Remembering Our Deployed Americans
Recently, one of my co-workers sent out an e-mail reminding us to think of the people far from home and their families. Rick retired last month, but I wanted to share his message with you. It contains web links to organizations that are assisting deployed Americans, wounded warriors and military families.
Message From Rick Armstrong:
Although Thanksgiving, Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa and New Years are a ways away, it's not that far away if you are thinking of sending any kind of goodies to service men and women deployed in far away war zones. Depending where they are deployed, it can take quiet a while for a postal shipment to get there. As most of you know, my son Joe is serving in Afghanistan as I write this. His tour will last until next summer, (hopefully not longer than that). I have already started gathering stuff to send Joe and the guys in his platoon. Being far away in a hostile area is bad enough. Being there during the holidays is brutal. Joe has told me many times how much it means to get something from home. It doesn't matter if it's store bought cookies or some homemade. Beef jerky or his favorite candy. Having a package to share is a high point in their day. After all, They live together and go on missions together, so sharing their bounty from home is a given.
If you have a loved one or a neighborhood kid or anyone you know overseas in the military please consider sending something to him or her during the holiday season. It doesn't have to be a ton of stuff, just a small package with a few things and a hand written note, expressing thanks and good wishes. You may or may not hear back from them, they are a big busy, but I can assure you that your package will be appreciated more than you can imagine. If you want to know the kinds of stuff to send here are a few web sites that tell you what is needed and wanted. I've only listed a few, you can use Google to find lots more sites. Some of the sites listed will also send gift package for you if you are too busy to do it yourself.
kincy.typepad
operationmilitary pride
militarymoms
cafepress
armywives
The postal service recommends that you send your package priority mail. I have had good luck doing that and it's not much more money than first class mail.
If you don't know anyone serving overseas but want to do something for a soldier, sailor, marine or airman, you can contact the USO, or again, use Google to find organizations that are looking for people to donate money or to agree to send packages. You will be amazed how many organizations are out there.
I have been recruiting family and friends to send holiday stuff to my son's Army unit. His platoon is about 20 men. If you feel the calling and would like to send some goodies to these soldiers, I know my sons unit, "The Bushwhackers", would be more than willing to be on the receiving end of your gift! No matter who you send your gifts to be sure to include a personal note with some well wishes, some thanks and some prayers.
The address is:
Joseph Armstrong
JBAD PRT HHC
173rd STB
APO AE 09354
Thanks all, Rick Armstrong USO Holiday Events
I received this letter recently from a local resident who would like to send some military friends to a Redskins game in December. If you have any information about 4 tickets availabe for sale, contact mikefaber@aol.com
Request from Mike Faber: Redskins Tickets for Sale?
Hi everyone- I am looking to buy 4 tickets for the Washington/Dallas game on December 30th. A lot of you know that Sharon's son Chris is a die-hard Cowboy fan. Other than that, he is a great guy. Chris and one of his best friends all the way back to kindergarten (and through college) is Eric Atherton and the two of them have been badgering each other about the Redskins/Cowboys literally since they were kids.
Eric and his wife are both Majors in the U.S. Army. In the Fall of 2006, they both had to leave their 18-month old daughter with grandparents to deploy to Afghanistan. She came back in September and Eric returned in August. The three of them are now back together and stationed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. They are planning a trip back home for Christmas.
I am looking for the 4 tickets so Eric and Chris can take their wives to the game and continue to hassle each other about the Redskins & Cowboys. If anyone knows someone who would be willing to sell 4 tickets, please let me know. Happy Holidays Mike MikeFaber@aol.com
Did you see this Associated Press article on the San Antonia wife who decided to finish what her husband started after he was wounded in combat? It is an inspirational story.
Associated Press Article: Wife Joins Army After Husband Is Wounded
Wife Takes Up Husband's Army Enlistment
By MICHELLE ROBERTS
The Associated Press
Sunday, December 9, 2007; 11:43 AM
SAN ANTONIO -- More than a year after Spc. Alejandro Albarran lost part of his right leg in an explosion in Iraq, he still hasn't decided whether he'll stay in the Army.
"Right now, I'm leaning against it," said the 20-year-old infantryman, looking ahead with distaste to a possible desk job. Whatever he decides, he won't be leaving Army life behind _ because his wife has enlisted to take his place in uniform.
"After everything he's gone through _ and he loves the Army _ he kind of inspired me," said Janay Albarran. "I made him a promise that I would finish what he started." While he underwent five-day-a-week rehabilitation to recover his balance and strength on a prosthetic leg at an Army rehabilitation facility in San Antonio, she was in boot camp at Fort Jackson, S.C., learning to shoot a rifle and stand in formation.
