CARE PACKAGES for our Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, 2006

patriciaruth ^ | 1-21-06 | patriciaruth

[patriciaruth]

Welcome to the 2006 thread of the Merry Band of Patriots!

Our grassroots, volunteer group of troop supporters has been sending care packages to servicemen and women in war zones since the summer of 2001 when we began by sending VHS movies and Snickers candy bars to the 101st Airborne and then later the 10th Mountain at Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo.

This last year we sent a couple hundred care packages to troops at Baghdad, Kirkuk, Mosul and Tal Afar in Iraq, at Bagram in Afghanistan, at Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo and to our wounded at Landstuhl Regional Hospital in Germany.

Our specialty in the past has been movies, books, snacks, holiday decorations and some appliances like DVD players and Playstations, and we have sent hundreds of movies to various bases.

This last year we had 6 main projects in addition to the usual care packages:

1. We sent over 80 state-of-the-art Petzl headlamps to our adopted company of Stryker Brigade Combat Team at Mosul and 35 to an MI unit at Kirkuk. This was probably the most appreciated item we've ever sent, thanks to a project that got off the ground due to the work of Spanaway Lori, HannaUSA , and Oatka and 3/4th of which was funded by my optometrist.

2. There was the Personal Care items "Emergency" Airlift to Bagram air base in June and July. (mathluv, nina0113, Coop, JustAmy, airborne, iceskater, Tunehead54, jtill participated.)

3. The 4th of July Party Decorations and Snacks blowout for all our adopted units. (pictures at posts 357, 358, 368 of our 2005 thread)

4. Operation Popcorn in August and September for the Engineers at Baghdad (iceskater, mathluv, SENClander, Coop, Abigail Adams, Ros42, Ican'tbelieve it, jtill and ebay's mshoponline sent over 600 bags of microwave popcorn, while omegatoo's were lost in the shuffle of her evacuating New Orleans prior to the Katrina flooding)

5. The End of Summer Luau for psyops at Baghdad in September and October (MJY1288 mailed off the party things we bought at eBay and Amazon with contributions from fanfan, kattracks, jtill, Just mythoughts, Ros42, Pig Rigger, MJY1288 and Kitty Mittens. Pictures at post 809 of the 2005 thread)

6. Halloween candy and movies for the Troops (kattracks, SENClander, Ican'tbelieveit, Abigail Adams mailed boxes in addition to the ones I sent with donations)

7. The Amazing Christmas and New Years Deluge, when it rained packages at all our adopted bases, especially at Tal Afar.
Special mentions go to Teams captains: mathluv (Engineers Baghdad), Ros42 (psyops Baghdad), CAluvdubya (Tal Afar), Abigail Adams (Stryker at Mosul), VeniVidiVici (MI at Kirkuk), nina0113 (Bagram, Afghanistan). Fairy Godmother Dept. (kattracks), Christmas Trees and Christmas Cards R Us (daybreakcoming), Shipping Dept (MJY1288), DVD Recording Dept (MJY1288), Webhosting and Photoshopping Dept (New Perspective), Daddy Warbucks Dept (my optometrist).

Among the many care packages sent by our troop supporters are these projects.
Boxes of school supplies for Iraqi children were sent by mathluv, Ican'tbelieveit, and my mother to Operation Crayon in Kirkuk.
Some members (CAluvdubya, angelsonmyside, 4integrity, ebay's susiemck) helped fill requests for Western Movies from an MI unit at Kirkuk (now home, movies still there) and Clint Eastwood and Adam Sandler movies from Fox Battery at Kirkuk (now home, movies still there).
bjcintennesse made many dozens of cooling neck scarves and sent them to pysops and Engineers at Baghdad.
DAVEY CROCKETT mailed boxesful of car magazines to a couple units.
A copy of the hardback book about the first year of the Revolutionary War (1776 by David McCullough) was sent to most of our units by DrDeb, iceskater, SwatTeam, and Just a Cowgirl.
Ros42 and mscht adopted a unit at Camp Ramadi for Christmas. (picture at 1195 of the 2005 thread).
CheneyChick and daybreakcoming saw to it that some care packages went to a remnant of our troops still in Kosovo.
Daybreakcoming's sister helped the staffers of the Louisiana legislature send about 8 boxes with around 32 bags of Christmas candy to Tal Afar.

