Soldiers in IRAQ -- Please Help
 

I'm not asking for money or material goods.......

Ok, I don't support the war, but the soldiers didn't ask to be stuck over there. In my personal time I have arranged care packages and most of all letters to the soldiers. You can address it to a male or female, but there is no way of knowing if they are hot, old, young, etc. (None of this should matter). If you want to contribute, please email me your letters and I will print and put them in seperate envelopes when I send it out this Friday. PLEASE think about living like they do.... letters to them are like receiving gold. No nasty letters please. Only contribute if you really want to make someone smile. I've rounded up a ton of food and items they need over there. Porn isn't allowed, but trust me....... a penpal is something they would welcome with open arms. I found a post out in the middle of nowhere that will be there (god help them) until 2007 and they are so remote, they literally have NOTHING.

You can also post your letters on this board and I'll copy/paste it into a letter. If you only have a comment, post it, I'll put them all into a card for everyone.

THANK YOU AGAIN

I hope I get a few nice letters from you guys. I am putting them all in seperate envelopes so you they can write back if you want them to. If you want to write one ANON, let me know and I'll be sure to put it in a bulk folder.

Please post and bump if you want to help this cause.

i think they did ask to be stuck over there, good program though :thumbsup

I've got a buddy over there now in the Marines. Tough life, but man they love letters, packages, email, ect. Not a whole lot of contact while they are there. Just keep doing what you can!

Tell that to one of my good friends that got killed over there. He didn't want to be there, but when you join the armed forces (as he put it) you never expect go to war. A good scenario is that people don't get married expecting to go through a divorce. Reality is a little too far off in the horizon sometimes.

This is NOT a pro/con war thread.... It's taking a few minutes to make someone's day.

While they had to have known that the possibility of being deployed in some remote desolate location was there, I doubt any of them specifically asked to go there. If you'd asked any soldier before the war started if they would like to go fight in Iraq for 5 years I'm sure pretty much all of them would have said "hell no sir!".

Angleyes - great idea.

who said anything about me being pro / con war? I'm in the army... been to war, both afghanistan and iraq. You know damn well when you join the ARMED FORCES you can expect to go to war. Thats your job. I said it was a good program that you're doing.

bump!!!!!!!!!

Misunderstood, I apologize for coming across strong. This just means a lot to me for several reasons.

me and my wife send care packages every month. I spent 7 years in the army, was deployed to somalia and then haiti, then spent a year in korea... I know how much it sucks. Try sending some magazines, baby wipes, beef jerky... they really like that.

Yeppers, collected all of those items just from my community alone from flyers. I was informed what they need and what I could and could not send, now I want that personal touch with a ton of letters!.

PEASE< Even if it's only a short letter, write one. Trust me, it won't go unappreciated.

:thumbsup :thumbsup

your doing a great thing

If you don't want me knowing your address for whatever reason, an anon. letter is just as good. :helpme

Can people email these letters to the email addy in your sig?

Some may not want to post a letter here.


Btw, did you get the birthday wish I sent you via ICQ the other week?

If not, it said "Happy Birthday" :D

So far I have:

Baby Wipes
Entertainment Magazines
Paper Pads & Pens
Mini Flashlights
Canned Food
Beef Jerky
Packaged Snack Foods that the heat won't melt due to shipping (Pretzels, Cheese Whiz, Raisins, Cookies, etc
Scrubs (New Scrubs to sleep in).
Nice Towels larger than a stamp that I wrote inspirational messages on with fabric marker
T-shirts
DVD's (This post has a DVD player and only 4 DVD's last I checked)
Light Blankets
Bug Replent
Soap
Shampoo
Deoderant
Powder (for Feet)
Dry Shampoo (It's a powdery substance if they don't have water available).
Disposable Razers
Cigarette Packs for the smokers (Hey, if they are smokers, it's a treat)
and other odds and ends such as boxes to store items, etc.

(They are all packaged properly so the soap doesn't make the cookies taste like soap, etc..... I did my research).

NOW I NEED LETTERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :(

too bad i didn't know about fleshlights while i was out there.

No I did not get it :(

and YES, YES, YES, feel free to email them to me. You can email to the one in the sig or tinyjenn ^a^ bellsouth (net)

I'll keep bumping until I get a few letters.... This project means a lot to me. I've seen you guys donate loads of money to peeps that ended up not needing it and everyone was pissed.....

I'm not asking for money, I'm paying for the shipping and the items I donated myself (and my finances are a wreck, so writing a letter won't kill ya) , I just want letters, or even one liners. Please help. This has been my passion for the last month, so I am forking over hundreds to send the box and I want letters, letters, letters! (Or atleast hope for them).

Some of us know we can NEVER repay your time nor erase the images you carry in our behalf .....

