Posted on 03/29/2008 11:24:00 PM PDT by patriciaruth
Welcome to the 2008 thread of the Merry Band of Patriots!
Our grassroots group of troop supporters started in the summer of 2001 by sending VHS movies and Snickers candy bars to the 101st Airborne and later the 10th Mountain at Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo. We are not an organized charity as no one of us has the time or energy to do all that paperwork, and any contributions made are not tax deductible.
Our specialty in the past has been movies, books, snacks, personal care items, holiday decorations and some appliances like DVD players, microwaves, and Playstations; and we have sent many hundreds of movies to various bases. Normally we adopt a whole unit and send care packages to a contact in that unit who distributes the goodies to all in the unit. When our adopted units rotate back stateside, they leave the items which are not consumable for the use of their follow-on unit. Thus we have helped build up entertainment libraries throughout the war zones.
REVIEW OF 2006
In 2006 we entered our 6th year of sending care packages to our troops in war zones We adopted the follow-on PSYOP company at Bagram air base in Afghanistan and a follow-on Stryker Brigade company at Mosul in Iraq. We also adopted a new company of 141st Signal battalion in the 1st Armored Division that started at Tal Afar and was soon moved to Ramadi as a tip of the spear there in 2006, just after another adopted unit (Old Sarge’s unit) at Ramadi left. Here are a couple emails from Chris that say it all for what they went through there.
“The bad news is that my team has been activated and now has a mission in downtown Ramadi, the most dangerous place in Iraq.” –June 15, 2006
“…can you say, BOMB MAGNET?!!” -- June 16, 2006
[It didn't help that a reporter with a major news service helped the terrorists spot their RPG trajectories by publishing that one had fallen 20 feet short, resulting the next day in an RPG killing one of our contact's fellow soldiers.]
“Last week another soldier and I were at our communication trucks when an RPG hit a humvee right outside our compound wall about 10 feet away. It rocked the trucks. We both opened the doors to our trucks to run inside when a 2nd RPG flew over the wall, through our camouflage net, bounced off the top of our trucks and hit the ground exploding right in front of us. I was closest, about 2 feet away. The blast threw us back into the trucks. The other guy only had his glasses knocked off. He got right back up and ran inside. I don't remember the exact details but I remember the blast throwing me back inside the truck and into the signal equipment. I think I was stunned and dazed because I sat there for a few minutes before I regained situational awareness and got the hell out of there. I suffered a concussions and some hearing loss.” –August 10, 2006
A lot of prayers were said for our guys at Ramadi, which is now a relatively peaceful city under Anbar Awakening, and our contacts are safely home.
In 2006 we were also glued to a couple companies of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team out of Fort Richardson in Alaska. (Most of the Brigade bases at Ft Wainwright.) Our adopted company in an SBCT the year before had been at Fallujah 2004 and then met evil face to face and endured some horrific times at Mosul (2004-2005). They witnessed atrocities to the civilian population by the terrorists and they experienced IED attacks and the mess hall bombing at FOB Marez that left some of our company very severely injured with one KIA.
Their follow-on unit and a sister company that we also adopted were faced with pacifying the towns along the Syrian border. In 2006 they moved out from Mosul into Ft Talafar, FOB Heider, COP Rawah, and other locations and brought a return to sanity for the locals from the murderous reign of radical and vicious terrorists enforcing their idea of Sharia law.
Alpha company of 4-23 infantry regiment of SBCT was out in the sand in tents at COP Rawah in the late winter and into the blistering summer heat with few amenities, so we concentrated on sending them packages.
In May of 2006, because I believed our adopted 172nd Stryker units and our 1AD unit at Tal Afar were going to be in an upcoming major offensive, I urged our troop supporters to send a great many care packages for the Fourth of July.
The Merry Band of Patriots responded by sending over a hundred care packages to our adopted units for the Fourth of July. More detail will be in one of the first posts of this new thread.
