Note: This article has absolutely nothing to do with San Diego real estate–and everything to do with helping our brave soldiers serving abroad.
Our son Mark has been deployed to Afghanistan, and will celebrate his 21st birthday this weekend in a remote US Army COB (Contingency Operations Base) in a rural Afghan Province. I already had two boxes packed with his favorite snacks, some DVD’s from his brothers, personal toioletries– along with magazines and some requested power cords.
He called yesterday morning from a larger FOB (Forward Operating Base), from which he was to depart within the next 24 hours or so. It seems even more basic supplies are needed by our soldiers. These items are not even available for local purchase and include such basics as laundry detergent, towels, wash cloths, soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, deodorant, disposable razors, sunscreen and so on.
A third box has already been packed with these necessities. Still, I can’t help but wonder about and agonize over soldiers who may not have folks shopping for and shipping to them from halfway around the world.
What are these soldiers to do?
Distressed, I placed a call yesterday morning to the office of our local Congressman, Brian Bilbray. An assistant, Case, patiently listened to my tirade:
How can our government plan a surge into Afghanistan, and not make arrangements for soldiers to locally acquire these very basic necessities?
Until the matter is resolved, we can take steps to help out our soldiers by sending packages to those who receive little if any mail from home. This note from Sgt Aden Martinez says much–and provides a way for us to reach out:
28 Jun 2010
Hello, we are a Recon Platoon that was stationed in Vilseck, Germany. We are part of the 2/2 Stryker Cavalry Regiment. We work as the “eyes and ears” of our unit and provide vital information for our Leaders. We appreciate your support and your prayers for us. We’d enjoy snacks that can be taken on our long, small grouped missions like: beef jerky, Jolly Ranchers (hard candy), granola bars, protein bars, and small nutritious snacks.
Our living conditions off work are in buildings with 220 and 110 power, we are allowed microwaves in our rooms so we’d like to request some popcorn packs and some Ramen Noodles would be great. Personal hygiene products would be really appreciated since we don’t have a PX (store) to resupply our shaving razors, soap, deodorant bars, tooth paste or toothbrushes, and if you could, some laundry detergent would be useful too.
We have time use to use our gym facility as well, so if anybody would like to send us some protein powder and multivitamins we would definitely appreciate those. Our Platoon works on long range missions as well and carrying water is cumbersome but important. If anybody has some Nalgene bottles or Camelback pouches they’d like to donate we’d greatly appreciate that as well.
Well, thank you all so much for your help and support and I hope that I have been as specific as possible. We’ll definitely keep you posted on our boys out here doing their part to serve OUR county. Thank You.
SSG Adan Martinez
Attn: Any Soldier®
FOB Apache
HHC, 2/2 SCR
APO AE 09383
Sgt. Martinez will deliver packages, cards and letters to soldiers who receive little from home. The US Post Office offers free 12x12x5.5 boxes for mailing–and postage need only be paid for shipment to New York. Expect package delivery to take 2-3 weeks.
For additional information about how you can reach out to soldiers serving abroad, visit http://AnySoldier.com