Janay Albarran graduated from basic training on Friday, gaining the rank of private. The couple's 2-year-old daughter is staying with a grandmother in Arizona. Roughly 24,000 of the Army's soldiers, about 9 percent of the force, are married to other soldiers. The Army doesn't have any statistics on how many join after a spouse or family member is badly wounded in combat, but a spokeswoman, Maj. Anne Edgecomb, said she's heard of people joining after the injury or death of a sibling and at least one woman who joined after her husband was killed in combat.
"The courage of our soldiers and their families is remarkable," she said. Janay Albarran, 19, wasn't always thrilled with the prospect of Army life. She met her husband at a high school football game in Yuma, Ariz., near where they grew up, and learned later from his online profile that he had already signed up for the Army.
"I was like 'Well, I met somebody and he's about to leave.' I was a little upset," said Janay Albarran. "I knew he was joining the Army and we're at war." The couple married in February 2006, and he was sent to Iraq six months later. In November 2006, Alejandro Albarran was in a Humvee escorting a unit to the scene of a detonated bomb when a second bomb exploded. After that, he remembers only flashes: a medic over him, the helicopter.
Janay Albarran met him at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington several days later, and they went to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, where some of the most severely wounded are treated.
Efforts to save Alejandro Albarran's lower right leg were unsuccessful. When the pain became too great, he told his wife to let the doctors amputate. At first, Janay Albarran had to help her husband dress and get out his wheelchair. "She had to be my memory. My short term memory is bad," said Alejandro, who also suffered a head injury in the blast.
As he regained more mobility, the teen wife who had been afraid of guns decided to take her husband's place in the ranks. Strictly speaking, Janay Albarran will not be replacing her husband. He was an infantryman, a position not open to women, although he notes with chagrin that she outscored him on her basic training rifle test.
She expects to get a human resources assignment, one less likely to lead to deployment in Iraq. "It's just another job," Alejandro Albarran said, taking a break between weight lifting sets at the large amputee rehab facility here.
However, a safe assignment isn't guaranteed, and Janay Albarran said she worries about possible deployment when she thinks about their daughter, Iliana. "That's the only thing that scares me. He's already been hurt," she said. "If I do get deployed, I'm going to miss him so much. But it's nothing I can't handle."
© 2007 The Associated Press
Message From Rick Armstrong:
Although Thanksgiving, Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa and New Years are a ways away, it's not that far away if you are thinking of sending any kind of goodies to service men and women deployed in far away war zones. Depending where they are deployed, it can take quiet a while for a postal shipment to get there. As most of you know, my son Joe is serving in Afghanistan as I write this. His tour will last until next summer, (hopefully not longer than that). I have already started gathering stuff to send Joe and the guys in his platoon. Being far away in a hostile area is bad enough. Being there during the holidays is brutal. Joe has told me many times how much it means to get something from home. It doesn't matter if it's store bought cookies or some homemade. Beef jerky or his favorite candy. Having a package to share is a high point in their day. After all, They live together and go on missions together, so sharing their bounty from home is a given.
If you have a loved one or a neighborhood kid or anyone you know overseas in the military please consider sending something to him or her during the holiday season. It doesn't have to be a ton of stuff, just a small package with a few things and a hand written note, expressing thanks and good wishes. You may or may not hear back from them, they are a big busy, but I can assure you that your package will be appreciated more than you can imagine. If you want to know the kinds of stuff to send here are a few web sites that tell you what is needed and wanted. I've only listed a few, you can use Google to find lots more sites. Some of the sites listed will also send gift package for you if you are too busy to do it yourself.
kincy.typepad
operationmilitary pride
militarymoms
cafepress
armywives
The postal service recommends that you send your package priority mail. I have had good luck doing that and it's not much more money than first class mail.
If you don't know anyone serving overseas but want to do something for a soldier, sailor, marine or airman, you can contact the USO, or again, use Google to find organizations that are looking for people to donate money or to agree to send packages. You will be amazed how many organizations are out there.
I have been recruiting family and friends to send holiday stuff to my son's Army unit. His platoon is about 20 men. If you feel the calling and would like to send some goodies to these soldiers, I know my sons unit, "The Bushwhackers", would be more than willing to be on the receiving end of your gift! No matter who you send your gifts to be sure to include a personal note with some well wishes, some thanks and some prayers.
