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.
I'll be mailing you out a package of assorted goodies for our troops tomorrow, and a check to help with postage :) I have a bunch of VHS tapes, can they use them too, or just DVD's?
Arjay and Diamondhead have sent all our adopted units VCR players, although MI unit at Kirkuk reported their VHS tapes ran slow due to sand getting in the VCR player.
I'll send your tapes to whichever units haven't been sent those titles, but avoid the base with the worst sand contamination in their unit.
They do say, however, that they don't want chick flicks.
If we get requests for click flicks like we did last summer from Bagram, I'll post the request and ping everyone. But for now, our units want recent flicks, Westerns, action and comedies.
Hope that information helps.
You can mail to me by media mail which is cheaper as long as you put no letter or note inside, your box contains only printed materials or movies or CD's, and you don't seal it until the postal worker inspects it at the counter.
When I mail out, I use the flat rate priority boxes, although for a couple large boxes of books I have sent media mail.
For now, I can't handle any more books (excepting Westerns). I've got some health problems I'm struggling with at the moment and books can be overwhelming to handle.
Westerns are the only book requests we have at the moment, so if anyone wants to send Westerns, I'll do them.
I'll let you know when your box arrives. Please email me a list of the contents, and I'll confirm it on arrival.
Thank you Patricia! I emailed you the list, however, I forgot that I'm going to add some packets of pre-sweetened powdered juices/koolaid too before I seal it up and send it tomorrow. There is an envelope inside, on top, for you. God Bless you for all that you do!!! God Bless our Troops, Our Heroes!
Because I couldn't confirm that your adopted soldier at HHC got his headlamp, SW, I'm having Petzl America send me a couple headlamps directly, and they should arrive next week.
I'll repack one for Victor and one for airborne's nephew. Let me know if the APO's have changed.
I was going to send your soldiers more to pass around to their units, but Petzl America won't have enough stock till April 29 for a large order.
AND The GOOD NEWS is that I've arranged for a 501 (c) organization to handle the order for our local donor and he has upped his order (now that he'll get a tax deduction), and 100 or so headlamps will be heading out at the end of this month to the North Carolina branch of this troop support organization, and then out to our adopted company at Mosul.
Thought I'd give a heads up to Hanna and Lori, as they were the sparkplugs for this venture.
When it goes through, we'll get more information posted.
Meanwhile, I have to see that a box to MI at Kirkuk gets in the mail.
Cheers!
Mailed to MI* unit at Kirkuk, April 6, 2005, postage 10.10, insured for $134.
7 DVD’s:
John Wayne 4 pack (The Cowboys, The Searchers, Rio Bravo, Stagecoach)
American Pie
Austin Powers
Predator (Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jesse Ventura)
1 Magazine: Four Wheeler
9 Books:
Last Juror (Gresham)
Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
Sarum (Edward Rutherford)
Shogun (James Clavell)
Louis L’Amour: Sacket’s Land, To the Far Mountains, Daybreakers, Warrior’s Path, Sackett
2 sharpie pens
10 cups pink lemonade (Crystal Lite) – thanks to Texan4W
*that's Military Intelligence, not Michigan
BUMP!!!
Prayers for our military!!!
I've seen the posts about the head lamps. Kinda cool. I'm wondering what the next step could be.
Anything you know about what the troops desire?
I just found out from one of my brothers that his son is now in Afghanistan! He wrote to let us know that Alexander was OK and wasn't involved in the Chinook crash yesterday. That's the first I even knew he was there! I'd thought he was going to Iraq, but I guess not. He flies Apache Longbow helos for the Army, to the envy of his dad. Gerry always wanted to fly helos, but was in the Air Force, and even though at the time he finished the USAF, there was a joint program with the Army in helos, they wouldn't let him do it. He ended up flying C-130s.
Wow! How'd you get the cigars by the post office censors? We can't send tobacco.
There are around 200 men in the Company we adopted at Mosul, and there were 600 in the group at Baghdad, and several hundred total in our units at Kirkuk. At Bagram, they were a lending library for the whole of Afghanistan's Special Forces.
