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.
Patricia, you are awesome, thank you so much for what you do. You make us proud!
Many thanks for taking care of the popcorn for me.
Seems like I have something to do every day - and never get done. I can't wait until the sale on the house closes and we are off to Alabama! Well, that depends on whether our new house is finished or not - sure hope so.
I hope your new home in Alabama is okay.
Please pray that omegatoo's home just outside New Orleans has been spared significant damage.
Omegatoo evacuated to Baton Rouge where she is okay, but doesn't know how her house faired.
News reports have a levee of Lake Ponchitrain breeched for two blocks, and lake water pouring down Canal St.
I don't know where omegatoo's house is.
I am especially distressed by that man with the two boys who lost his wife during the hurricane.
I'm afraid that I can't even begin to take in the terrible damage and loss from the hurricane. The fires in NO are not believable -- all that water and no way to put them out!
I was listening to Rush this a.m. and a family from NO had evacuated to Birmingham. They found out this morning that they had nothing left in NO. So, since they have three children - 6, 9, and 10 - a few clothes and an ATM card, they decided to go to Disneyworld!
Our contractor called us this a.m. to tell us that our new home is just fine. The plumbing and electrical will be installed this week (weather holding).
Prayers for Omegatoo and her home.
Hurricane Katrina has messed up Operation Popcorn for the Engineers in Baghdad, also a miscalculation in how many soldiers were there. Omegatoo had to evacuate from New Orleans to Baton Rouge and she was okay right after the hurricane, but not sure how she is now or if her house is above water.
If several people can get a flat rate priority box (5x8x11) from the post office and a customs form and some wide packing tape and 24-28 bags of microwave popcorn to go in the box, I can FReepmail you particulars on how to ship your box to Baghdad.
Prayers for omegatoo and her family are requested by me.
I got mine sent - total of 63.
I meant to add: Do I need to get another box of 28?
60 bags plus other goodies going out tomorrow morning. [saluting smartly]
I'm so glad to hear omegatoo and her family are safe! May the Lord be with them, and give them strength to get through this horrific disaster. It's just beyond words.. God Bless and be with them all.
I mailed 50 bags today! Hope the soldiers enjoy.
You pledged to send 50 and you sent 63! That's wonderful!
If you can manage (time and money wise) to do another box, it would be appreciated! There are actually over a hundred more soldiers in this battalion than were in the 411th that was there before them. They kinda hid that from me when I inquired.
I haven't heard from omegatoo since right after the hurricane passed through. I'm afraid she and her family might have tried to return to their home outside New Orleans and got caught in the rising waters, or some other disaster related problem...
Hopefully, she's just out of touch due to phone and power lines being down and she can't connect to the internet.
I feel a bit silly shilling for popcorn when so many people on the Gulf have so much greater needs, but our troops are facing some rough times with the Constitution coming up, and their morale is important, too.
Great going!
The popcorn is going to come into Baghdad in fits and starts. I imagine that a lot of army airlift resources have been diverted to the Gulf of Mexico relief effort, so who knows when our popcorn will arrive in Iraq.
However, I heard that the mail contract has been let out to a private delivery company and isn't tied to army resources anymore.
We'll know next week. I already warned Baghdad about Katrina putting a crimp in our delivery of all our pledged boxes.
273 are accounted for so far (jtill, you, mathluv, and Coop)
I had to return to Florida to get my father settled into the rehab center, but my hubby is putting my two boxes in the mail today.
Does he know he has to take them to the post office with the customs form? And they may want him to fill out the form again with his name as the sender, and to sign it himself.
You can't just put them in the mail.
Hope your Dad is better. I was very grateful that my Mom survived my Dad because he would have been totally lost without her. They were married for 63 years.
I will get another box out today.
Oooh, I just tripped over this piece of good news!! THANKS!!
I'm hip deep in Hawaiian party boxes for the Psyops group to pass around Baghdad.
Patty-
I'll send that extra 50 I had bought that I was going to hold back for awhile. So, I'll send a total of 150.
I will try and get them all out tomorrow. I was out of town last week and so I didn't get your notes about the schedule until after all the plans had been finalized.
I guess there was a reason that I went ahead and bought those extras, huh? ;)
Are we working on anything for any of the upcoming holidays?
Prayers for omegatooh being said.
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