The address is:
Joseph Armstrong
JBAD PRT HHC
173rd STB
APO AE 09354
Thanks all, Rick Armstrong USO Holiday Events
I received this letter recently from a local resident who would like to send some military friends to a Redskins game in December. If you have any information about 4 tickets availabe for sale, contact mikefaber@aol.com
Request from Mike Faber: Redskins Tickets for Sale?
Hi everyone- I am looking to buy 4 tickets for the Washington/Dallas game on December 30th. A lot of you know that Sharon's son Chris is a die-hard Cowboy fan. Other than that, he is a great guy. Chris and one of his best friends all the way back to kindergarten (and through college) is Eric Atherton and the two of them have been badgering each other about the Redskins/Cowboys literally since they were kids.
Eric and his wife are both Majors in the U.S. Army. In the Fall of 2006, they both had to leave their 18-month old daughter with grandparents to deploy to Afghanistan. She came back in September and Eric returned in August. The three of them are now back together and stationed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. They are planning a trip back home for Christmas.
I am looking for the 4 tickets so Eric and Chris can take their wives to the game and continue to hassle each other about the Redskins & Cowboys. If anyone knows someone who would be willing to sell 4 tickets, please let me know. Happy Holidays Mike MikeFaber@aol.com
Did you see this Associated Press article on the San Antonia wife who decided to finish what her husband started after he was wounded in combat? It is an inspirational story.
Associated Press Article: Wife Joins Army After Husband Is Wounded
Wife Takes Up Husband's Army Enlistment
By MICHELLE ROBERTS
The Associated Press
Sunday, December 9, 2007; 11:43 AM
SAN ANTONIO -- More than a year after Spc. Alejandro Albarran lost part of his right leg in an explosion in Iraq, he still hasn't decided whether he'll stay in the Army.
"Right now, I'm leaning against it," said the 20-year-old infantryman, looking ahead with distaste to a possible desk job. Whatever he decides, he won't be leaving Army life behind _ because his wife has enlisted to take his place in uniform.
"After everything he's gone through _ and he loves the Army _ he kind of inspired me," said Janay Albarran. "I made him a promise that I would finish what he started." While he underwent five-day-a-week rehabilitation to recover his balance and strength on a prosthetic leg at an Army rehabilitation facility in San Antonio, she was in boot camp at Fort Jackson, S.C., learning to shoot a rifle and stand in formation.
Janay Albarran graduated from basic training on Friday, gaining the rank of private. The couple's 2-year-old daughter is staying with a grandmother in Arizona. Roughly 24,000 of the Army's soldiers, about 9 percent of the force, are married to other soldiers. The Army doesn't have any statistics on how many join after a spouse or family member is badly wounded in combat, but a spokeswoman, Maj. Anne Edgecomb, said she's heard of people joining after the injury or death of a sibling and at least one woman who joined after her husband was killed in combat.
"The courage of our soldiers and their families is remarkable," she said. Janay Albarran, 19, wasn't always thrilled with the prospect of Army life. She met her husband at a high school football game in Yuma, Ariz., near where they grew up, and learned later from his online profile that he had already signed up for the Army.
"I was like 'Well, I met somebody and he's about to leave.' I was a little upset," said Janay Albarran. "I knew he was joining the Army and we're at war." The couple married in February 2006, and he was sent to Iraq six months later. In November 2006, Alejandro Albarran was in a Humvee escorting a unit to the scene of a detonated bomb when a second bomb exploded. After that, he remembers only flashes: a medic over him, the helicopter.
Janay Albarran met him at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington several days later, and they went to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, where some of the most severely wounded are treated.
Efforts to save Alejandro Albarran's lower right leg were unsuccessful. When the pain became too great, he told his wife to let the doctors amputate. At first, Janay Albarran had to help her husband dress and get out his wheelchair. "She had to be my memory. My short term memory is bad," said Alejandro, who also suffered a head injury in the blast.
As he regained more mobility, the teen wife who had been afraid of guns decided to take her husband's place in the ranks. Strictly speaking, Janay Albarran will not be replacing her husband. He was an infantryman, a position not open to women, although he notes with chagrin that she outscored him on her basic training rifle test.
She expects to get a human resources assignment, one less likely to lead to deployment in Iraq. "It's just another job," Alejandro Albarran said, taking a break between weight lifting sets at the large amputee rehab facility here.
However, a safe assignment isn't guaranteed, and Janay Albarran said she worries about possible deployment when she thinks about their daughter, Iliana. "That's the only thing that scares me. He's already been hurt," she said. "If I do get deployed, I'm going to miss him so much. But it's nothing I can't handle."
© 2007 The Associated Press
posted by Phyllis Armstrong at
11:50 AM
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