And so you take 50 or 100 movies and divide them up among those soldiers who maybe want to do something to take their minds off the war or the boredom/fear when they are not on patrol, and maybe even if they only watch one or two a week..
The total at Kirkuk was around 1500 men in all the units, and the movies got swapped and shared out a lot.
I can only tell you from experience, starting with Camp Bondsteel at Kosovo in summer of 2001, that the most popular item we send is movies. A lot of the guys are young and are used to visual entertainment/distraction. The older guys like the Westerns.
It's the most requested item. The hard part is finding that many movies, especially comedies, that are worth watching more than once if even once.
Any magazine with a truck on it is popular.
As for snacks, anything salty is popular (once into April sweet is hard to sent as it melts). Microwave popcorn is a big hit, or boxes of toffee popcorn with peanuts for those that don't have microwaves. Power bars and beef jerky big items with Special Forces. Sunscreen (PABA free), foot powder, wet wipes, floss, toothpaste, deodorant all appreciated.
Let us know if his unit wants anything!!
Offer the moon and we'll manage to lasso it!
Thanks! I'll ask my brother to get me Alexander's unit info and APO addy.
My adopted soldier in Iraq received his headlamp I sent and was delighted with it. He said that he took it quickly from the box to use as he had an immediate mission. He said it worked great. I have also been sending other items to be used since their living quarters are a bit better now. Sheets, shower curtains, shower curtain rings, etc. I also sent some of the coolmax socks which were greatly appreciated. Do we know how many headlamps have actually been sent now? I have personally sent two.
We have actually sent 24 Petzl headlamps to a Stryker company at Mosul, and they probably arrived last month, but I don't have more than hearsay on that. I'm trying to get real confirmation.
A local optometrist here has actually ordered another 102 or so more to be sent to Stryker company at Mosul, but Petzl America is back ordered and these won't go out till the very end of April.
Petzl America is sending me 2 which should arrive this coming week so that I can personally send one to SW6906's adopted soldier at Mosul and airborne's nephew at Mosul.
Also, tomorrow I'm going to take the contributions and pledges that have been made these last couple weeks and order some more to go to a military intelligence unit at Kirkuk.
They have asked for 10-15.
The headlamps seem to be a very popular item!
We now have definite confirmation from the new commander of our adopted Stryker company via the former commander that the 24 headlamps arrived. However, they say they actually got 30, so the division manager at Petzl America may have stuck in a few extra on his own.
And I have the email address now of the new commander of our adopted Stryker company. The former commander wrote us about the headlamps:
"Of all the things that you have sent so far, I feel that these will get the most use. They are an excellent choice for the guys, and they are an item that we are not issued."
So, kudos to HannaUSA and Spanaway Lori and the rest for getting this ball rolling!!
A local optometrist here has ordered another 50 with a match of 50, so at least a hundred more will be going out probably at the end of April to arrive midMay, as Petzl America is backordered on this model with the covered push button to protect from sand, the flip up red lens, LED 4. (These still do not quite cover all the men in this company)
We have a request from the MI unit at Kirkuk for 10-15 of these headlamps. So, the donations and pledges that are coming in or made now will be going for them, and then we'll turn our attention back to Stryker units.
ANYONE WHO WANTS TO SEND A HEADLAMP TO A SPECIFIC SOLDIER, PLEASE CONTACT ME.
Also in the works: donated items from jtill and Ros42 arrived and are mostly packed up to go to Mosul and Kirkuk. I'll be getting some fillers later today and hope to have them sealed and mailed tomorrow.
The local Boy Scouts are going to be packing up and sending a bunch of microwave popcorn and jerky donated by our local optometrist to go to Stryker also.
And Microsoft is donating 100 Girl Scout cookies later this month for Stryker, which Mo1 will be packing and sending, this donation initiated and coordinated by Brad Cloven, who is on vacation at the moment.
We had a nice email from the former commander of our adopted Stryker company, and I will post it next for those who want to scroll down and read it.
....end interim report....
Email from former commander of our adopted Stryker company:
All,
Sorry it has been so long since my last mail. As many of you know, I have left *** Company and am no longer the commander. I returned home for two weeks of leave in mid March, and then returned to Iraq where I have assumed a postion on the BDE staff in the operations section.