As feared, just as their tour ended and they were getting on planes to go back to Alaska, our two adopted 172nd SBCT companies had their tours extended and were turned around and sent to Baghdad in 120 degree heat. They pretty much arrived with just the clothes on their backs, having given away to their follow-on unit or mailed home most of their “comfort” and recreational items. They had to beg back their Stryker vehicles and unpack and reassemble and resight their weapons. ‘Stryker at the special location’ (FOB Heider) went, too; and all were reunited again at FOB Stryker at Baghdad. Some 200 plus of them returned from Alaska.
We did an emergency mailing of packages to help reequip them with odds and ends, like surge protectors, flexible cold packs, pillows, sheets, soccer ball inflators, drink mix, DVD movies and boxed TV series. kattracks, bjcintennessee, daybreakcoming, DAVEY CROCKET, JaneAustin, Just A Nobody, SwatTeam, JoyjoyfromNJ, Enterprise, MJY1288, norton, JustAmy, Abigail Adams, DrDeb, Ros42, my optometrist, SENClander, patriciaruth all sent packages.
In return a few of us got T-shirts from the Apache Renegades (Juan’s Stryker unit), with their mascot [skull with Indian war bonnet] over a map of Iraq with this inscription:
OIF
Aug 05 – Dec 06
Mosul Rawah Baghdad
“STRIKE FEAR”
We adopted a new unit in the Fall of 2006, an NPTT unit (National Police Transition Team) at Baghdad, on the recommended of Juan in the 172nd SBCT, because his brother Andy was a member of the unit. (Another brother was serving in Afghanistan. What a family!)
We also sent 19 packages to Kirkuk for Operation Crayon summer 2006 with school supplies for the local kids.
We communicated with and sent some packages to a few wounded warriors at a Fisher House for transitional treatment of those just discharged from Walter Reed.
We sent some packages to Irbil where some MI soldiers were liaisoning with servicemen from Republic of Korea, and some to a military intelligence unit at Kirkuk.
I sent a few packages to a Marine from my town who was near Baghdad.
2006 had its victories.
Zarqawi was killed at Mosul in June and Saddam was executed in Baghdad in December. But the bombing of the Golden Mosque at Samarra by al Qaida early in 2006 sparked escalating sectarian violence that almost derailed everything we had accomplished. Anbar Awakening (where the Iraqis in Anbar Province decided the al Qaida types were evil and decided to band with the Americans to get rid of them) and the Surge in 2007 put Iraq back on the freedom track and our soldiers closer to seeing a victory for their heroic and costly efforts in Iraq.
2006 had its sorrows.
2006 was a difficult year for me due to personal and family health problems and the beginning of kattrack's final illness, and thus I never posted a new 2007 thread with a summary of 2006. The advantage of the delay is that I was able to include much more detail about what was going on with our adopted units in 2006.
kattracks was our Fairy Godmother Dept for our soldiers in harm's way. In the first 9 months of 2006 she sent at least 92 care packages, many of them large. 7 went to Camp Ramadi and included an large inflatable wading pool, 9 went to Stryker at Mosul. 23 went to Tal Afar for general distribution to all the units there. 11 went to A company of Stryker at COP Rawah and then 11 more went to them after they were redeployed to Baghdad; 2 went to C company of Stryker at Ft Talafar and 11 more after they redeployed to Baghdad. 9 went to Kirkuk for Operation Crayon, and 9 went to Bagram air field, Afghanistan.
kattracks was given the precious gift of the Rapture in May, 2007, and we were left to carry on without her.
A few other special projects in 2006 that caught my eye as I was counting the packages from kattracks:
18 boxes of school supplies were sent in 2006 to Operation Crayon in Kirkuk by Coop, kattracks, Jane Austen, patriciaruth, my mother, Just A Nobody, Enterprise, DrDeb)
Two framed quit claim deeds to Zarqawi’s safe house were donated by doug from upland (together with copy of the ad on eBay) and sent to MI at Kirkuk and to 1AD at Ramadi.
