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.
How do you Jiffy pop if you don't have electricity?
There's this new invention called fire. :-) Or you can set it on the hot engine of a HMMWV (Hummer), tank, whatever kind of vehicle. That's often how they cook MREs. Some of those engines should put off enough heat to pop the corn.
I'll leave it up to you, Coop, to include the cooking directions, and maybe a Boy Scout manual.... a couple sticks to rub together...?
WOW! You and the gang are doing AMAZING work for our troops!
Just wanted to let you know that I put my package in the mail on May 10 . . . If you need anything else, just let me know!
Don't the MRE's come with a chemical heating element?
Yes, or at least they used to. But you're lucky to warm a cup of water with it. Can't see it working on Jiffy Pop. But I guess if they saved a bunch of them...
Any chance of getting 40 more flag plates and napkins for Tal Afar? They have enough cups. That would do it for them, if you can manage.
Sorry, I wasn't saying that to confuse you. My baked goods experience was from years ago. They did arrive without mold, usually, but please listen to Patty in this post-9/11 world. I didn't realize there were now APO restrictions.
People who are not mailing to family can't send baked goods because there is the risk of food poisoning and sabotage with worse things.
You two made me laugh.
That's all.
For clarification, 'pre-prepared' cookies and brownies.
:-D
Who's begging you for cookies and brownies?
Well, time to go out and and get a few items at the store.
Talk with you all later.
Cheers!
Patty
Makes complete sense, unfortunately.
See you!
I have packed 4th of July boxes for Tal Afar and border Stryker.
Tal Afar includes: cookies, Crystal Light on-the-go packets, tea-in-no-time packets, slim jims, beef jerky, napkins (showing three guys grilling outside on the front), red buttermint creams, RWB balloons, baseball bounce balls, cracker jack, watermelon shaped and flavored bubble gum, tinsel RWB garlands, 2 CD's of patriotic songs, and a bag of plastic insects (can't have a 4th of July picnic without insects!).
Stryker includes: tea-on-the go, Crystal Light on-the-go, beef jerky, slim jims, pringles, the watermelon bubble gun, cracker jack, napkins (above), baseball bounce balls, RWB balloons, paper flag banners, starburst centerpieces, buttermint creams, insects (above), sunblock lip balm, individually wrapped hand sanitizing wipes.
I haven't addressed the boxes yet, so if you want me to send them somewhere else, let me know.
Could you let me know the amounts you are sending? How many cookies or size (ounces) of the bag, and what kind of cookies. How many balloons approximately? How many garlands, banners and centerpieces?
Looks great!
Thanks for supporting the troops!
Thanks for supporting the troops!
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