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.

[4TheFlag]

11-Charlie Bump right back at ya Brother

[MistyCA]

Thank you!

[4TheFlag]

Blonde, huh????Hmmmmmm:)

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Just a reminder, the flowers each day come from
our military, vets and All the men in the USO Canteen.
Thank You for the warmth and love you bring into our lives.

[Snow Bunny]

Billie, hi good morning. I love " Whiter Shade of Pale".Thank you so much for posting that one.

[Snow Bunny]

Hi Sam, have a great day. See you late my friend.

[HiJinx]

Is your blonde the one that did a barrel-roll in the family car?

My 16-yr-old gets his license on Friday, and I am soooo glad for that! Now he will be able to drive himself to school, to church (he is the sound man, and goes in an hour early), and to the store when Mom needs something to finish cooking dinner!!

[Bahbah]

As always, my favorite moment of the day.

[Snow Bunny]

ROTFL.....well ok..I promise not to hang any paintings at the Canteen.

You have me laughing so hard about the Stud finder.

[Snow Bunny]

Hi Victoria, thank you so much. I love seeing pictures of our troops.This is such a perfect place to post them too.Thanks again soooo much.
Have a wonderful day my friend.

[SAMWolf]

A quick note to James K.L.

So your brother wants to be a SpecForce Procurement Specialist(Scrounger).

There is no way to provide tips for the art of scrounging; scroungers are born, not made.

In the Army every unit platoon-sized or bigger has a designated scrounger. He scrounges for whatever his outfit needs. History does not record the name of the scrounger for George Washington, but he had one, I guarantee it.

The officers would tell the scrounger what they needed. It was his job to get it by fair means or foul. He'd swap for it, if necessary; steal it, if possible.

There were 3 ethical rules (yes a good unit scrounger has ethics) I imposed on myself when I was a scrounger.

1. Never "steal" from your own. Your own being defined from the lowest unit level to the largest. Squad, Platoon, Company, Battalion, Division, Corps, Army, Combat Arm, Branch of Service.

Rule of thumb is: you always steal up not down in level. (Example, if your scrounging for your Company, you don't steal from one of your Platoons, you steal from another Company or higher. (This does not apply to trading or bargaining - deal with whoever you need to in that case)

2. You don't scrounge for personal benefit, you're doing it for your unit not yourself. If you do it for yourself, you're just a thief or Con-artist.

3.Never promise what you can't deliver, part of your effectiveness depends on your credibility. If you're not sure you can deliver, then promise to do your best and let them know up front that it's not a "sure thing".

The best possible world is to be able to "appropriate" stuff from another Branch of Service.
In my experience the Air Force was the best place to find things. Mainly because, they always seemed to have what I was looking for and were rather easy pickings.

[Snow Bunny]

Hi Tonkin, thanks so much my brother.

Have a fabulous day.

[Billie]

"Gimme some chocolate and nobody gets hurt." :) That's on one of my favorite Christmas sweatshirts.

[beowolf]

temperance tracts

Now what are we gonna use for toilet paper?!-)

[Snow Bunny]

What a beautiful South Dakota sunrise...Thank you so muchj Flag Man. Have a great day today !!

[Snow Bunny]

LOL.....he will love this Sam. Thanks

hahahaha

[4TheFlag]

So your brother wants to be a SpecForce Procurement Specialist(Scrounger).

ROTFLMAO, that brings back so MANY memories, yep, scrouging was FUN (not stealing now)mind you, just procurring what was needed, LOL!!!

[Snow Bunny]

Hi John, thank you so much. Sorry I missed you, I actually went to bed before 3 in the morning last night,LOL

Thank you so much King of Ping for pinging the Canteen.
Have a wonderful day.

[Billie]

This isn't Sam - I know you locked him in a closet and stole his password. :)

[lodwick]

It's the U.S. Colored Troops for the first time at a reenactment in Gettysburg. They represented the 29th Reg. from Chicago, IL, the 102nd Reg. from MI and the 5th Reg. from Ohio.

Some War Between the State re-enactment guys.