Christmas, 2006, packages went to
Bagram (from Nina0113, Enterprise, daybreakcoming, airborne)
Baghdad:
10th Mountain: (from patriciaruth)
NPTT (from SENClander, daybreakcoming, with 11 Petzl headlamps sent directly)
a local Marine near Baghdad (patriciaruth)
4th ID north of Baghdad. (from patriciaruth requested by Abigail Adams)
Mosul: Stryker that was redeployed to Baghdad (from jtill, a Santa suit from patriciaruth, LittleBlogSpot, Freedom is eternally right, SwatTeam)
Ramadi: (from jtill, fanfan, SwatTeam, daybreakcoming and her sister, Merlinator, Abigail Adams, Enterprise, Just A Nobody)
Wounded:
Walter Reed (from Enterprise)
Mologne House for recovering wounded (from patriciaruth)
daybreakcoming sent pre-lit Christmas trees to Ramadi and Mosul, and her tree to Stryker at Mosul ended up at FOB Stryker in Baghdad as they were redeployed there just before Christmas. SENClander sent a pre-lit Christmas tree to NPTT at Baghdad.
Many care packages went out throughout 2006 which are not listed, like all those nina0133 sent to Bagram; but I have decided to cut the effort to list everything now so I can manage to get a new thread posted.
REVIEW OF 2007
In 2007 we sent out over 71 care packages to Afghanistan, over 105 to Stryker Brigade Combat Team units in the Surge to pacify Baghdad and environs, over 83 to NPTT units at Baghdad, and 4 to Balad for an estimate of over 263 packages sent to our adopted units in the war zones.
. The Surge meant our guys were on walk about more than they were at home base -- looking for and finding AI (al Qaida in Iraq) as well as enough caches of weapons to carpet California.
Afghanistan heated up and we ended the year 2007 sending a few care packages to a group holed up on high mountain ledge near the Pakistan border and scoring 400 plus fire fights with Taliban and al Qaida trying to infiltrate back into Afghanistan.
Last year 2007 we grieved at the loss of troop supporters kattracks, kayak, 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub, GretchenM (formerly GretchenEE), and the husbands of jtill and SENClander. We also continued to miss COB1 (AKA Texas Cowboy). God holds them all now in the palm of His infinite hand.
CREDITS:
AFGHANISTAN 2007:
BAGRAM Air Field near Kabul:
SENClander's sister sent 3 care packages in January to 315th PSYOP unit just before they left, and we [nina0133, Ros42, Abigail Adams, Just Amy, Jim Robinson, jtill, Paperdoll, PigRigger, manna, patriciaruth] sent 61 care packages (5 were large) to A Co, 13th PSYOP who took over and who have now departed early this year. These packages included 55 bags of beef jerky given to a Special Forces unit there from airborne, norton, Kitty Mittens and my mother. SW6906 sent most episodes of 3 TV series.
KANDAHAR: fanfan sent packages to Canadian troops
BATTLE Company on Pakistan-Afghan border:
Early in December 2007 we sent them 7 care packages for Christmas:
5 boxes of Hickory Farms cheeses (with 37.5 oz of cheese in each) from Enterprise and patriciaruth, a box with 17 packs with 1/2 lb of beef jerky from 4Godsoloved...Hegave, and a box with 14 Hickory Farms 14 oz beef sausages from by cshnorthcarolina.
Email to maine-iac7 from her grandson: “We ate all of that cheese and meat, it was amazing. We really pushed through all of it fast. awesome. I can’t find the box to tell who sent it - if you know, PLEASE thank them and let them know how great it was! Best food in some time! It means a lot to us that people back home know we are here. We;re so isolated that it really is awesome to know. It means a lot to all of us.”
IRAQ 2007:
In 2007 we [[nina0133, SwatTeam, manna, jtill, patriciaruth, Enterprise, Ros42, Abigail Adams, mathluv, Just Amy, Jim Robinson] sent 66 care packages to our adopted Stryker unit at FOB Stryker at Baghdad up to their departure at the end of the summer --including a microwave [Enterprise], a Nintendo Wii [my optometrist], and 210 blue ice gel packs [SwatTeam and jtill].
We sent 39 care packages [deadhead, SENClander, JustAmy, Jim Robinson, Paperdoll, Abigail Adams, patriciaruth, 4Godsoloved...Hegave], 18 Petzl headlamps [Enterprise, jtill, manna, PigRigger, Kitty Mittens, MEG33] and a Christmas tree with ornaments [mass55th] to the current Stryker unit at Baqubah in Diyala Province, after we made contact in November.
