FULL BATTLE RATTLE E-NEWS

Transcription

1 FULL BATTLE RATTLE E-NEWS WORDS FROM THE FRONT: I thank you for what you do. Your support actually goes a long way and it lets us know here that there are still people back in the states that are behind us and support us. We are a long way from home out here busting our butts off, but what you do is more than words can ever describe. Your support of us deployed soldiers tells a lot about the good old fashioned American spirit. we are lucky to have such wonderful people like you that are there for us even though we are so far away. Thank You. Kandahar, Camp Nathan Smith - AFGHANISTAN Dear AdoptaPlatoon Support Team: It s been an unusually hot summer for many of us here at home.but have you realized that our Troops were living in 140+ degrees in Afghanistan and Iraq? Now imagine them being in full battle rattle and dealing with enemy fire day in and day out. They are on duty 24-7 and always have to watch their backs and their battle buddies as well. One good thing is the weather is starting to cool down for them. And, another good thing is we, at AdoptaPlatoon, are always here for them. We Americans always come through for our Troops So please, won't you read AAP's Full Battle Rattle E-News and see how you can help! AMERICANS ARE NEEDED FOR PLATOON SUPPORT

2 This time our most urgent request is asking for Platoon Support and for MARRIED/FAMILYSUPPORTERS! Americans can send support to platoons either as an on-going basis, or by sharing a platoon with other supporters, or by sending a one-time or occasional care package. One box of goodies to a platoon of Troops can be shared among a platoon of Soldiers or Marines and your kindness makes a huge difference in their lives as they serve on our behalf. What does Platoon Support entail? Please sign up today at info@adoptaplatoon.org and let our Troops know that YOU STAND BEHIND THEM! Supporting a group of Troops could be as small as 20 or as large as 50. Sending a monthly care package for a platoon to share with each other or sending a one-time care package for a platoon to share with each other. Who can participate? Individuals, Families, Groups, Companies, Schools, etc., can support a Platoon.

3 We also have married Service Members asking for support. As you know, AAP's policy is not to link single supporters to married Service Members. We are in great need of married individuals / families, or older singles (over 50) to support deployed married Service Members. Our deployed married Service Members also need our Nation's support so please, if your family can reach out and embrace a married Soldier or Marine, and you are already an approved AAP supporter, write to info@adoptaplatoon.org and let us know that you will

4 "step up to the plate" and add one more member to your family! Let us know that you can send a minimum of one (1) care package per month and that you will pledge to stand behind your married Service Member deployed in harm's way! As a current supporter, if you can pen-pal or adopt another married Service Member, and you fit the criteria, please contact us right away! You can have up to 4 total Service Members at a time. Be sure to include all y our info that we ask for below. We always need SINGLE ADOPTERS! Although we currently have enough single pen pals to meet the need for Troop support, AAP has many single Service Members waiting to be ADOPTED meaning weekly letters AND a minimum pledge of one (1) monthly care packages. Please let us know if you are able to ADOPT another single Service Member. You can have up to 4 total Service Members at a time. Remember what is needed to participate in AdoptaPlatoon! Please send an with your name, address, marital status, age, and last name of your currently assigned Soldier, and what kind of additional support you think you can do. We will work with you. But remember the info we ask for is needed so please be sure to include it in your reply so we don t have to write back to you again. If you are a current supporter whose assigned Service Member has deployed home, please sign up to embrace another Service Member! Your support is so appreciated by our Nation's men and women who serve on our behalf. Let s do our part America! While our Troops serve overseas in dangerous conditions, let us here at home make sure that we are SUPPORTING THEM! Send your information to info@adoptaplatoon.org and put the following in the subject line: CURRENT SUPPORTER if you are currently supporting a Soldier/Platoon, or put REPEAT SUPPORTER if you are an AAP Approved Supporter but are not currently supporting a Soldier/Platoon at this time. Please do not submit a new application if you are an Approved AAP Supporter. THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEARTS!

5 IMPORTANT REMINDERS: We only use for our s. Some people are using an older one and that will NOT reach us. Please only use Also, please remember to only use the United States Postal Service (USPS) to ship care packages to assigned deployed Soldiers/Marines/Platoon to Afghanistan or Iraq. WE MUST CONTINUE PUTTING SMILES ON THE FACES OF OUR TROOPS

6 BELOW is a quick update on ways to support our Troops:

7 Pen-pal (weekly correspondence) or Adopt (weekly correspondence AND monthly care packages) with an individual Service Member; Adopt a group or Platoon of Troops (you let us know how many you can support); Send a one-time care package to a group or Platoon of Service Members (you let us know how many you can support); Participate in one of our annual campaigns with Arline Grant, our campaign director. Right now we are running our Halloween Campaign, but will be getting ready for our Winter Campaigns shortly. Another way to help is to spread AdoptaPlatoon s mission letting everyone in your community know that our Troops need us and they do not deserve to be forgotten! We are in an urgent situation with newly deployed Troops and platoons arriving in dangerous areas in Afghanistan and Iraq and they are signing up quickly to be supported. They are just asking to receive mail from back home their America our America -- They are asking to be remembered and saying, "Please don't forget us! We're here and we need mail from home!"...

