In My Own Words

We’ve been supporting our troops long enough now that we’re finding ourselves with quite a number of “repeaters.” I was going through the contact updates on AnySoldier, not that we need another to support at the moment, when I found a name I recognized as a Soldier we adopted in 2007 when he was deployed to Iraq. He’s in Afghanistan this time around, and is representing 7 troops. He doesn’t ask for much – only “mail, to keep morale up.” So, of course, I requested his address, and have already put a card in the mail with a Guardian Angel for each of them enclosed.  I’ll go through my “old contacts” Rolodex and pull his card to see what kinds of things I sent last time he was deployed. Meanwhile, letters and cards will do. I seem to recall he was a pretty good correspondent, not just e-mail, but snail mail too. That could change, being in Afghanistan this time around.

Over the last few days, I’ve gotten e-mails from three other troops we’ve previously adopted. One Marine who just arrived in Afghanistan (he was also in Iraq last time), and two Soldiers who will be deploying to Iraq again in the next couple or three months. The Marine sent his address and asked if they could count on our support again, and of course I added him to the Support Rolodex. Since he’s in a position to push mail out to over 200 other Marines, I shared his address with a couple of friends and fellow supporters – the more the merrier. He will be signing up with AnyMarine again, so he shouldn’t lack for supporters, but you never can tell. People do request addresses then fail to follow through, which is a crying shame.

Our Bronze Star winning tanker from Ft. Carson is one who will be deploying to the sandbox again shortly. He wanted to know if we’d support him and his guys again, and if I’d send him “that little newspaper you used to send in my care packages.” Now, that little newspaper is a free paper edited and published by the mayor of Pleasant View, titled “The I-24 Exchange.” We get it in the mail every Saturday, and mostly I check to see what the latest news regarding the Board of Ed is, read the obits and the arrest reports to make sure I’m not in them, and glance at the letters to the editor to see who’s bitching about what lately. Then we leave it laying around somewhere Maggie can find it and shred it to smithereens in place of chewing up the house while we’re gone to work. I refer to it as “All the news that isn’t fit to print.”

I told Ron if they need toilet paper over there, I’ll gladly send the good stuff, no need to resort to newspaper. He said “No, we actually enjoyed reading that paper. It reminded us of home.” Huh…go figure…and I only used it to fill in the empty spaces in the care packages. Well, okay, we’ll have to find something else for Maggie to shred when Ron deploys again. Wonder what Mayor McCarver would think if he knew a group of tankers from Colorado liked his newspaper? Should I tell him? Hmmmm….

We got a nice e-mail from a contact who just received the package we’d sent. He said they got it a couple of days ago, and his Soldiers were still smiling. Among other items, they had requested hot cocoa. So I made up a package with a box of 60 packets of Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa Mix, a large bag of miniature marshmallows, plastic spoons, and styrofoam cups. Oh, and in the empty spaces, an assortment of Willy Wonka candies – Laffy Taffy, Nerds, Everlasting Gobstoppers, Bottle Caps…you know the big bags you can get at Sam’s… Anyway, it got there fairly quickly – I was kind of amazed, and I was glad it brought smiles to Soldiers’ faces. That’s what makes it all worth while.

I’ve got to get up from here and get to bed. I’m getting a bit on the drowsy side, and Jack and the dogs have already hit the hay without me. Bosco isn’t a problem; he sleeps in a laundry basket with a blanket in it, beside the bed. Maggie, on the other hand, is probably on my pillow and ready to grumble at me when I make her move. Wish me luck…LOL! Thanks for reading my ramblings, and feel free to chime in at any time.