To 3 NPTT (National Police Transition Team) units in Baghdad (at Camp Liberty) we [SENclander, patriciaruth, mass55th, Yaelle] sent 56 care packages including 22 Petzl headlamps [MEG33, SwatTeam, norton, Enterprise, jtill] and a Christmas tree [MJY1288] and ornaments. To one of these units (to Juan's brother Andy) we [Enterprise, Tunehead54, patriciaruth, my mother] also sent 12 boxes of school supplies for him to distribute to local school children.
To an NPTT unit at FOB Falcon near Baghdad that left in September we [patriciaruth, iceskater, Enterprise] sent 15 care packages and SW6906 sent most or all episodes of 5 TV series.
BALAD, Iraq 2007: 4 care packages sent for Christmas to mystery-ak's husband (doing another tour of duty).
FOB Prosperity, Iraq 2007: 1 care package
****
Our many generous donors of checks, cash, money orders, Paypal, shopping cards, phone cards, etc are listed in the Accounting posts toward the end of our 2006 thread (which also covers 2007) and which can be linked from the post below. Many of our members are now trusted to mail their packages directly.
BUMP for you, Patty, and all of the tremendous people on this thread. (You have FReepmail)
Thank you so much for all that you and the rest of the group do.
I have had the privilege to see our troops open boxes like these and they’re like kids at Christmas and always so appreciative that people back home are thinking of them.
You all are the best!
OUTSTANDING!!!!!!!!!!!
M&Ms
Jolly Ranchers & Twizzlers
Candy Corn Taffy
Sweet Tart Variety Mix
Nestle's Crunch
Almond Joy
Butterfinger Crisp
Reese's Cream
mathluv mailed out her box of Halloween candy for the base near Kandahar. See post above, #604. Thank you!!
PGalt pledged help with another box and inspired me to send this out to a local Marine in Afghanistan. THANK YOU!
Mailed October 19, 2011, to local Marine in Afghanistan, third box 12x12
third box; insured $85.11, postage $17.95
Books:
All Creatures Great and Small (James Herriot)
All Things Bright and Beautiful (James Herriot)
All Things Wise and Wonderful (James Herriot)
The Lord God Made Them All (James Herriot)
Every Living Thing (James Herriot)
7 bags Halloween candy:
Brach’s Autumn mix
Brach’s mallow pumpkins
Baby Ruths
50 Tootsie Pops
Paydays
Hershey’s with almonds
Hershey’s Cookies and Cream
DVD movie: Without a Paddle (Burt Reynolds)
2 Magazines:
National Geographic on Teenage Brains
Sports Illustrated on The New Money Ball
*****
Planning is now starting for Christmas. Hot cocoa mix sounds good. A Christmas tree or two sounds good. Decorations sounds good. Any other ideas or volunteers to help?
THANK you, patriciaruth! Thanks to FR’s finest, stepping up for America’s finest. Thanks to families and friends of all who have served, all who are serving, and all who will serve in the future.
(I added a self-imposed $5 late fee to my original amount because I never made it to the post office on Monday. It’s on the way!)
bttt
Hey, all you Halloween survivors! (We had around 350 trick or treaters)
A couple days before Halloween we got this email from the base near Kandahar. Really neat to see how excited the Chaplain was at the bonanza that came in from Airborne, mathluv, JustAmy and JimRob, and from boxes financed in part from jtill, Enterprise, PGalt, and Kitty Mittens.
***
Mrs. Patty,
How are you doing? I hope this email finds that you and your family are doing well. So far we are entering month 6 of our deployment and so far things are going very well. It goes without saying that we miss our families very much and with the holiday season approaching things might get a little tough but I know we have a strong group of Soldiers here and we will pull each other through.
Thank you, thank you, thank you... Thank you so much for all of the candy, protein bars, books & magazines, popcorn & snacks, juice and candy again... The Chaplain confirmed today that all boxes have been received!!!