Our many generous donors of checks, cash, money orders, Paypal, shopping cards, phone cards, etc are listed in the Accounting posts in our 2005 thread which can be linked from the post below.

We were surprised and emotional when we received back from our adopted units some of the items pictured below, and a big thank you to jkphoto for taking the pictures and webhosting them.

[patriciaruth]

I just put you on the ping list. Check post a couple above this one.

[patriciaruth]

Dear FRiends, I am requesting prayers for daybreakcoming who has been undergoing chemotherapy this past month. That is all I know. May our good Lord keep her in His loving and healing care.

Email from BAQUBAH follows. Also please note the post office would like the Christmas packages mailed by December 4, but most of our units get their mail quickly, and December 5-7 would be fine.

***

Dear Patty..,
We got the christmas tree in the mail this week. I greatly appreciate [mass55th]’s gift to brighten our holiday spirit, the men of A Co will have their own little piece of Christmas here in Baqubah. We do have a microwave and electricity at the JCOP.

Thanks for the kind words as we continue the fight, even through the loss of the good men in our unit. I want to thank everyone for the gifts and I will try to send a picture of the tree, once it is set up. Keep us in our prayers and thanks for all the support.

[LT]

***
OK, JustAmy! Mail the microwave popcorn, too!!

[Jim Robinson]

Prayers on the way.

[patriciaruth]

Thank you so much, dear Jim.

[airborne]

You’ll be in my prayers!

[Paperdoll]

Prayers going up right now for daybreakcoming, may our dear Lord give her His peace and healing.

I will also be sending another box to the troops for Christmas. Will you tell me where it is most needed? I received a lovely letter for the last one I sent to Afghanistan. Thank you.

[Paperdoll]

PING 2126, and God bless you.

[Abigail Adams]

Prayers up for daybreakcoming!

[Dante3]

BUMP

[Kitty Mittens]

Praying for Daybreakcoming, in our Savior's Beautiful Name.

[cubreporter]

Prayers

[patriciaruth]

Mailed December 1, 2007, to Balad, Iraq
1 box of 3 (2 more to go out Monday), insured $76.37, postage $11.00
5 DVD movies:
Die Hard (Bruce Willis)
Live Free and Die Hard (Bruce Willis)
Lives of Others (about East Germany under the Soviets)
Frequency (Dennis Quaid, Jim Caviezel)
Tombstone (Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, Sam Elliott)
2 packs of Pepperidge Farms Cookies, 8 large cookies/pack: dark choc pecan, white choc macadamia
3 boxes Swiss Miss hot chocolate mix with marshmallows, 10 envelops/box

Mailed December 1, 2007, to STRYKER at Baqubah, Iraq, 3 boxes
#11, box 3, insured $249.16 (value $261.16), postage $14.20 with confirmation
1 Santa Hat
6 boxed TV DVD series:
Smallville, Seasons 1-6 (Tom Welling, Kristin Kruek)
Season 7, first two episodes
2 DVD movies:
Nativity Story
Die Hard (Bruce Willis)
Reagan Ranch 2008 Calendar

#10, box 2, value $29.15, postage $8.95
1 DVD movie:
Gettysburg (Jeff Daniels, Martin Sheen, Tom Berenger)
4 packs Pepperidge Farms Cookies, 8 large cookies/pack: dark chocolate pecan, milk chocolate macadamia, white chocolate macadamia, oatmeal raisin
2 cans 1 lb. Planters cashews

#9, box 1, value $29.73, postage $8.95
6 packs of Pepperidge Farms Cookies, 8 large cookies/pack: dark choc pecan, milk choc macadamia, white choc macadamia, oatmeal raisin, milk choc caramel, cinnamon sugar.
1 DVD movie:
Tombstone (Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, Sam Elliott)

