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.

[maine-iac7]

[fanfan]

We will remember them.

[Dante3]

BUMP

[Abigail Adams]

God bless these brave warriors and their families.

<0 (salute)

[Kitty Mittens]

Thank you for your Pings, Dear Sister in our Lord, and I'm Praying for our Savior's Comfort to be with the Families who have Lost their Loved Ones.

[califamily4W]

Hi Patty!

Update - we moved and my computer connection was dismantled for some time but, were up now!

I sent a Valentine package that included 100 Valentines (from my daughter’s fourth grade Girl Scout troop), Valentine pillows, 100 heart suckers, chicklettes gum, and other Valentine items.

Couple points of interest -

The Girl Scouts have a cookie special this year called “Troop 2 Troop.” The girls can take orders/donations for cookies for the troops in Iraq - the Girl Scout Council sends the troops the cookies to a pre arranged contact. Very cool! Our girls did so well in pre-sale orders for our service men and women that they all earned an extra badge for the vests!
So, if you see a Girl Scout selling cookies next month ask her if you can buy a box for our troops or I can help if anyone wants to contribute or has any questions.
Hugs to you,
Lisa

[SENClander]

Hi, Patty,

With Easter coming at us, I finally got my act together and managed to get two boxes off today to the NPTT unit in Baghdad. I used the new large flat rate boxes — really like them.

Each box contained:

1 bag Tootsie products
1 bag Reese’s peanut butter eggs
4 packages Peeps chicks
1 bag marshmallow chicks and bunnies
1 bag large Robin eggs, chocolate filled
1 bag mini Robin eggs, malted milk filled
1 bag Cadbury mini eggs
1 bag Hershey miniatures
1 bag pastel candy corn
8 plastic eggs containing a Lindt chocolate bunny
1 wind-up chick/1 wind-up rabbit
1 package of capsules which expand into animals when water is added (thought maybe they could share these with the kids)

I packed it all in green Easter grass.

Hope all is well with you and yours.

[Abigail Adams]

Happy Easter everyone!

(Things have been quiet here!)

[patriciaruth]

Yes, quiet here; but we have been active.

SENClander, Enterprise, manna, jtill, airborne, Kitty Mittens and I sent packages to our units for Valentines and Easter, but I’ve been too busy to post them. Hope to do it right after Easter.

[Kitty Mittens]

Hi, my Dear Sister in Christ; it's a Joy to See you in my Pings! I Pray you and your Husband and Sweet Mother have been Well. Spring is Here at my Shepherd-King's Ranch, with Several Wildflowers Bursting into Bloom, and the Grass in the Pasture is Beginning to Turn Green Again. With the Exasperated-Sounding, Lol, Song of the Phoebe Heard Daily, it's just a Beautiful Time of the Year!

[patriciaruth]

Link to the 2008 thread for CARE PACKAGES for our Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan