Posted on 01/21/2006 3:06:06 PM PST by 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.
I ordered Desperate Crossing for our NPTT unit at Baghdad.
We generally don’t do a special Thanksgiving mailing. I think because we had troops once that said they wanted the goodies for Christmas. We tide over between 9/11 and Christmas with Halloween mailings which are going out this week as our units get their mail in 7-9 days generally. There are several people lined up to do packages for Christmas, but they won’t be mailing till the week before Thanksgiving.
Last time we had an adopted unit that was over a month out of touch was when the Stryker units were on the move a couple years ago.
I’ll ask the moderator to change the title of this thread to update it, but I’m too ill and tied up with my elderly mother right now to post a completely new one. I’ve given up trying to do that and am going to wait till January for the 2008 one.
I’m going back to check your other post, which was full of many suggestions (many of which we have sent in the past).
Check our posts 31, 32, and 49, I believe, where we posted our usual operating procedures. The only thing that has changed since then, I think, is the postal rates.
Could you update the title of this thread to
Care Packages for our Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, 2006-2007
I’m not well enough to post an updated thread and am going to wait till January to do one for 2008.
I was at Camp Vance on Bagram AB back in 2005. Thank you so very much for what you do and God bless you!
GB
You may have seen one of the 6 foot prelit Christmas trees that daybreakcoming sent to Bagram via the PSYOP unit there in 2005.
Thank you so very much for your service.
Our troop support group is lesser in strength now due to the passing of some of our members, and the taxes on my time and energy having to take care of my elderly mother now; but we are still lurching along doing a few things.
I’m also sending Gettysburg because of what Colonel Chamberlain endured and accomplished (won the Medal of Honor) as a result of not giving up.
The same message is in the book 1776 by David McCullough.
We try to get that book to all our adopted units.
I was there from Jan - May. I still saw some of the things that were left after the holiday. I was only there for a short time compared to some of the Army folk! What you do really makes a difference for them.
Thank YOU for your service!
Are they dropping care packages to them in Korengal Valley? Or would that package wait back at base till they return?
If the packages would get through, I’ll try to recruit an optometrist I know to send your grandson some beef jerky for his unit.
Please FReepmail me his APO and approximate number in his unit.
And they say that you don’t play well with others....
I'll freepmail you
really small, but I use PhotoBucket and it downsizes...
Patty, Sent 3 Flat Rate Boxes of Halloween candy to Bagram yesterday.
Total cost of candy $75.00
Box 1 (all invidividually wrapped)
2 bags of Hersheys Kisses
1 bag of York Patties
2 bags Assorted Flavors, Bubble Gum Pops
1 bag Reese’s Crispy Crunchy Bars
2 bags Double Crisp Chocolate Pumpkins
2 bags Hersheys Milk Duds
2 bags Tootsie Roll Pops
Box 2
1 bag Nestle Butterfingers
1 bag Sncikers (almond)
1 bag Snickers
2 bags Smarties
2 bags Peanut Butter Kisses
2 bags Blow Pops
2-100 piece bags of Double Bubble Gum
1 bag Peanut M&M’s
Box3
1 bag Nestle Crunch Crisp bars
1 bag Peanut Butter M & M’s
1 bag Reeses Peanut Butter Cups
1 bag Cellar Dwellers (Double Crisp Chocoloate pumpkins and bats—Fudge filled cats & rats)
2 bags Iced Pumpkin Pops (suckers)
3 bags Twix Mini’s Minx (Snickers, Milky Way, 3 Musketeer, Dark Milky Way Twix)
Halloween Card :)
WOW!!!
I can send a box or two to your grandson, too — if you’d like me to.
Wow, Amy — wonderful boxes. Glad you found the cider.
I didn’t know you were ill, Patty. Hope you’re better soon. You’re the heart of the Merry Band.
Mailed October 19, 2007, to NPTT at Baghdad:
1 box, insured $192.03, postage 11.40
15 funsize Snickers
1 bag 12 pkg Whoppers
1 bag 15 Reese’s peanut butter cups
2 TV series:
Smallville, Season 6
Planet Earth, BBC complete version with David Attenborough narrating
DVD movies:
Click (Adam Sandler)
Desperate Crossing (HISTORY channel story of the Pilgrims, Mayflower, and Plymouth settlement)
Gettysburg (Jeff Daniels, Martin Sheen, Tom Berenger)
Independence Day (Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman)
The Mummy (Brendan Frasier)/The Mummy Returns/The Scorpion King (The Rock)
4 Books:
Roberts Ridge (Malcolm MacPherson)
Reagan’s War (Peter Schweizer)
Man from the Broken Hills (Louis L’Amour)
Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
Mailed October 19, 2007, to Bagram, Afghanistan,
1 box, insured $65.61, postage $11.00
1 box set TV series: Smallville, Season 6 (Tom Welling, Kristin Kruek)
2 bags 38.5 oz Hershey’s miniatures, dark chocolate and special nuts
1 bag 38.5 oz Hershey’s miniatures, mixture milk chocolate, dark, Mr. Goodbar, almond
1 bag Snickers funsize (~48)
Is anyone else having trouble opening post #2059?
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