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Air Force brings unlikely Christmas to remote Pacific islands
MSN ^ | 12/25/15 | Kirk Spitzer

Posted on 12/25/2015 9:35:42 AM PST by DoodleDawg

FAIS ISLAND, Micronesia - "Santa One-One" was late, and the chief of this tiny island in the western Pacific was concerned: Would there be no Christmas this year? No toys or school supplies?

"They are coming today? You are sure?" Louis Mangtau asked.

But soon, the afternoon stillness was broken by an Air Force C-130 cargo plane flying low over the palm trees. In its wake was a crate decorated in red-and-white Christmas wrapping, floating gently to earth on a military-green parachute.

Strong, young men wrestled the bundle from the open field where it landed to the nearby village center. There, amid broad smiles and cheerful banter, Mangtau passed out the contents: toy trucks and soccer balls, rubber sandals and T-shirts, fishhooks and fishing line and all manner of daily necessities unavailable on remote islands in the Pacific.

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: airdrops; c139; christmas; faisisland; fishing; islands; kapingamarangi; micronesia; santa; usaf
Nice little Christmas story.
1 posted on 12/25/2015 9:35:42 AM PST by DoodleDawg
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To: DoodleDawg

But no money for funerals for service members. Sorry to be a downer. Merry Christmas.


2 posted on 12/25/2015 9:43:23 AM PST by rey
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To: DoodleDawg

Very good! Thanks for posting this. Merry Christmas to you and yours.


3 posted on 12/25/2015 9:43:51 AM PST by zot
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To: DoodleDawg

Cargo cult alive and well ...


4 posted on 12/25/2015 9:46:28 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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To: rey

Read the article, it says it doesn’t cost much as most funds are raised by charity events and items are donated. Plus it’s a training exercise for the troops. Hope that makes you feel better, Ebenezer! ;)


5 posted on 12/25/2015 9:49:12 AM PST by To Hell With Poverty (All freedom must be transported in bottles of 3 oz or less. - Freeper relictele)
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To: rey
But no money for funerals for service members. Sorry to be a downer. Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas to you, Mr. Grinch.

6 posted on 12/25/2015 9:49:16 AM PST by DoodleDawg
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To: rey
But no money for funerals for service members. Sorry to be a downer. Merry Christmas.

Sorry to hear of your loss

If you have a funding web site for contributions to your relative/fiends funeral expense, please post it.

7 posted on 12/25/2015 10:02:50 AM PST by spokeshave (MDSM = Mentally Discombobulated Screaming Media)
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To: To Hell With Poverty
Read the article, it says it doesn’t cost much as most funds are raised by charity events and items are donated. Plus it’s a training exercise for the troops. Hope that makes you feel better, Ebenezer! ;)

I watch the CHRISTMAS CAROL every year, but ONLY the one with George C. Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge. It's the BEST.

8 posted on 12/25/2015 10:17:51 AM PST by cloudmountain
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To: rey

What you are writing is patently incorrect.

What has been cut is firing squads for veteran funerals.

If the service person is killed in combat, they will certainly provide the service.

If someone did two years unloading planes in Germany in 1961, then no...there is not money for a fully staffed funeral.

Yes, service is important. Yes, I respect it.

But we all bitch about government spending. What do we cut?


9 posted on 12/25/2015 3:15:05 PM PST by Vermont Lt (I had student debt. It came from a bank. Not from the Govt.)
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To: Vermont Lt

No brainer. We cut fa**oty a** videos with midshipman dancing around lipsinking to some crap pop song at tax payer expense, then, if need be, we cut the other.


10 posted on 12/25/2015 4:57:47 PM PST by rey
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To: Vermont Lt

So you are defending the lessening respect of veterans at their funerals, for a few miserly dollars of ammunition.


11 posted on 12/26/2015 2:26:57 AM PST by Lazamataz (It has gotten to the point where any report from standard news outlets must be fact-checked.)
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To: Lazamataz

First of all, they do not use ammo. That would be irresponsible.

Second of all, YOU were all for the sequester. What did you think they would cut? Welfare?

What kind of a conservative are you? That is naive isn’t it?


12 posted on 12/26/2015 4:55:40 AM PST by Vermont Lt (I had student debt. It came from a bank. Not from the Govt.)
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To: Vermont Lt
First of all, they do not use ammo. That would be irresponsible.

Blanks and adapters, you special kind of moron. Nearly the same price.

Second of all, YOU were all for the sequester. What did you think they would cut? Welfare?

I sure don't do what YOU do, which is to justify the cutting of the honoring of our fallen vets.

How did you escape notice all these years?

13 posted on 12/26/2015 5:09:49 AM PST by Lazamataz (It has gotten to the point where any report from standard news outlets must be fact-checked.)
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To: Lazamataz

So, what part of the defense budget would you cut? And it’s not the ammo cost, you fool. It’s time, transportation, and lost opportunity costs.

I would love to have full honor guards at every vets funeral.

I understand why the government can’t pay for it, and keep the military industrial complex fed every day.

And, blanks are not ammo. Fool.


14 posted on 12/26/2015 5:13:28 AM PST by Vermont Lt
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To: Vermont Lt
So, what part of the defense budget would you cut?

Just about anything but this, liberal.

15 posted on 12/26/2015 5:14:39 AM PST by Lazamataz (It has gotten to the point where any report from standard news outlets must be fact-checked.)
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To: Vermont Lt
I understand why the government can’t pay for it, and keep the military industrial complex fed every day.

Tell me how saving, what, 0.0000002% of a military budget will balance our books.

Wow, what a jerkoff you are.

16 posted on 12/26/2015 5:22:53 AM PST by Lazamataz (It has gotten to the point where any report from standard news outlets must be fact-checked.)
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