God Bless America.
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.
"... because many soldiers never get anything and just get pleasure out of seeing someone else get a goodie box."
Wow! Is there a way that some of us here can help out? Maybe she could tell her soldier about www.operationmilitarysupport.com and he can tell his commanding officer to sign up some of his soldiers!
Patty-
About how long does it take for the packages to get there?
(I can't believe I don't know this and I should have asked at the post office)...
Thanks!
That's nice that they will be having a 4th of July picnic! I bet the stuff you sent will really help them feel like celebrating our liberty!
Do they have any requests for specific items there in Baghdad? (This is the unit that replaced our previous one, right?)
Generally it take 2-3 weeks for packages to get to Afghanistan and Iraq depending on space available. The post office has no control once the package reaches the Army staging area about when the package will make it on board a flight out.
I haven't had any special requests yet from the psyop group at Baghdad. You could write them and ask.
In Baghdad in the past we have sent packages to OhioWfan's son's unit, and to the 411th Engineer Combat Battalion which was there last year, and now to the follow-on Engineers unit who took the place of the 411th.
The psyops group in Baghdad is in a redeployment after about 6 months back home. Some of them were in Bagram, Afghanistan, last year, so we do have a prior link to this unit.
They helped educate Afghanis about their upcoming elections last year. They may be in Baghdad to advise Iraqi officials about the nuts and bolts of holding the election on their new Constitution which will be coming up this Fall, and for training their officials in nuts and bolts of holding the elections for public offices which will follow, maybe in December, if the Constitution is approved.
These smaller flat rate boxes I am using seem to get there faster than larger heavier boxes (not so easy to tuck into space available).
Some boxes recently got to Iraq in 8 days that were mailed from U.S. West Coast. That's a record.
It may be their delivery system have improved (I heard they had contracted with FedEx or someone to do a lot of their mail) or they don't happen to be in a major redeployment now and haven't as much gear and munitions taking up space on the flights.
Thanks for the info.
Thanks.
Thanks for the ping, mam.
You're on.
Hope you find it fun to follow the troop care packages and our adopted units in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Prayers for our soldiers are always needed.
nip.
:-)
I put you on the ping list, so you could follow our activities and responses from the troops. If you want off in the future, let me know.
I shall certainly pass along the info. Thanks!
re #340
God Bless them!! I hope they have a great time..they, more than anyone deserve it!! Let Freedom Ring!!!
My thanks to everyone here that helped make that possible!
****
Dear Patty
Thanks for all the decorations and movies. I'll make sure we take some pictures on the fourth and send them to you.
(censored rest)
Thanks.
And have a happy and safe 4th Of July, btw.
Letter from the Engineers Battalion at Baghdad came in mail today! Anybody got some recent Playstation2 or Nintendo Games they could send them?
Dr. ***,
I am writing to express the gratitude of the battalion for the items you sent.
I am sure you know that many of the soldiers prefer to play video games in their spare time. I lot of them were not able to bring their own equipment or games, and it is more fun to play with a big group, anyway.
We also play movies [frequently]. Those are, of course, a universally popular passtime. We try to provide as much variety as possible, and you have really helped with that.
Our soldiers really need a diverse MWR program to keep their spirits up. They are in a stressful environment, separated from their friends, family and normal lives. Thanks so much to you and the rest of the Merry Band of Patriots for helping us to continue to update our MWR program!
The commander asked me to express his and our thanks for him because he is convinced his handwriting is illegible. :)
Sincerely,
CPT ****
***
Reminding us all that we previously sent
October 15, 2004, asgardshill sent a Playstation 2 and two games (Gran Turismo 3 and Star Wars Starfighter)
October 23, 2004, Tunehead 54 sent Proscan VCR, Remote, Cabling (red, white, yellow), new batteries + extra, Manual
I'm trying to find my note of who sent the Nintendo Console and controls and games. Was it Icantbelieveit? Whoever, please step forward, as I'm also looking for the list of games that went with it, and hope you might still have it.
Some things have been misplaced when I switched computers twice this last year.
God Bless America.
FANTASTIC!!!
I'll ping the gang, and by the time they come the pics from our adopted Battery at Kirkuk may be up, too.
The first photos from the 4th of July in Iraq are coming through, some posted above and some below this ping.
First in line is MI at Kirkuk and then the POB at Baghdad, and below will be our newly adopted Battery at Kirkuk.
ENJOY!
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