USO Canteen FReeper Style....Monday Mail Call....May 13,2002

FRiends of the USO Canteen FReeper Style and Snow Bunny

[Snow Bunny]

Our troops need our support and encouragement. They are away from home, some for the first time, and usually lonely or discouraged. It is important for us to reach out and help them in the same way we would want someone to reach out to our loved ones if and when they are in the same position.

They answered their call and we are answering theirs offering them the USO Canteen FReeper Style each day and thanking them for serving.

This is IN Coming Mail from some of those serving now.

We at the USO Canteen FReeper Style, a running thread at Free Republic, are proud to support our Military. The mail comes in from contacting some of our Military Bases, Marine Corps Leagues , and friends and family of those serving now. Also from responses at the wonderful P.O.Box that 68-69TonkinGulfYatchClub has made so easily available to each of us here at Free Republic.

They are writing to those that frequent the FReeper USO Canteen to thank you for your support.

I work with damage-control and small-boats on a guided missile destroyer,I just want to thank you at the Canteen for your support. Thank you for being there for all of us. Sometimes you feel like you are all alone out here, then I get online and get to read the Canteen.
My girl broke up with me right before I left. I guess that could be the story for a lot of us .
My mom is all I have back home and she can’t afford a computer . She writes to me when she can and it is good to hear from her.
A buddy back at the base told me about an email he got from a creature with a heart, named Snow Bunny. It had the web address for Free Republic and told how the founder had been a Navy man and how everyone respected him. That he was a heck of a guy and had this place at Free Republic called the Canteen.
One lonely day I checked it out and sat here with , darn it anyway, tears rolling down my face.
I never saw anything like it in my life. OH I have surfed the web in school before I enlisted, but this is a whole new ballgame. The Canteen is my home now away from home.
All of you make a difference and your support means more then you may know. One of the things that makes it more real to me then just a place on the web are several things I’d like to share with you.
You know you all can be serious and then on a dime laugh and have fun and I like that. I like the way the day gears down just like life at home does. When you have done your business in the day and sit around with friends in the evening and cut up.
None of us here could be intense all day and the way the Canteen moves into night is why it feels so much like home too.
Thanks for being there .

Mark A.

Command Master Chief , right before 9-11 my wife and I had just gotten settled in our new home. I have 3 kids and a beautiful wife. Then I was transferred to Norfolk and then shipped out.
I missed Christmas but I know being here has helped preserve our freedom for the future. Only have a minute this time to write Snow Bunny. I know that other stuff I asked you not to pass on helped me to be able to share when I needed it most.
This time I do want you to pass something on to someone.
Whoever has a fan here and please tell whoever that for me. I wasn’t sure if whoever was a man or woman at first, but then I watched the reactions and the tenderness and could tell. So thanks for what you bring in your basket when you visit the Canteen.
I read every thread all the way through and it is powerful stuff. Thanks Snow Bunny for caring so much about us and making a place I can see others that care too.

Stephen A.

Air Force Sgt

Hey Snow Bunny, I am Charlie, just Charlie OK !!!!
Thanks for the Canteen from my heart .
I guess you can call me a lurker but that sure sounds weird. I can’t enter in but I can tell you I have read every day of the Canteen since March.I can’t get to it every day, so I go back and see what I missed when I do have the time.
Some of the ones I like are the one you call HiJinx, 4TheFlag,and you call this one Tonkin. Tell that Tonkin guy the Air Force knows how to spell. LOL , Victoria Delsoul and a mystomachisturning. You have to change that name beautiful girl, with your bubbly personality , AFVetGal one of our own, and this one gets me every time, Deadhead. That one reminds me of a rock group, but I have a crush on Deadhead and SassyMom.
Snow Bunny thanks for making it so I could write to you. Someday maybe I can tell you more about me. But you have been supper about it with a friend of mine and he said Bunny is AOK.

Hang in there and we will too.
Our friend,
Charlie

Navy Hospital Corpsman 1st Class

It is because of you all and your support and caring about us, that I am strengthened and makes me proud to serve our country. Please tell SAMWolf , my brother could use his talents. I saw where he was the head scrounger at the Canteen. I think my kid brother is headed in that direction when he gets in the Army. Bad boy turned “Bad Boy” in many ways and a heart as big as a ship.
Whoever whoever is, could you tell this whoever being that I have saved and sent a lot of things from whoever to my nephew and his wife. They have the time to pass it on to the rest of the family. Tell whoever thanks for the fun stories and jokes.
Snow Bunny, thanks for doing this for me. I never met anyone like you, not sure how I could thank you enough and Billie. So please know that you are making a difference out here and if your ears are burning it is because we are talking about you in awesome ways. God just gave some people bigger hearts and you Snow Bunny and Billie are two girls that got them.
God bless you all at the Canteen and thank you Free Republic for being all to so many of us.
James K.L.

