6 Holiday Poems for the season

The Sands of Christmas

I had no Christmas spirit when I breathed a weary sigh,
and looked across the table where the bills were piled too high.
The laundry wasn’t finished and the car I had to fix,
My stocks were down another point, the Chargers lost by six.

And so with only minutes till my son got home from school
I gave up on the drudgery and grabbed a wooden stool.
The burdens that I carried were about all I could take,
and so I flipped the TV on to catch a little break.

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A time to be thankful…

http://www.cpmsglife.org/tg/2006tdm1.swf

America Supports You has a program “THE GIVING THANKS CAMPAIGN” to send an email of thanks to our military men and women for this Thanksgiving. Here is the link: http://www.americasupportsyou.mil/americasupportsyou/thanks/index.aspx

“CD for the Troops” will be available for anyone with a valid military identification card to download at no cost from the Army and Air Force Exchange Service Web site, http://www.aafes.com (available from 11/17/07 until April 08)

http://www.americasupportsyou.mil/americasupportsyou/Content.aspx?ID=44800936

“National K9 Enforcement Rescue Organization”

http://www.nerok9.org/index.html 

The National K9 Enforcement Rescue Organization (N.E.R.O.) is a retirement home for retired or disabled working dogs (Police, Military or S.A.R.) who are not able to continue working for what ever reason.

In our rescue these dogs will be able to live out their lives in a loving, caring environment until the end of their days. When that day comes they will be buried in our Memorial Garden where they will be laid to rest but not forgotten.

Thank You for taking the time to look at our website.

Gold Medal of Remembrance, which honors children who have lost a parent in service to the United States

REMEMBER THE CHILDREN OF THOSE WHO GAVE ALL

2nd Platoon, Battle Company, 173rd Airborne Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley

Here is a link to the Vanity Fair article: “Into the Valley of Death” http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/01/afghanistan200801

I copied the article into the 5th comment following this post. The article and video sheds light on the 173rd and their realities of daily life-keep in mind this article was written during the hot summer-winter is FREEZING and snowy in those steep hostile mountains.

THANK YOU TO ALL WHO ARE SENDING OUT SUPPORT TO THE 173RD — THEY HAVE BEGUN RECEIVING PACKAGES AND VERY MUCH APPRECIATE THE CONNECTION BACK HOME. KEEP ON KEEPING ON. BRAVO ZULU!!:)

http://www.173rdairborne.com/menu.htm

There is an address at the bottom of this post to send care-packages to the 2nd/503.

“Temps are warm now in the day, up to 60 but drop to teens at night, they have been very grateful for the blankets we sent earlier. At some remotes they exist on Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) packets and have no hot meals — try to include include hearty snacks for your soldier as well as baby wipes in each box now.

They have asked for sun glasses and knives. The glasses are the extremely dark lense, black framed style that wraps close to the head. Knives are a bit pricy but if you decide to get one, here are some links and advice from James dad….

“Any good knife is going to run around $30 or so. The cheap Chinese stuff isn’t worth the postage. They won’t hold an edge and they are junk. They will get more mileage out of a utility knife than some John Wayne straight edge Bowie type. That surplus USAF survival knife is pretty handy and it’s made of high quality steel. The Leatherman line of knives is also a handy knife.”

http://www.galleria-e.com/cgi-bin/Colemans.storefront/en/searchmask

http://www.bestglide.com/AF_Survival_Knife_Info.html

http://www.all-leatherman-tools-4-less.com/index.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=associative&utm_campaign=leatherman&gclid=COjJuM340JECFRI0awodPSRe1A

Beyond this, I’m not any help on knives and please don’t feel compelled to get one for your soldier, these are only suggestions from their requests. Green olives are also on the “want” list, pack carefully if you send them, be sure the jar is padded and in a secure zip lock bag in the middle of the box. I buy cheap wash cloths to use for padding. They toss everything for lack of laundry so it gives them a cleans wash cloth now and then rather than a baby wipe. Antibacterial liquid soap is good to send and cough drops are always needed. A cough can be deadly on patrol. Antibiotic ointment is good for chapped lips & raw faces from cold & wind.

