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.

[fanfan]

It was one of the Net Force series by Tom Clancy.
Paperback.
We had it here at home. :-)

[fanfan]

Otherwise I'll just use my foggy memories of being a deployed troop. :-)

Thanks for your service, Coop!

[Coop]

It was an honor. :-)

[StarCMC]

Thanks again for being such an angel for our military!

I second that, Coop!!

[JoyjoyfromNJ]

Updated decoration list for Mosul from memory:
LOTS of flag picks (300+); 5 metallic flag banners, approx 11 ft each; 1 flag banner 12 feet; 1 plastic "bunting" banner, approx 12 ft;10 RWB wire garlands approx 18 to 25 ft each; 200 napkins;70 RWB "chinese" yo-yo's (they flick in and out from a stick);5 RWB tablecloths. Will be checking out another party supply store this afternoon and will post updates, probably tomorrow afternoon. I'm aiming to get this all in the mail Saturday May 13. Will post when mailed

[kattracks]

Ooops. Thanks Patty, I should have figured that out for myself.

I replaced the popcorn with a pkg. of Chex Cheddar mix and another pkg. of Potato sticks. Oh, and 36 Flag napkins (which I forgot to include in my list yesterday).

I also have the Godzilla DVD for Tal Afar which I'll include in their 4th of July package

[technochick99]

bump for a later read

[Abigail Adams]

Thanks for the cookie idea, Patty!

[Kitty Mittens]

Dear Sister in our Lord, I am So Grateful to our God for All that you and other Patriots are Doing to Support and Help our Troops! Thank you from my Heart to Everyone Here who Ministers to our Wonderful Military!

[SwatTeam]

Thanks for sharing this e-mail with us. It is good to know that they do get our boxes. I hope to be able to get some more together later this week or early next week. Reading these threads and some of the mil blogs gives more of an idea about what to send.

[patriciaruth]

Joy, Coop is getting 200 large red plastic cups for Mosul, and I have 200 large flag plates I can send them. (I'll send my 200 small flag plates and 200 flag napkins to another unit as you have enough napkins already for Stryker at Mosul.)

You have so many great decorations, maybe you could divide them up and send some to another unit?

[patriciaruth]

Any chance you remember the title of the Net Force book by Clancy? or if your husband does?

[patriciaruth]

I ordered the first 2 seasons of Stargate SG-1 TV series from Amazon, so those are now going to go to fill the list from Tal Afar.

For anyone reading this, we still need seasons 2,3,4 of 24 (Kiefer Sutherland), Seasons 3 and 4 of Smallville (Tom Welling, Kristin Kreuk, Erica ) and Seasons 3,4, and 5 of Stargate SG-1 (Richard Dean Anderson, Amanda Tapping).

Plus
Sean Connery James Bond movies
And Aliens Quadrilogy
and the Star Wars movies (episodes I-VI)

[patriciaruth]

I was just looking at your boxes going to Tal Afar. Wow that's alot of stuff. A lot of Slim Jims.

The Country Time lemonade on-the-go. Are those small envelops like the Crystal Lite on the go ones, where each one flavors a standard issue bottle of water?

[patriciaruth]

Cans of stacked potato chips are always popular. Lays makes them now, as well as the old brand.

[patriciaruth]

Hi, we're sorting out the decorations and goodies for 4th of July.

Any overflow can go to Bagram air base in Afghanistan. I also have a smallish group at Irbil.

Anyone who wants to get some used DVD movies (very good condition from a seller with >95% approval rating) at Amazon is welcome to buy them there and then have them mailed to me.

Most of the Bond movies (except Dr. No) can be had for under $5-7 a piece, including shipping.

That's a painless way your friend could contribute toward the Tal Afar movie requests.

[fanfan]

Any chance you remember the title of the Net Force book by Clancy? or if your husband does?

I'm sorry. It had a silver or gold cover I think.

Why?

[JoyjoyfromNJ]

Patricia:If you'd like me to divert any of the items somewhere else, just let me know what you'd like to go where and freepmail me with the info on the new unit. I intended to get these in the mail by Saturday May 13 but I goofed up my schedule today regarding packing. They'll go out by May 17.

Further supplies: I found a 500 ft roll of RWB crepe streamer and 7 bags of RWB balloons (15 total balloons per bag)

[patriciaruth]

I try to keep record of what's gone over where to prevent duplication.

