You bet. :-)
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.
ping me. Thx.
You're now on the permanent ping list.
fun name. :-)
We've just sent over 50 packages to the troops for the 4th of July and are hoping to get some pictures back to share in the the weeks ahead.
Enjoy!
Ping me too.
TLR
you got er. Welcome. Hang around and see what goes on.
On a personal note...
I sit next to a former Marine @ work. He has several buddies in Iraq that he exchanges emails with. One of them got approval to mount a license plate on the front of the Humvee and asked if we could ship a number "3" plate to him. We trotted out to the mall & picked up plates & stickers of Dale & Jr and sent them over the Iraq. No pictures yet, bey we got an emial that there are two Humvees with a "3" and "8" on them traveling around. Apparently they have been well received. Truth be told, I think I got just as excited about it as my buddies friends did. If I get a digital shot I'll post it here.
We also collect the neighbors Sunday papers & send them over along with used paperbacks. Apparently they get passed around and fully read. I wonder if the editorials piss them off as much as used to irritate me before I cancelled the paper.
Not sure what the 3 and the 8 stand for. Is it related to NASCAR?
I'll put you on the permanent ping list so you can follow the fun here.
Feel free to post news from the front here, and special requests.
Cheers!
Patty
How have I never been on this ping list?
What should I be buying & where should I send it? To you, or to someone directly in Iraq/Afghanistan?
One of our priests was reserves & got called up for Iraq, so our church has done a drive, but it seemed like so little. Also, when you send the entire parish out to buy exactly the same stuff over a week, the stores get stripped bare. I had a heck of a time finding plain black pocket combs, of all things.
Thanks for all you're doing!
Lucky?
Hi!
Your luck just ran out. You are now on the ping list.
Welcome! :-)
I think my luck just ran IN.
I'll be heading out shopping as soon as it gets too hot for yard work (probably 10 Eastern) so if you have a list ready, I'll pick up what I can.
Not very many of our troops need combs, but we are doing a toiletries drive for Bagram, Afghanistan, (soap, shaving gel, toothpaste, deodorant still needed). FReepmail me if you want to make up a box.
Or you could send me a check, money order, cash (for popcorn and cookie snacks for the troops), Walmart shopping card (for Gold Bond body powder for a Battery Combat Team at Kirkuk), or a Target gift card (for toiletries for Bagram), or an Amazon gift certificate (for movies and books or a DVD player for the troops).
We have a Paypal account, but about the only place I can use it is at eBay, and I have already bought the 4th of July decorations and about all the movies I care to there. And Paypal will take $2.50 off the top of whatever you send.
I'm going to hit up a generous, patriotic local donor in the next few days for some more headlamps for Mosul. If he can't afford any more, I'll be looking for other donors to continue that project.
Or you can suggest something you have or think they might like and I can check if any of our adopted units would want it.
We kind of go with the flow here. We send what they ask for and dream up stuff they might like.
Let me know.
please put me on the ping list..
Done. Welcome!
You bet. :-)
One of the girls at church is engaged to a soldier in Iraq and she says whenever she sends him a care package, his buddies all gather around to see what he got, because many soldiers never get anything and just get pleasure out of seeing someone else get a goodie box. So she started sending little things for lots of others, and now practically the entire unit cheers when this soldier's name is called out during mail call, because they know there will be something in his box for them. She said there are many soldiers in her fiance's unit that don't even get a letter from back home, much less a box. Can you imagine?
Again, thanks for keeping this Care Packages for the Troops program going. Big hugs!
Bless that gal at church who seems to have adopted a unit all by herself.
Let us know if DH needs anything, and please post any news like this here anytime. It makes our day to hear news.
Roger, wilco. And please put me on your *ping* list!
That's what I would have guessed, but always ask an expert when you aren't sure is the best lesson I have learned in life.
Cool photos.
Do you have any NASCAR goodies you'd like to send to some troops?
You're in.
Now I'm for a nap.
Troop support ~ Bump!
Email from our psyops group in BAGHDAD!
(U) Thank You From Baghdad
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Patty;
Thank you so much for the three boxes of goodies. We are having a Fourth of July BBQ to celebrate, and will be decorating the headquarters with all the favors you sent. We’ll be sure to send pictures.
Best regards,
(LTC)***
Commanding
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