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]

Have FReepmailed you the new APO for the follow-on unit at Camp Liberty in case you don’t have it.

[TruthNtegrity]

It’s still going over 100 most days in Baghdad, just so you know. I saw that you usually don’t send chocolate until October.

I’ve been sending M&M’s and Peanut M&M’s which I was told was invented during WW II so that they wouldn’t melt in soldier’s pockets. I didn’t know that and haven’t verified it so please don’t quote me.

I can send some boxes of goodies for Halloween and Christmas.

You have FReepmail.

TNT

[Dante3]

BUMP

[patriciaruth]

Walmart had a $5 a piece sale on some oldies but goodies movies, so I sent a care package to a new National Police Transition Team unit at Baghdad.

Mailed September 13, 2007, to HHC of NPTT
1 box; insured $97.04, postage $11.00
12 DVD movies:
Air Force One (Harrison Ford)
Along Came a Spider (Morgan Freeman)
City Slickers (Billy Crystal, Jack Palance)
Galaxy Quest (Tim Allen, Tony Shalhoub, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman)
Flight of the Phoenix (Dennis Quaid)
Flight 93
The Man from Snowy River (Tom Burlinson, Kirk Douglas)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart)
My Cousin Vinny (Marisa Tomei, Joe Pesci)
True Lies (Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis)
The Tuxedo (Jackie Chan, Jennifer Love Hewitt)
The Untouchables (Sean Connery, Kevin Costner)
15 Power Bars (peanut, smores, toffee)
15 Magazines/Newspapers:
4 Weekly Standard, Aug 6, July 9, July 16, Sept 13
4 Sports Illustrated: 7/23, 7/30, NFL Preview, August 27
First Freedom Sept 2007
Army July 2007
Decision: Ukraine
4 Washington Times weekly: August 20, Sept 3, Sept 10, Sept 17,

[Paperdoll]

Please FReepmail that APO to me as well. Thank you, pr.

[fanfan]

Good on you Patty.

[Ros42]

Bumparoo!! :^}

[SENClander]

Wow — that’s a lot of movies! I know they’ll love that package.

[patriciaruth]

DrDeb found this article which speculates on current operations and strategy in Afghanistan. A fascinating read.

Link to American Thinker article, A Quiet Triumph May be Brewing

Recommend all those buying Halloween candy for Bagram, Afghanistan, and our two new NPTT units in Baghdad get their candy now and then hold to mail until October 15.

[patriciaruth]

DrDeb found this article which speculates on current operations and strategy in Afghanistan. A fascinating read.

Link to American Thinker article, A Quiet Triumph May be Brewing

Recommend all those buying Halloween candy for Bagram, Afghanistan, and our two new NPTT units in Baghdad get their candy now and then hold to mail until October 15.

[Dante3]

BUMP

[Paperdoll]

Hey pat! On 9/19/07 I sent a box to Afghanistan containing:

2 video movies
3 pr. socks
12 cotton handkerchiefs
After shave
deoderant
ten pkgs. Red Hot gum
Lemon drops
chapstick
toothpaste
toothbrush
2 Cross word mags

Insured for $70.00

I hope these packages get through okay. I’ve never had a reply to any of them in over three years.

[patriciaruth]

Thanks for sending that great care package to Bagram. I’m trying to get some feedback from our contact there, but it may be that they have been extremely busy with the operation at Tora Bora is why our communication has gone silent lately.

I’ll let you know if I hear anything back.

Can you tell me the titles of the VHS movies you sent? I’d like to put them on our Masterlist of movies that have gone there.

[patriciaruth]

Heard from our Bagram contact. On leave in Europe and will be back at Bagram in a week or so. They’ll hold your package if it gets there before the contact arrives back.

They got the packages I sent in July and early September. I’ll check in again in a week to be sure your package made it.

They are always thrilled to get goodies from home, especially when things are tougher than usual, so I know it will be well received.

THANK YOU from me for now. :-)

[WestCoastGal]

I don’t know if you’v heard of this but there’s a website and a place to send expired coupons that the military can use at the commissary.

http://groups.msn.com/MomsHelpingMomsaveMoney/wantedexpiredcoupons.msnw

[donnab]

Thank you for that link. The kids and I are going to collect everyones coupons and send them on. What a great idea to do. Thank you again.

[WestCoastGal]

Please pass it on.

I always clip coupons and forget to use them. :)

[Ros42]

Patty,
Can you FRmail me an address to send Halloween candy to?
Thanks!

[Abigail Adams]

Where should I send a box of Halloween candy to? Thanks!

[SENClander]

I sent four flat-rate boxes to the NPTT unit at Camp Liberty today — all for Halloween.

Box 1
1 giant poseable spider — yep it filled the whole box!

Box 2
2 collapsible trick-or-treat buckets (black cat & pumpkin)
20 packs gum
1 bag Hershey’s caramel filled Kisses
12 Halloween wrapped candy bars (Hershey bars, Reeses, York patties, KitKats)
22 mini-bags Utz’ Halloween pretzel treats

Box 3
1 big bag of individual packs Brach’s candy corn
2 boxes Peeps ghosts
1 DVD “Vacancy” — billed as a thriller
12 packs Motts apple cider mix
2 bags fun size Skittles

Box 4
2 boxes (6 packs each) Orville Redenbacher’s popcorn
2 shakers butter-flavored popcorn seasoning
2 bags Kraft caramels
2 boxes Peeps pumpkins

These might get there a little early, but I’m sure they won’t mind! :o)