From Our Troops

Here are communications from Soldiers who have received or are receiving our Care Packages.
They are intense.

(We are) so blessed to have your love and support from (everyone). Thank you so much. You have no idea how packages help us stay motivated and encouraged out here. That is because it gets very lonely and packages remind us that we are not forgotten. -- S. Robertson

Hello from Western Iraq: For the past several months I have been stationed at a small Combat Outpost near the Syrian border. Our presence here is meant to deter and stop the spread of terrorist activities. Being so far from the main US and Coalition Bases comes with a heavy price. We do not routinely have fresh supplies of needed items, mail delivery, and even running water. We are roughing it to say the least.
When the mail finally is delivered out here, usually in 3 week intervals, I am overwhelmed with packages from your Care Package program. It is not unusual for me to receive 6-9 packages at a time. I quickly sort thru the contents, and place the items on the shelves in our recreation room. I am happy to report that the items are ALL gone by the following day. They are really being put to use. You folks are making a huge impact on the lives of all these young Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines. If not for your efforts, many here would just sadly go without, or struggle to get by. You are genuinely making life a little easier here on the Western frontier. -- K. Jermyn

I truly appreciate you doing that for me and furthermore for us it really is the little things that keep us going here.... You are a God-send! Thank you for your continued support! -- T. Norman

From the bottom of my heart and on behalf of everyone here I can't thank you enough. Your contributions and (everyone’s) love and support has found us safe and we appreciate all the little gestures that may not seem like much to a lot of people but we've come to love and appreciate the things you guys do for us. We also understand that though to you it might seem normal we couldn't be more thankful for y'all going out of your ways and inconveniencing yourselves to let us know we still matter and what we do means something. Thank you so much again from the bottom of my heart. -- T. Norman

(from a former Point Leader upon nominating his friend to be a current Point Leader:) “I warned him about the quality and quantity (of the Care Packages) and he’s looking forward to it. Apparently they really have nothing and are about to move out further to literally dig a base out of the dirt on a mountainside and sleep in holes.... that sort of thing. I send him what I can on my own, but I know this will really help him and his guys out.
(second email from the former Point Leader:) I can’t say thank you enough. He’s a good friend who was in Iraq with me.... What you do may seem like a small thing, but it makes a big difference.
(from the current Point Leader:) We live on a small fob in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan. We have no PX on our fob.... Thank you so much for your support. -- P. Mancusco

Needed items for our Soldiers

Your help will be especially welcomed because we don't have regular access to a store or any place to buy these things. We live on an Iraqi base that they let us use a portion of, and it doesn't have any of the services or amenities of an American base. -- G. Miller

I received another 4 packages (Halloween candy) yesterday from the children of Hingham and I wanted to drop you a quick note of thanks to pass on to people responsible for the outpouring of care and concern for the troops. As you know mail is especially important to a deployed service member. I truly believe that a touch of home works wonders for the morale of the troops wherever they're stationed. So, when I opened up the packages yesterday I was shocked to see pounds and pounds of candy as were the troops that I delivered it to. Please pass my deepest gratitude to whoever made this happen. -- E. Stone

Good evening from the Arabian Gulf! My name is J. Beal and I am the Commanding Officer of US Coast Guard Cutter AQUIDNECK, one of six forward-deployed Coast Guard cutters stationed in Manama, Bahrain. After returning to port from a recent patrol, we were welcomed by a mail call with care packages in your name. The crew immediately dug into them and we restocked our snack shelves with your generous donations. Those rations help to keep us "Semper Paratus" which is our CG motto in Latin meaning "Always Ready." I am from Hingham so it was especially meaningful for me to receive mail from the 02043 zip code.
The crew and I are extremely appreciative of your support from back home......Our current crew is all male and comprised of 3 officers and 19 enlisted members, and each crew member’s deployment lasts 12-15 months.....
Please pass along our many thanks to anyone who contributed to the stocking, packing, and shipment of these care packages. I assure you nothing will go to waste, and while we do not have women onboard my ship any packages marked "female" will be delivered to the cutters who do. Thank you, Sir! -- J. Beal

Thank you for your continued support and donations; the crew's faces light up when we do "mail call" and receive packages from folks back home. It's especially meaningful for me when I see them postmarked from Hingham. We shared some of these care packages with the other cutter crews who don't receive as many, and with Coast Guard personnel assigned to the base here who are not attached to ships (they provide all of the behind the scenes support for our 6 patrol boats including engineering, intelligence, electronics, admin, pay, personnel, purchasing, etc.).  -- J. Beal

Just a quick note to let you know I have received six boxes today and will distribute ASAP. Last time I put things on the shelves in our recreation room, they were gone within 24 hours. The Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines of this Outpost are forever in your debt. We seldom have contact with the outside world, and only receive mail every 3-4 weeks... so you can imagine, it's quite a big deal around here.
I can personally attest that getting Care Packages when deployed is a true Godsend. We appreciate the fact that the people back stateside have NOT forgotten US, or our mission. -- K. Jermyn

On behalf of ODA 3133 at Camp Vose, Afghanistan, I'd like to thank you (everyone) for the wonderful boxes we received today. I can gladly report that all five boxes have been received intact, and are in the process of being consumed. The men of my Detachment are extremely grateful for your ministry's support; it always is a welcome blessing to receive things from home!
We have men in Helmand and Kunduz that are living rather sparsely, and can easily facilitate boxes out to those locations after you send them to us. Whatever you can provide would be outstanding; those outstations could definitely use hygiene items, reading material, and tasty treats. Anything you provide is wonderful, greatly appreciated, and above and beyond. -- P. Harrigan