I left *** company on 8 March. CPT ***, a prior service CPT with lots of experience took over me. At the time of our change-over, things had been going very well in the *** area. As of my change of command, the police in *** and neighboring *** had returned to work. The civic leadership of both towns were working side by side with my soldiers to capture the terrorist responsible for the Febuary bombing of the *** municipal building.
We had complete our distribution of school supplies to the local schools that was started by the efforts of my brother *** (I have some great photos of this effort to send later).
Over all things were going very well. I cannot guarantee overall mission success for *** Co, or the military in general. I can say however, that in the time that I and *** Co had spend here, we had made a difference.
After the change of command, I returned home for two weeks of leave. I cannot express what and exciting time this was for myself, my wife ***, and my son ***. My greatest fear was that my son would not remember me, but this worry was misplaced. The moment he saw me his face lit up in a broad smile and he reached for me. My heart melted instantly. My leave went by in a blurr, but thanks to the efforts of my wonderful wife, we did not waste a moment.
We started my vacation by taking two days nad one night in Victoria Canada. My parents watched *** for us (did not have to asked them twice to do this). We spend a wonderful time in Victoria staying in the Fairmont Empress Hotel, where we also expreince "High Tea at Noon". A splendid time I recomend for everyone.
Upon our return to home, we then hosted [son's] 2nd birthday. Family and friend from all over came to see ***, and to see me. It was huge success, but unfortunatley I was not able to spend enough time with each of my friends or family members. *** however was treated like royalty receiving more presents that he will know what to do with for a year, so again a huge success.
After **** birthday we then took the next four days traveling down the Oregon coast. We stayed our first two nights at Cannon beach, and our second two at Lincoln city Oregon where **** found us a wonderful beach house with an incredible ocean view with a hotub facing the beach. We flew kites, walked on the beach, held hands, read books, had family dinners, played in the pool, and had a great time. I was so amazed to see how *** has grown. He is such a blessing.
It was hard to say goodbye when it was over. In fact it was harder this time than it was the first time. In the end I had a R&R leave that I would challenge anyone to surpass. I owe it all to my wife, she is such a wonderful lady, and she makes me the luckiest man alive.
Upon my return to Iraq, I was transfered *** about 20 kilometers [from former station]. [Description edited]. The food is great. On an even better note, since the elections, [we] have not received any major attacks. Another sign that things are getting better.
My new duties place me in the Brigade operations section. For lack of a better description, it is a desk job. While I certainly do not mind the better living, and less dangerous work (my wife certainly does), I find my thoughts still wandering to the men of *** company who are still patrolling each day, braving the dangers and IEDs. Every morning I go thru the reports from the previous 24hrs, and I always check to see how the guys are doing.
On leave I was able to visit with DJ who was wounded in Nov, Chris and Mike who where wounded in Dec. These men are a reminder that it is still very dangerous.
Well, this is long, so I will end for now. Tomorrow I will send you some pictures ...
R****
bttt
Thank you for the report and all that you do.
God Bless our military!
Thanks for the update, Patriciaruth, although I don't think I'm on your ping list yet. I'll let you know if Victor gets his headlamp. Thanks for the special dispensation! ;o)
The two headlamps designated for special soldiers came here today.
They are tan (camouflage color), as the black ones are on backorder. These have 4 LED lights, a flip up red lens (kinda cool), and a push button on the top rather than a switch.
However, the push button isn't covered like on the new appliances with seamless conrol panels where you push a printed area like a button. I thought it would be like that, but evidentally this push button gives more sand protection than the old switches did, but isn't covered seamlessly as I had imagined.
I'll mail Victor's and Sean's out later today.
I have SW6906 right behind SuziQ in the ping list. If you weren't pinged with the rest for the update then maybe I put a capital "O" not a zero "0" in it.
Cheers!
Finally got the headlamp mailed to Victor today.
And I sent out the one for your nephew along with snack items from Ros42 and me for his Warriors. The alternate address is for the company CPT just in case his leave is extended for some reason.
A rather nice banner signed by a bunch of guys arrived in the mail today. Can you, airborne, give me any details as there wasn't a note with it.
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