8 Halloween Bags donated by AAP's financial donors are being packed and ready to ship to Iraq and Afghanistan! REMEMBER, if you are already a current, repeat approved supporter with AAP, it is NOT necessary to submit a new application. Please just the requested information to info@adoptapaltoon.org and you'll be ready to go!

9 Thank you for being a dedicated AdoptaPlatoon Team Member Your support makes a tremendous difference!

10 IF YOU WANT TO PARTICIPATE IN AAP'S ON-LINE CAMPAIGNS HERE IS AN UPDATE OF WHAT IS COMING UP! Send a blessing and Thanks to our Troops at Thanksgiving! THANKSGIVING 2010 OPERATION HOLIDAY EAGLE for platoon support and STOCKINGS FROM SANTA are coming up quickly. If you are an approved supporter and want to participate in any of these campaigns, please contact our Campaign Director, Arline Grant, at aapcampaign@yahoo.com. Be sure to include all your info - name, age, marital status and address - and put Thanksgiving, HOLIDAY EAGLE or STOCKINGS FOR SANTA in the subject line. Let her know how many Troops you want to send to for these one-time holiday packages. Click HERE to view Thanksgiving Poster Click HERE to view the Operations Holiday Eagle Poster Click HERE to view the Stockings From Santa Poster OPERATION FOOT CARE Our Troops feet are extremely important Whether it's beating the summer heat or cold winter, our Troops welcome dry socks, foot powder, anti-fungal cream, etc. As we head deeper into the fall and then winter of 2010 and 2011, our Troops need these items more than ever especially those Troops serving in the high mountains of Afghanistan! If you would like to participate in this year-round campaign, put FOOT CARE in your . CHAPLAIN S COFFEE HOUSE Snacks, coffee, magazines, books are appreciated at these coffee houses that military chaplains' host. If you are a current AAP supporter and you'd like to participate in this campaign and lend a helping hand to a military chaplain, put

11 "COFFEE HOUSE" in the subject of your and send to: If you are a new supporter and wish to participate AND PUT A SMILE ON A SOLDIER'S FACE, sign up on the website at and request a point of contact to a Chaplain and send much needed joy to Troops serving on your behalf. REMEMBER TO ALWAYS include the requested information in your s as follows: If you are a current approved supporter and would like to participate in this campaign, please send an to Arline, AAP Campaign Director at: aapcampaign@yahoo.com with the following information: Name Address Marital status AND age Name of last Soldier / address you supported Name of campaign you want to participate in If you have someone who hasn t been approved by AAP and would like to participate, please ask them to fill out an application form located in "New Supporter" Application on the AAP website at REMINDER: if you are already a current, approved supporter with AAP, it is NOT necessary to submit a new application if you wish to support a new Soldier(s). LET US KNOW IF ANY OF YOUR INFORMATION HAS CHANGED AND BE SURE TO INCLUDE THE PREVIOUS INFORMATION AND THEN THE NEW INFORMATION AAP WALKING WOUNDED

12 AAP Walking Wounded provides immediate emergency support to active duty and recently sectioned out wounded / injured Troops and Veterans who are having financial problems and we do what is needed to ensure that our Troops and Veterans do not "fall through the cracks". Please, won't YOU help? Together, we can make miracles happen for our Nation's wounded and injured who have sacrificed so much already on our behalf. You can help by sending a tax-deductible donation to AdoptaPlatoon that will be specifically allocated to the AAP Walking Wounded Program effort. Send your kindness to our Nation's wounded by sending a tax deductible donation made out to AAP Walking Wounded. 100% of your donation will be used for AAP Walking Wounded and all donations will be acknowledged. Send your tax-deductible donation to: AAP Walking Wounded AAP HQ P.O. Box 234 Lozano, Texas You can also contribute on-line via Pay Pal at the AAP's website ( please mark that your gift is for AAP Walking Wounded. WORDS OF THANKS FROM OUR HEROES! FROM: C CO 26TH BSB- IRAQ AMERICANS STICKING THIS OUT TOGETHER! We are good to go, end of August (we don't need any more packages). We're packing up and getting ready to head