The silly string you sent us worked great and we used it on three different missions. I received the package for female soldiers and I gave that to a very grateful female captain who said she would distribute the contents to her soldiers. She said to tell you thank you very much! My men and I really do appreciate your support and we hope that we make you proud. -- M. Rowland

(from a wife on behalf of her husband:) This is I. Nadeau's wife. He doesn't get online much so he asked me to check his email and respond to you when possible. My husband is actually at Camp Isakle; it is a base that just opened back up after 5 years being closed. They have dirty water so when they take showers they get clean but not the greatest of clean. He is a medic, and there are about 30 men in his troop. He is constantly working, gets about 4 hours of sleep if he is lucky a night. Iraq is a very busy place for my husband; he has saved a lot of lives. He does not believe that he is a hero but to me and many other families he is. Just the other day he took care of a little girl and a little boy; they are doing well and recovering. His day consists of working in the medic station taking care of the sick and injured, but mostly the injured. There have been many times that he has had to be rushed away when we were on the phone to go and care for a soldier flown in by helicopter. They do not have a PX at their camp. They have very few amenities where they are. They are just beginning to make them housing and there are few that have electricity at the moment, and do not have Internet in their rooms like the other camps.
(from the soldier himself:) You have brought smiles to some faces that rarely smile. It's good to see. Thank you very much for the Care Packages. They were a huge hit with the guys. Everybody here says thank you. It really raised morale and the books and baby wipes went the fastest. I keep all of you in my prayers and thank God I have such wonderful people in my life.... I have to get back to work now and the guys are looking forward to the next time we get goodies. Again, on behalf of apache troop I thank you. -- I. Nadeau.

Thank you so much for what you are doing. It will be greatly appreciated by the Marines in my unit. In response to your questions, our PX is not very good. It is a small tent and is usually sold out of anything we need…. Everything you send will be put to good use. -- W. Berberan.

Needed items for our Soldiers

I am in command of an AH-64D Longbow Apache Company consisting of approximately 50 Soldiers. My Soldiers come from all over the USA and are on the first month of a 15 month deployment in Iraq. My company is charged with providing attack and reconnaissance aviation support throughout Iraq.
Thanks for the strong support and your Care Packages are more important than ever. I had to move a portion of my company to a very remote site in Iraq and we do not have a fully functional PX. All supplies come in via helicopter; phone and internet are limited.... Your packages are a huge morale booster and greatly needed for my young Soldiers who barely scrape by financially.
-- J. Ford.

There is no PX here at Camp Dubs….and as far as special needs are concerned we all like coffee, especially Dunkin Donuts. Military coffee is just what it is…. Again thank you and your community for your morale and spiritual support. -- J. Primo.

I want to say thanks again to you and all who participated; you all have been a huge help in keeping my Marines and me in good spirits. -- W. Berberan.

Hello, it’s PFC Ordonez. It has been a while since I emailed but I wanted to say thank you..... thank you to all those who helped out in helping soldiers overseas. The Care Packages are very helpful and they come in handy. My battle buddies here always ask how do I get so many Care Packages and I respond by telling them a church sends me around 3 to 4 boxes a month. Then I open the boxes and look inside and people ask is all that for you and I say no.... you can take what you want. Before I even have a chance to take it to the normal spot where I leave the boxes, about 75% of the box is gone. Then I put the rest of the items at the usual spot and by the end of the week the rest of it is gone. The Hingham community has helped me and my battle buddies out so much and we all appreciate it. -- M. Ordonez.

"I got 5 of the 6 Care Packages; thank you very much. I got 2 yesterday and 3 today. I placed the two yesterday in our common area with a free sign and it was emptied within the hour. I'm sure my unit appreciates the thought.” -- L. Barrera.

Thank you again for all the packages you've sent. People in my platoon absolutely love everything we've received, and it all goes quickly. We got a lot of packages from a lot of different places around the holidays, which was generous of people, but we appreciate that your church and the community continue to send things to us regularly. It's very nice, as well as helpful since we only have access to a store about once a month. --- G. Miller.

Needed items for our Soldiers

The base we are at was once owned by the British and there isn't a lot here now that the US forces have taken over. There are two Subway trailers; however, they have been closed for over a month due to not being able to get supplies in from convoys. Same goes for the PX. It is very small and the supplies are limited. --J. Laton.

Hello, my name is P. Davis and was given this email by “Soldiers Care Packages by FBC”. I bit more about me, I am stationed here at Baghdad Diplomatic Support Center (BDSC) in Iraq. I am at a small FOB unit with a tiny BX with limited supplies. There are mostly US Army and Marines at my location and other foreign military. I will be over here for another year.
My job here at BDSC is Human Resource Specialist and I handle accountability, MEDEVACs, appraisals, requisitions, evaluations, and personal leaves.
I (we) would be thankful for just about anything, but if we had the choice, items such as nuts, dried beef/deer jerky, candies, and/or cheese would be terrific.
Any help would be greatly appreciated and thanks for the support if given. -- P. Davis

We could not serve our Soldiers without YOUR help.