[patriciaruth]

MASTERLIST books sent to TAL AFAR

Band of Brothers***
Billy Strobe (John Martel)**
Bleachers (John Grisham)***
The Century Collection (People magazine’s 100 most intriguing people)**
Conagher (Louis L’Amour)
Derailed (James Siegel)**
Enchantment (Scott Card)
Ender’s Game (Scott Card)
Glory Road (Robert A. Heinlein)
Home and Away (Scott Simon) **
Hondo (Louis L’Amour)
Jubal Sackett (Louis L’Amour)
King Rat (James Clavell)
The Last Juror (John Grisham)***
Last of the Breed (Louis L’Amour)
Leadership (Rudy Giuliani)**x2
The Man from the Broken Hills (Louis L’Amour)
Master & Commander - Far Side Of the World (Patrick O'Brian)**
Miracle of St. Anna (a WW11 Novel)**
Net Force (gold or silver cover, a Tom Clancy book)****
On Top of the World (about 9/11 and Cantor Fitzgerald)**
Patton, A Genius for War (Carlo D’Este)***
Prince of Ayodhya**
Ride the Dark Trail (Louis L’Amour)
The Right Stuff (Tom Wolfe)
A Royal Duty [about Princess Diana] (Paul Burrell)**
Russka (Edward Rutherford)
Sarum (Edward Rutherford)
The Shadow Riders (Louis L’Amour)
Shogun (James Clavell)
Starship Troopers (Robert A. Heinlein)
Tai-pan (James Clavell)
Tunnel in the Sky (Robert A. Heinlein)
The Winds of War (Herman Wouk)

*jtill donated
**kattracks sent
***SENClander
****fanfan

Daybreakcoming sent Feb 27, 2006
Chicken Soup for the Veteran's Soul
Cabela's Master Spring Catalog
WhiteOut by Ken Follett
Prince of Fire by Daniel Silva
The Archimedes Effect
Tanner On Ice by Lawrence Block
A Rainy Season by James Blaylock
State of Fear by Michael Crichton
London Bridges by James Patterson
Alone by Lisa Gardner
Don't Say A Word by Barbara Freethy

Ones below sent by Tunehead54, January 2006
Bradbury, Ray A Medicine For Melancholy
Case, John Genesis Code, The
Chandler, Raymond Killer In The Rain
Clavell, James Gai-Jin
De Camp, L. Sprague The Best of L. Sprague De Camp
Del Ray, Lester Gods & Golems
Farmer, Phillip Jose Magic Labyrinth, The
Follett, Ken The Key To Rebecca
Francis, Dick For Kicks
Francis, Dick Smokescreen
Francis, Dick Whip Hand
Griffin, WEB Close Combat
Grisham, John Testament, The
Kidder, Tracy Soul of a new machine, The
King, Stephen Cujo
King, Stephen Skeleton Crew
King, Stephen Talisman, The
Koontz, Dean Icebound
Koontz, Dean One Door Away From Heaven
Koontz, Dean Phantoms
Koontz, Dean Servants Of Twilight, The
LeGuin, Ursula Rocannon's World
LeGuin, Ursula Tombs of Atuan, The
Ludlum, Robert Bourne Supremacy, The
Ludlum, Robert Chancellor Manuscript, The
Ludlum, Robert Cry of The Halidon, The
Ludlum, Robert Scorpio Illusion, The
McCullough, Colleen Ladies Of Missalonghi
Michener, James A. Carribbean
Michener, James A. Drifters, The
Niven, Larry Protector
Paretsky, Sara Killing Orders
Pournelle, Jerry Birth Of Fire
Pournelle, Jerry Mercenary, The
Saint, H. F. Memoirs Of An Invisible Man
Sanders, Lawrence Seduction Of Peter S., The
Sanders, Lawrence Sullivan's Sting
Shem, Samuel M.D. House Of God, The
Sjowall, Maj & Wahloo, Per Cop Killer
Sjowall, Maj & Wahloo, Per Locked Room, The
Smith, Martin Cruz Gorky Park
Tey, Josephine Daughter of Time
Van Lustbader, Eric Ninja, The
Van Lustbader, Eric Zero
Wilford John Noble We Reach The Moon
Wolfe, Tom Right Stuff, The