Sunday, December 5, 2010

Soldiers' Christmas & Holiday Care Packages - Update 2 For Today

Mike ____ has not received one of the three packages we sent to him to date. I had thought he received them all but on further inquiry he told me he only has received two of them. I am hopeful one is still in the mail and headed to him and am also hopeful if it is lost then it is one that I insured. Either way, anyone who donated does not have to worry that any of their donations were lost. Only the first package was not insured, that was the one I paid for completely out of my own pocket. Donations to date have only been used on the contents of packages 2 and 3 and both of them were insured. I think I have to wait 30 days to file a claim, that would be on or about December 11th. Hopefully the missing package will be delivered before then. Hopefully it was not the cigars either but with my piss poor luck i would bet that is the one. Thankfully, if that is so, the cigars were one of the insured packages.

As for the next package(s), I did not get a chance to go shopping today as I had thought. I did find out from Mike ____ though that there is one woman in his unit. So, I may include something fitting of a lady in one of the upcoming packages - a tough as nails woman maybe -but a lady no doubt!

Mike ____ also confirmed for me that he and his unit are in Iraq, in Kirkuk. He is with a mechanic unit. He did not mention the size of his unit saying it was an opsec concern but I think maybe he thought I wanted to know the size of the overall unit and not of his squad, so I sent him another email asking squad size if he can tell me without it being a matter of a security breach. I am asking to find out how many of a certain item or items I would send.

In order to assure I can include something a little special in the packages for each member of his unit, something durable and lasting, I am going to assume that his squad is made up of at least 12 enlisted people and a non-com. My lucky number has always been 13, so my guess is that if I send 13 of an item that will last, there will be enough of them to go around for each person in his squad. If not, then Mike ___ will have to dole them out as best he can. Of course, if he gets back to me with his unit size and it is smaller then I need not guess. if it is larger, then maybe I cannot afford to send what I had in mind. I really would like to see each soldier in his squad get one - with no one left out.

As far as donations go, nothing else yet but I am hopeful. I have decided I can afford another $50 instead of just $25 toward the items to go into the packages (not including what I will pay for shipping). What the heck, the cruise the wife and I are going on next week is already paid for so I can afford to take another $25 of what I had intended to use on booze aboard the ship to help these guys and gal out. What about you - can you afford a few bucks. I know one thing, I believe the following:

Money is tight,
and times are hard,
but it wouldn't be right
to send them just Christmas card!

All the best,
Glenn B

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