Mailed December 1, 2007, to HHC of NPTT at Baghdad, 4 boxes
Box 4 (large), insured $74.86, postage $34.90
3 boxes 24 larger shatterproof ball ornaments, red, silver, blue
3 boxes 32 smaller shatterproof ball ornaments, red, silver, blue
1 box 32 shatterproof ball ornaments, gold, green, red, blue
1 box 21 small glass ornaments, various objects
2 boxes 200 ornament hangers
gold treetop multipoint lighted star
1 red felt tree skirt
1 Santa hat
1 string indoor/outdoor multicolored C9 lights

Box 1, insured $49.46, postage $10.60
1 boxed set 3 DVD movies plus bonus disc:
Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Arc (Harrison Ford)
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Harrison Ford)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Harrison Ford, Sean Connery)
3 silver beads/silver rope tree garlands, each 6 feet
1 pack 1000 silver foil icicles
2 packs 200 silver glitter icicles
1 family size box Wheat Thin crackers
7 individual large packets Whoppers

Box 2, value $29.73, postage $8.95
2 bricks 12 oz Hickory Farms cheddar cheese
2 bags 8 Giardelli raspberry chocolate squares
1 box 12 Ferrero Rocher hazelnut chocolate truffles
1 can 1 lb Planter’s cashews
1 box 10 envelops Swiss Miss hot chocolate mix with marshmallows
1 small pack hot snack mix
1 small pack macadamia nuts
6 individual large 1.75 oz packets Whoppers
1 calendar 2008 Easter Seals flowers

Box 3, value $13.56, postage $8.95
1 box 1000 silver foil icicles
4 packs Pepperidge Farms Cookies, 8 large cookies/pack: 2 dark chocolate pecan, 2 white chocolate macadamia
2 boxes 10 envelopes Swiss Miss hot chocolate mix with marshmallows

[nina0113]

Mailed Dec 1 to Bagram

Boxes 1, 2, 3 & 4 are party stuff; 5, 6 & 7 are individual gift bags. Total weight was 267 pounds plus some ounces. I made a note that the 18 x 18 x 18 boxes are too large because you can put enough stuff in them to pull muscles trying to lift them. 21 x 15 x 10 are much better.

Box 1
Pepperidge Farm Goldfish, 58 oz.
Danish Butter cookies, 4 lbs.
Biscotti rolled wafers, 26.5 oz
Poppycock, 30 oz.
34-qt. canister Tropical Punch kool-aid
Oriental cracker mix, 2-24 oz. bags
Soft Peppermint Puffs, 4 lbs.
Choc covered orange sticks, 6-8 oz. boxes
Dark Chocolate cherries, 4 boxes (10 ct.)
2 boxes spiced cider mix

Box 2
Goldfish, 58 oz.
Butter Cookies, 4 lbs.
Peppermint Puffs, 4 lbs.
Tropical Punch Kool-aid, 34 qt.
Twizzlers, 180-ct.
Plain M&Ms, 56 oz.
Peanut M&Ms, 56 oz.
Oriental Snack Mix, 24 oz.
Dark Chocolate Cherries, 2 boxes

Box 3
Honey Roasted Peanuts, 52 oz.
Deluxe nuts No Peanuts, 24 oz.
Biscotti rolled wafers, 2 cans of 26.5 oz
Milk Chocolate Cherries, 5 boxes (20 ct.)
Poppycock, 30 oz.
Soft Plastic Punch Bowl (really it’s supposed to be a salad bowl, but it was the only one flexible enough for me to trust to shipping)
punch ladle
2 plastic serving bowls with Santas
2 gold plastic candy dishes
200 green beverage napkins
4 snowman serving platters
3 18-foot green tinsel garland
3 18-foot gold tinsel garland
Dark Chocolate Cherries, 4 boxes of 10
Milk Chocolate Cherries, 1 box of 10
1 box chocolate covered orange sticks
48 foam Christmas dessert plates

