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.
That's real commitment to make yourself watch those slasher movies. You couldn't pay me enough to watch those!(I'm a sensitive viewer!) I'm sure the soldiers will love the movies!
Have you seen SAW?
I SAW some of the first scenes of Chainsaw before the DVD seized up from all the "scratches".
I am (rolling eyes) looking forward to seeing the rest of it tonight as the replacement just came in the mail.
SAW is actually another movie, not Chainsaw massacre.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387564/
I don't generally like horror movies. I picked ones that I thought were most likely to be recent classics of their kind.
But I thought Halloween was a good time to send a couple to each unit for those who are fans of the genre.
Seriously, nina, candy is heavy.
What did you pay in postage for 44 lbs that was not in flat rate boxes?
You do have the advantage of being on the East Coast, which I sure don't, when it comes to mailing rates for APO addresses.
How great you got a letter back from the Chaplain!
Would you be interested in heading up a drive for winter shoes and coats for kids in Afghanistan? I'm thinking maybe lightly used shoes and coats or ones from thrift shops could be sent to make it cost realistic.
Just don't know how to mail them economically if you're not on the East Coast. Maybe trusted FReepers could mail them directly and not through us.
I'd have to line up a volunteer in Afghanistan who'd be willing to receive them. Probably a Chaplain. I've had a couple letters asking me to get involved with this, and was too busy with 4th of July, the luau, and Halloween packages to think about it.
Are you game?
Let me drop some feeders. But, if we have some Freepers interested, I am up for it.
Well, SAW will have to wait for quite a while. I've had my fill of horror movies for the foreseeable future.
Are you a fan? Is SAW good, or funny, or what?
patriciaruth
You are a wonderful woman, we love you! Thanks for keeping us posted.
Great. I'll go back and pick up the names of the FReepers who proposed this project...it may take me a while to find that information so I may not get back to you for some days on this.
My daughter and I enjoy the horror genre, but in the last 2 or so years, we have turned to foreign horror to find interesting movies. Then we saw SAW. I was impressed. Probably one of the best horror flicks I have seen, at least in a very long time.
I even mentioned it to a woman at the dog park where we go, her husband loves horror flicks, too. She said he had the exact same reaction.
Okay, I'll look for SAW next year.
Unless you want to get one and mail it off to Baghdad or Mosul for this Halloween.
You have email!
What are your 10 or so most enjoyed horror or Halloween movies from the last 10-20 years?
I'll never forget House on Haunted Hill when I was a teenager and went with friends. That scene where he turns around and sees the old lady who looks like a witch/ghost? I heard this scream echoing through the theatre and realized it was mine.
Then there was the time I was watching a horror film on TV with my Dad, and almost simultaneously with a sudden scary scene, I unconsciously, instinctively reacted by grabbing my Dad's arm and biting it!
Needless to say, I'm not one who should watch this kind of movie with anyone.
It was just $18. I was thrilled - I thought it would be $40 or so.
That's the beauty of living so much closer to the Army mail staging area.
I have to ship all the way across the country to get it there.
You may find that doing regular packages is cheaper than flat rate boxes where you are.
But they still have to go PRIORITY AIRMAIL.
Anyway...I was just thinking about that huge box arriving there and the delight it will cause...when I opened your post!
Thanks again for going to all that trouble!
Cheers!
Patty
If any of y'all could see your way clear to donate a few bucks, you can see by the letters from the soldiers who have received them, that the guys and gals really appreciate having a fine tool to use.
Thanks for allowing the brief commercial interruption. ;o)
Could you post the costs of the items you are seeking donors for ... in case anyone is interested.
I see from the Hobbit Hole site that you all have donated over 900 knives so far, but that the current units who were promised knives are deactivating and going to be home soon, and you'll be shipping the knives to their homes when you get enough donations to continue your project.
We managed to get 92 headlamps to Mosul and 35 to Kirkuk. And now the new unit at Mosul is already equipped with them by the Army.
I will check with the new unit in Mosul if they already have a good knives. And I'll check with the soldiers at Tal Afar.
Meanwhile let me know the prices.
Thanks, Suzi!
We could also check with our contact at Bagram air base in Afghanistan if the Special Forces that go through there would like knives...but our contact is so busy we rarely hear from her.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.