear Patty. Grab you some rest - you've been through a troubling time.
You're Most Welcome, sweet sister. Love to you in our Lord.
We are currently waiting for confirmation of the name of the new captain of our adopted Stryker company at Mosul and for information on whether the 24 headlamps we ordered (and paid for) from Petzl America arrived.
Airborne will be seeing his nephew on 2 weeks leave from Mosul this weekend and help us get this all confirmed.
If it is good to go, then I have a local donor who is offering to foot the bill for another 24 headlamps if they still want more.
The REALLY GREAT NEWS is that with my "new" (used) laptop and updated Windows program (which my brother got for me), Paypal finally accepted my credit card number, etc. and is in process of verifying me.
With any luck, I'll be able to accept Paypal contributions by next week, AND finally be able to access the contribution to my Paypal account that Tampa Caver made last summer....
(POSTED on 3-31 PDT so this is not an April Fool Joke...!!)
More info on care packages that are going out will be posted in the near future.
I've had a chance to get a little rest and rescue my old cat from a week boarding at the vet's, and will be transferring my files to this laptop (belonged to an architectural firm who got new ones and sold the "old" ones for $75 a piece).
Hope everyone is doing okay.
Please post any news about care packages you've sent off or news you've had from our adopted companies during this past month.
Cheers!
Patty
Thank YOU for your continual support for our troops.
All those tubes of Crystal Lite lemonade you got with me in Garland are either on their way to Iraq, or will be sent soon.
They were split up, and some are going to Mosul, some to Kirkuk, and some to Baghdad.
Have you got your movies and other goodies packed yet?
I noticed a fair number of soldiers at DFW as I was waiting to fly home last Friday, so I got a dozen big Snickers crunchers and passed them out to the soldiers going by...hanging onto a wheelchair as I was pretty rocky at the time.
Thanks for the idea!!
Mom got her flag presentation ceremony and the three big bouquets of flowers (one mainly RED roses; one mainly WHITE pear blossoms, WHITE freesia and a few stargazer lilies; and one mainly BLUE delpheniums and orchids all still looked good the next day lying on the grave), so I'm a happy camper now.
Airborne's nephew says he has seen some of the headlamps with the flip up red filter, so I have to assume the 24 we ordered have arrived in Mosul.
A local optometrist here is going to order 12 more in the next couple days with our contact at Petzl America donating a matching 12 for another 24 headlamps (LED 4, covered push button, attached red filter) to be sent to our adopted Stryker company at Mosul.
We have confirmation on the name of the new captain of our company, and so care packages big time will be flowing again to them. A shipment of many movies will be going out from Texas this week, and I'll list them here as soon as they go.
MY ACCOUNT AT PAYPAL IS NOW VERIFIED! (Thanks to my new Windows program on my new used laptop).
I'll be ordering tomorrow shipment of some headlamps to specific soldiers with specific APO's.
If anyone wants to order a headlamp (please specify whether camouflage color or black color) for a soldier, let me know. Price is 21.50, and a small donation to cover mailing is appreciated but not necessary.
I accept checks, money orders, cash, Walmart shopping cards, Amazon gift certificates, Target gift cards, and Paypal.
If you pay by Paypal, you have to give more to cover their usage fee.
A box of books and movies will be going out tomorrow to our adopted MI company near Kirkuk. I'll post contents after it's mailed.
Also, I have half filled a new box for our new unit that took over from CheneyChick's unit at Bagram, Afghanistan. Some of the books that jtill sent me will be going in that box. I already mailed out some coffee she sent to my brother to mail to a civilian contractor south of Baghdad.
Does anyone know what's up with the new ban on coffee going to the troops in Iraq??
Thought you might be interested in this thread. See post above.
Hmmm, first I've heard of it. Could simply be that the weather is warming up, and they (collectively) feel they have a large enough stock of coffee. If it's a true ban, I have no idea.
Thanks for the ping!
So, the group in Kirkuk is from Michigan?
MI stands for Military Intelligence, or were you making a joke?
Did you have a nice Easter?
Hee hee...No, I wasn't making a joke.
Yes, we had a quiet, uneventful Easter. A local National Guard soldier we know is coming home on leave today. Yippee!
Thanks for all your hard work, Patricia!
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