Thanks LPink for the quote, I will include it. I've had the flu, so I am signing off, if any of you believe in this, please bump it. I'm hoping to wake up to more quotes or letters for the soldiers. PLEASE, feel free to email the letters to my private email if you don't want to post them......

I would just like to say, Im very supportive in your cause. And appriciate everything your doing for them and us. I did my time in the first tour over there 2003 w/ 1st Marine Division. And you know what? We never got anything from anyone. I lost 2 best friends in Nas and 1 of my Marines in Al Shatra. And you know what we got? Nothing!:mad: At that point in time we didnt have email or telephone or TV to see the news. All we got were letters from home and News Week. Showing us all of the fucking protesters marching.:321GFY Yeah, trust me with no support from home, we felt like shit. And right now Im still active here at Pendleton with 8 months left. So no, I dont support it. Our job was over with when we "DID" find WMD and caught Saddam. Our mission was over and now were just there for Srub Head to make money on his oil.
Anyways, please continue to fight the good fight from the home front. They need it as much as I needed it back then.
And for everyone else who supports us, but not the war, Thank You so much.:thumbsup

Not an easy situation for the soldiers over there ... In today's article, you can read despair and lost faith ...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12922324/

Not easier for the population either ... what a fucking mess :2 cents:

When you join the military, it's pretty clear that if there is a war there is a good chance your going to get a front row seat. If your going into the military to get a college education, that's great - but the trade off is your playing russian roulette with your life.

It doesn't matter if you support the war or not. You didn't sign up to go to war; You signed up to serve at the pleasure of the President of the United States, and it doesn't matter if he's getting blown in the Oval office or if he looks like a donkey swimming in oil profits.

Having had several friends in the military, I know how much they enjoy getting letters.

I sent mine to your e-mail address in your sig. :thumbsup

But you also expect to go to war for something. You don't expect to be sent into war to fight for Haliburton and the oil companies. I have a lot of friends who were in the reserves to earn money for college. They knew there was a possibility for war when signing up, but they hoped it would be for a different cause. It's a tough situation and although you are signing up for your country, you don't expect that it is to help Cheney's friends stock go up.

I would think that the majority of the soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan now knew they had a good chance of being sent over there. The war on terror began in 2001. It's now 2006. You sign up for 4 years or less. Although the reserves it is 8 years. They got a shitty deal.

Is there an official website that explains how to send stuff over there myself?

when you sign up, its an 8 year hitch. You only do 4 on active duty (or whatever your contract specifys) the remainder of the 8 years is on Individual Ready Reserve, or IRR and you can be called back for anything the presidents signs the order for.

There is a lot of them, but www.anysoldier.com is one! :thumbsup

good program that you're doing:thumbsup :thumbsup

Thanks a lot for the website, AngelEyes. I will definitely send something. I remember looking for a website like that a while back but failed to find one.

Thanks MrPheer for clarifying that.

How about gearing Donald Rumsfeld up and send him over there for a year?

Got it! THANKS A TON!

Name a war since WWII that everyone supported?

I'll write a letter as soon as I get back from picking up my son from school. :)

Bump... the package isn't going out until Friday, I've collected some, please send more... It would be perfect if I collect enough for everyone at that post.

Remember to include your address if you want an ongoing penpal.

I'm not trying to be annoying with the bumping, but.......

:thumbsup ... the package isn't going out until Friday, I've collected some, please send more... It would be perfect if I collect enough for everyone at that post.

:winkwink: Remember to include your address if you want an ongoing penpal.
:winkwink: If you don't know what to say, tell them about your life, tell them you appreciate what they do for you. Ask them questions about their life if you intend to include a return address, tell them jokes, I'm not so sure Bush jokes would be good for the soldiers that are Bush fans and I can't tell you who your specific mail is going to reach, but I can send to a specific gender. (I'm including envelopes and paper so they will be able to write back, but keep in mind, the mail takes a while).
:winkwink: You can even print funny headlines from news sites if you are drawing a blank. Again, just nothing offensive.Telling them you work in adult isn't a big deal, it's who you are. My letters don't hide that fact.

:helpme last but not least, if you really don't want to write, please bump when you can so I can collect as many as possible by Thursday Night, which is the cut off date because I've got to get everything printed, sealed, etc. Maybe post a link elsewhere.

PS. I'm not monitoring your letters, I'm just copy/pasting them out of the body of the email into word, so your email info is confidentail unless you include it. They also like to receive photos if it's a penpal and this post will be there months until 2007 (God Willing nothing happens) so they can be ongoing penpals.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE ONES I'VE RECEIVED SO FAR.

Great idea angeleyes...great to see people doing this kind of individual effort. :thumbsup :thumbsup

This is a war that hasn't asked us to sacrifice a thing while brave men and women sacrifice themselves on a daily basis.