I don’t know how you are able to supply us with so much but we really do appreciate it. I was not there when the chaplain unpacked the boxes but I was amazed by the amount of love (and candy) that your organization was able to provide to us. The Chaplain has a plan to go around our FOB and visit each Soldier and pass out the candy in a reverse of trick or treating event (instead of the Soldiers going door to door the candy it will be brought to them). We will also be using the left over candy during our Holiday card social. The chapel will be set up like a card shop. Our version of a Halmark store. Soldiers will be able to come and pick out Holiday cards for their family. We will play Holiday movies and have coffee, snacks (and now chocolates, my favorite!!!) while the Soldiers pick out cards to be mailed and delivered before the Christmas Deadline.
To answer your question about movie: I spoke to some of our Hispanic Soldiers and they had a few recommendations. Movies, Lambada (Lou Diamond Phillip), Stand and Deliver (Edward James Almos), Honey (Jessica Alba), Tortilla Soup (Hector Elizondo) Like Water for Chocolate, Latin Kings of Comedy, Born In East L.A.. Actors/ Actress Eva Mendez, Jennifer Lopez, George Lopez, Benecio Del Toro. Movies in Spanish are fine with them as well.
I have not found any Native American Soldiers but as soon as I find some I will ask them the same question.
I will email you in the next few days in reference to the Christmas tree/ decorations. I do believe the last unit left the Christmas tree/ decorations for us but I want to check our conex to make sure.
Ma’am you are simply awesome and your organization is making a huge impact on FOB Walton and the lives of our Soldiers/ Civilians. Sometimes we get so caught up in the mission here that we don’t think anyone outside of our families are thinking about us. However with each box that you send I think to myself there is a group of people that remember and appreciate us.
Thank You for all you do...
SSG
Thank you very much, patriciaruth!!
Wonder if he meant La Bamba with Lou Diamond Phillips: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK2HANwsUWg
God bless our troops!!
WORTH repeating!
You made my day!
(((((Thank you, my Dear Sister in Christ)))))
I’ve ordered La Bamba, Stand and Deliver, Honey, and Latin Kings of Comedy already thanks to contribution from Enterprise.
And thank you! for your continued support with JustAmy of our adopted units.
I think yours was the first box to arrive and it sort of bowled them over!
Muchas gracias!
Awwww....what a sweet message...
Take care of yourself, sweetie!
I’m hoping for 5 or 6 volunteers to send one or two care packages for Christmas to our adopted base at Kandahar or to another one on the Pakistani border.
I have in mind that we would send cocoa (hot chocolate) mix and candy canes. Postage for a 12x12 box would be 12.95.
In the past hot chocolate mix sold for $1 a box of 10 envelopes but this last year I haven’t seen it for less than $1.49. One can get 10 or 12 boxes in a care package, or more, especially if you open some boxes and stuff the envelopes in some of the other boxes.
Candy canes of the regular size come in boxes of 20 or 12 that can only be economically sent from the East Coast where a larger care package box can be filled and mailed at lower postage than elsewhere in the country. For those of you in other parts of the country you can take the canes out of their boxes and put them in your 12x12 box layered between sheets of bubble wrap. And I think you can easily get 8 boxes of 10 into your care package. Boxes of candy canes sell for $1.00 to $1.50 a box.
Or you can put in both cocoa mix and candy canes cushioned with bubble wrap together in one care package.
I have a lot of movies and books already purchased that I am sending, and also going out to get ornaments for a Christmas tree for the base on the Pakistani border. I have put out a request to a faithful donor to buy and mail a tree from the East Coast, and should hear from him by next week if he can manage it.
My local Marine will be leaving Afghanistan in December and not be there for Christmas. Godspeed to him and our deep appreciation for his service.
I hope we can get some volunteers to get these care packages out before Thanksgiving or soon after, and also donations to me to cover the cost of the movies, books and ornaments and postage are always appreciated. I am never too proud to shill for our troops in the war zones.
Please let me know if you can help with Christmas for our troops.
Happy Thanksgiving to All!
Correction: candy canes come in boxes of 10 or 12 not 20 or 12.
I have two or three items purchased and plan to send them wherever you want me to send them. Unless I hear otherwise, I will send them to the same place as I mailed the last boxes.
I will buy some hot chocolate mix and a couple of boxes of candy canes.
I can get 2 or 3 boxes mailed next week.
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