Air Force 1st Lt

Mr. Jim Robinson and ladies and gentlemen of the Canteen. Thank you for your magnificent support and dedication, day in day out for all of us. You make a difference in my life. I printed out a copy of the logo for Free Republic with the Eagle and all and have it inside on my plane. Just so you know it is right next to a very sexy blonde. I didn’t think you would mind. Apple pie and moms and sexy blondes are all American.
I just wanted you to know your efforts are noticed and not just by me.
Your support means we have Americans that care about us and that goes a long way believe me.

Tim B.

[Snow Bunny]

The coffee is fresh and hot. There are homebaked muffins on the serving table and homemade cookies. Please help yourself and have a fantastic day!

[Aeronaut]

Good morning Bunny.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

My viewpoint of the USO Canteen.

Recently I was reading some of the e-mails
FROM the military about the USO Canteen.
This made me realize a couple of things that I'd like to share with you.
It really does not make a difference what we think about the USO Canteen.
It's what they think that really matters.
They read our posts and view our graphics.
To them we act as a connection between them and the real world.
Many of them can only lurk, a few can post.
They realize that we All really do support them and their families.
They know, as we know, this is going to be a very long war.
They "listen" to what we say and look to us as a source of security.
The security that the folks at home have not forgotten them.
Some are in far away places, some are probably as near by as your local military base.
All are serving our country and defending our Freedom.
Now we All know that we do not discuss politics on this thread,
just the same way as a real USO Club is political free.
I would like to remind All of us that it is important that any negative posts be avoided.
Besides our military we have celebrities such as Bob Hope who have visited the USO Canteen.
I'd even venture to guess that the Commander-in-Chief has been here,
or at least been told about the USO Canteen.
We are in a unique position and along with that comes a responsibility.
Our posts and remarks reflect upon Jim Robinson, whom without his forum we would not exist.
There are going to be times when some of us may disagree with someone else.
That's part of human nature.
It's imperative that in those rare instances that any negative comments be done via FReep mail.
Please remember that "the eyes of the world are upon us"
and you never know who may be reading your post.
It is my own personal belief that God lurks here also.

Finally let me take this opportunity to Thank each and everyone of you here.
I am proud and honored to be among some of the finest people on earth.
May God Always Smile upon you.


In Honor of those who gave their lives and those who were gravely disabled.
Thank You Brothers and Sisters for your sacrifices.

And Thank You to ALL who have and still support our Armed Forces.

[Aeronaut]

Good morning Tonk. Thanks for the reminder in your post.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Did you see the Air Force guy who caught my typo in my FReeper handle. LOL
Man, they read EVERYTHING!

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

I love reading these e-mails!
Thank You for posting them.

[Aeronaut]

Man, they read EVERYTHING!

All the more reason to be careful... ;-}

[4TheFlag]

A South Dakota sunrise for everybody

I'm off to bed, niterz all.

[Neil E. Wright]

Well, geez, I think I'd rather go to the bar next door and have a beer. Maybe I'll stop by later and try some of your coffee and donuts then. (You won't kick out this drunken sailor when he returns will you?? If I promise not to create a disturbance???) .... :)

Till then, keep up the good work!!!!!!! We appreciate all you have done and continue to do!

±

Toward FREEDOM

[MeekOneGOP]

Hey, Snow Bunny! Thanks for posting those letters from the
servicemen. Takes me back to those times when Dad was
sent off for those isolated tours when we had to stay
here in the States and couldn't go with him. Now to all
you servicemen out there.........

You ARE Appreciated here in the USA ! !

[MeekOneGOP]

LOL! I caught that too! Good eyes, huh??

[JohnHuang2]

Morning, my friend =^)

[JohnHuang2]

Morning, friend.

[JohnHuang2]

Good morning to you, too, amigo =^)

[JohnHuang2]

Morning! =^)

[JohnHuang2]

[Aeronaut]

Hi John. How are you doing?

[JohnHuang2]

How are you doing?

Hanging in there, thanks for asking. And you?

[Aeronaut]

And you?

I'm Swell. ;-}