13 home. You can tell the volunteers, thank-you VERY much. Excellent program, I met some really nice and kind people. Americans sticking this out together. Thank-you for all that you do. God Bless You! ***** FROM: Task Force Saber - D Trp 2-17 CAV - AFGHANISTAN I would like to say Thank You so much for all the packages that you sent us. I got over 50 boxes within 2 days. I have taken some pictures of the Freebie area to send you guys but the Comp won t let me send them out right now. Majority of the stuff didn t even make it on to the shelf or if it did it didn t stay on the shelf very long. Your packages were a HUGE mural booster and I would like to thank everyone from the packages from home team, you guys are doing great supporting deployed Soldiers and we appreciate it. ***** FROM: 3-69 AR (Medical Platoon)- JSS War Eagle- IRAQ I also want to take the opportunity to express a heart filled thank you for all the support you and the organization has extended and given. You don't know how much we really appreciate what the organization does for us during our deployment and making life easier being away from home. Again, thank you and GOD bless. ***** FROM: 43D SB/Chaplain- AFGHANISTAN We appreciate everything that everybody is sending the troops out here. On behalf of my Commander and the Unit we can't say thank you enough for the things that we get. We are so busy with different mission and things and we take everything to heart when we get them. Thank you very much and God bless all of you. ***** FROM: 455 EOSS/IN - AFGHANISTAN Thanks so much for taking care of our deployed loved ones! You guys have been such a tremendous morale booster. The goodies you sent got shared around the entire 455 EOSS/IN unit and brought smiles to a lot of faces. Keep up the good fight. If there is anything I can do to assist you in your efforts, please do not hesitate to let me know. By keeping up the morale of the deployed folks you've indirectly helped keep up the morale of those of us at home station. Thank you so much.

14 ***** FROM: 2/9 H&S CO (COMM PLT) UNIT AFGHANISTAN First I would like to thank you to all of your supporters for what you do. We receive your care packages yesterday and it was like Christmas for those Marines. between the pillows and snacks they were overjoyed so much. The Marines themselves will each be sending letters back to those who left addresses on the cards. To thank them for their support. But I was taken back as this is my 7th deployment and I have never seen anything like that before and all I can say is thank you. Well I just wanted to let you know we received the care packages and again thank you for everything that you and your group does. ***** FROM: FSC 1/64 AR - IRAQ I thank you and the members of your organization for the support that has motivated and cared for my Soldiers and I. It is due to fine folks such as ya'll that makes this job worth having. With lots of love from the troops of HHC Maintenance!! ***** FROM: CLR-15 FWD - Charlie Surgical Company - Afghanistan Thanks ever so much for ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING you & the folks at Adopt-a-Platoon have been doing for us throughout this deployment. All of the goodies & nice to have things that folks have sent us have been wonderful. You have truly struck a chord of heartfelt thanks from this old, Navy Doc. FYI, we got so many boxes of great things from Placentia Linda Hospital in California, that we were able to spread the boxes of goodies out to about 6 separate medical locations. Several were totally surprised since they are not directly part of the Surgical Company, but they are good folks themselves & very busy caring for the Marines before we get them here. They LOVED the packages (One young Doc told me that he never expected to be so happy to see bags of powdered milk!). THANK YOU TO EVERYONE AT Placentia Linda Hospital, California ( Interesting News!

15 Megan Badger of Dallas, Texas find her true love in Iraq *****SPREAD THE WORD***** Spread the word to your family, friends, neighbors and co-workers and let them know that we as a Nation need to stand behind our Heroes and ask them to join the ranks and sign up at by clicking on "New Supporter" under the application heading. Thanks to EACH OF YOU, AdoptaPlatoon s Team of Supporters, who stand behind our Nation's Troops, because we are "MAKING IT HAPPEN!" If you are an AAP supporter, please write a review. CLICK HERE and click on the write a review button. Thank You! If you would like to help with the cost of postage or help fill a care package to our Troops, you can make a tax-deductible donation via credit card (pay pal) at or you can mail your donation made payable to AdoptaPlatoon and send to: AdoptaPlatoon Headquarters P.O. Box 234 Lozano, TX 78568

16 All donations are tax-deductible! Grateful words of thanks are sent your way for every blessing you send to our Nation s deployed U.S. Service Members and we thank you for continuing your participation as part of the AdoptaPlatoon Troop Support Team! God bless you and your families and God bless our Troops. Contact us at info@adoptaplatoon.org For detailed mailing instructions visit, GOD BLESS THE U.S.A. 101st ABN HARD AT WORK!

17 The Soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war. Douglas MacArthur

18 AdoptaPlatoon- Full Battle Rattle Newsletter- October 2010 All Rights Reserved