Box 4
Christmas vinyl tablecloth
96 Christmas drink cups
Nativity window clings
48 foam Christmas dessert plates
24 red shatterproof ornaments
extra food that didn’t come out even from the gift bags
100+ cards handmade by local middle-schoolers
Salsa microwave popcorn (lost count of boxes)
Marshmallow microwave popcorn (lost count of boxes)

1 unwrapped gift bag containing:

• 1 handmade middleschooler card
  
• 1 storeboughten card (co-workers helped out again this year with these, and even prompted me to bring in the cards
  
• 2 spiced cider envelopes
  
• 1 mocha cappucino cocoa env
  
• 1 butterfingers cocoa env
  
• 1 cocoa with marshmallows env
  
• 2 regular cocoa envelopes
  
• 3 slim jims
  
• 1 pack of oreos
  
• 1 rice krispie treat
  
• 1 peanut butter & cheese cracker pack
  
• 1 candy bag containing 1 snickers bar, 5 Wurther’s butter toffees, and 5 Hershey miniatures

Box 5, 6 & 7 contained 103 of the gift bags listed above, wrapped. I had a few more boxes of the flavored popcorn so I stuffed them in Box 7.

[nina0113]

prayers up & will remember you at Mass today.

[patriciaruth]

My jaw just dropped open.

Oh, Nina, you have done a heroic job here. They are going to be astounded opening these boxes just as I am reading about them.

Thank you for sharing all these details. I have a couple movies to send and I have dithered over what to put in the box with them. I’m not sure there is anything I’ve thought of that you haven’t already sent.

God bless you and your sister! (or was it a friend that was helping you get all this huge project organized?)

[nina0113]

A friend helped me a lot; she heads the science dept. at a local middle school. I had actually intended to bail on doing anything this year, due to Steve’s and my health problems, but when she asked if it would be okay if the kids made Christmas cards, I just had to step up. Can’t let the kids down! I only read a few of their cards but they made me cry. And there were so MANY! One for each gift bag, plus over 100 extra.

One thing I did NOT send is regular popcorn, so you might want to give them some of that. I had a bunch of boxes of flavored popcorn stockpiled as fillers. My intention was to throw in a couple every time I sent regular popcorn, but I ended up using them all on this just to free up the space in the house. I wish I’d taken a picture of the wreckage while I had the assembly line going, but I couldn’t find the camera. The empty cocoa boxes etc. are still in the back bedroom, but I’m afraid to go in there now - I think I saw one moving.

[Abigail Adams]

Mailed to Stryker on 12/3/07, in 3 flat-rate boxes:

18 boxes of Swiss Mix Hot Cocoa Mix, 10 envelopes in each box, for a total of 180 envelopes.

1 Christmas card

[patriciaruth]

Fantastic! There’ll be a lot of Christmas cheer in all the hot chocolate! :-)

[patriciaruth]

My living room looked like a warehouse for a couple years after we started doing this. Then my husband finally prevailed on me to move it to the guest room. When Mom came to live with us, the troop support stuff was pared down to under the master bed and in one drawer.

Basically I now don’t get stuff until the day or two before I pack and mail it.

That so many others are helping send out packages now has also helped clean up our house.

Give your friend a big hug from me, because if you hadn’t done Bagram I don’t know what we would have done.

I ordered a few more movies for Bagram, which will get here Wednesday, and I’ll mail out their one box from me on Thursday.

I was going to go to the post office this morning to mail out a couple more boxes for Balad; but when I walked into the kitchen, there was a major ant colony moving in for the winter, and I ended up with Fastastic in one hand and Raid in the other for an hour instead of going out.

[patriciaruth]

Mailed December 3, 2007, by Paperdoll to Stryker at Baqubah, 2 boxes containing:
2 pair warm socks
9 cotton handkerchiefs
2 videos (Blazing Saddles and a Star Trek)
Christmas candy (four kinds)
10 packs gum
2 boxes (20 envelops) hot chocolate drink
Keebler’s chocolate chip cookies
Old Spice after shave
Olive oil soap
book by Charles Coulson
2 chapsticks
game of Phase 10
6 microwave popcorn
crossword puzzle book