By now I hope all our guys are well outfitted in their share of the 750 sets of long under wear and 5,000 pair of socks Carhartt Clothing sent to the 2/503rd Brigade. What a generous gift for these soldiers! On March 2nd I will have a few hundred pounds of donated Starbucks coffee to send. Then later in March the annual Girl Scout cookies will be ready to ship…by the ton!

The new larger flat rate boxes are available to order online at the USPS postal store and will be accepted at the post office on March 3rd. They are 12x12x5.5 and will ship to our APO addresses for $10.95. (All other domestic addresses will cost $12.95) We get a lot of extra space for $2. I don’t know when each PO will have the boxes in stock.

Thank you for your support of these brave young men.

Lois

Consider sending a card, a box full of some goodies- maybe even with a theme such as:

Salty Snack Box: Beef Jerky, nuts, potato chips, pretzels, Nacho chips, cheese doodles, pop corn, corn chips, Bugles, Salsa, cheese (Velveta) plain corn chips, crackers, summer sausage , pepperoni, saltines, peanut butter….tuna, salmon, sardines (bagged/canned)……

Coffee/Tea/Hot chocolate Box: Sealed can coffee, tea, hot chocolate, cookies, granola bars, biscotti, Little Debbie Snacks, soups…

Winter Warm Box: Flannel sheets or pillow case, gloves, face/head hat, Large, fleece blanket…..steel travel mug to keep beverage hot….

Everything is appreciated and the connection back to home is priceless.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/11/ambush-video-sh.html

Letters can be addressed to:

 

2nd Platoon, Battle Company, 2-503rd PIR
c/o SFC Patterson
Korengal Outpost
APO, AE 09354

——————————————————————

 2/29/08

http://www.blackfive.net/ 

Go to above link (Black Five)–they have organized another campaign to send email and letter support to the deployed troops-specifically those stationed in Afghanistan.  Their last effort brought in over 30,000 emails to send to the Marines.  OOOOH RAAAH!:)

 Those of you who can, please take a moment and send out words of thanks/gratitude, respect and American patriotic pride in letting these men know that we are thinking of them and with them in spirit 100% for success in all their missions and looking forward to their safe return.

Here is the last paragraph from Black five’s post for sending out support to these brave men who have been faithfully defending and protecting our country as we sleep soundly day in and day out.

Historically, spring is a time of heavy fighting in this region as the terrorists and insurgents emerge from their caves after the harsh winter temperatures and snows.  Let’s show these Soldiers how much support they have from home to help them through the spring and the remainder of this long and dangerous deployment.

Our paratroopers are in the fight of their lives and they need to hear that America loves them.

Please send an email of support to skysoldiers173rd@gmail.com

Or you can mail cards to:

Leta Carruth
P O Box 100
Cordova, TN  38088

Due to security reasons in Afghanistan please do not put addresses or phone numbers on any correspondence.  All emails will be printed out here in the US and mailed to Afghanistan as they do not have the resources to receive a large number of emails.  All letters and emails will be vetted to make sure there are no negative comments.  These are letters of support, so please keep them positive and uplifting.

 (SINCERE THANKS:)

This post has been updated- 2/29/08

Thank You to all the Veterans

http://www1.va.gov/opa/vetsday/gallery.asp

http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/010733.html

This link will connect you to 10 Lessons learned from a janitor.

http://www.cwoauscg.org/history/history_janitor.htm

Some veterans/heroes bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain haunted look in the eye. Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg – – – or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul’s alloy forged in the refinery of adversity .Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem.

You can’t tell a vet/hero just by looking.He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn’t run out of fuel.

He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel.

She – or he – is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in DaNang.

He is the POW who went away one person and came back another – or didn’t come back at all.

He is the Quantico drill instructor that has never seen combat – but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other’s backs.

He is the parade-riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.

He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.

He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean’s sunless deep.

He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket – palsied now and aggravatingly slow – who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.

He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being a person who offered some of his life’s most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.

He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.

So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say “Thank You.” That’s all most people need, and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.

Two little words that mean a lot, “THANK YOU”.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS

 

HONOR, COURAGE, COMMITMENT

 

SEMPER FI- Always faithful