Letters to the Package Brigade
Package Brigade Leadership,
I am the Squadron Commander for an Air CAV Squadron deployed in Iraq.
I wanted to take a minute and send you a quick note of thanks for the program you all have established in support of Soldiers deployed in Iraq and assuming Afghanistan as well.
Someone turned my name into your organization and I received 10 boxes of Christmas goodies and notes. Words cannot express the gratitude and appreciation I have for this generous gift. Wanted to let you know that I did two things with the care packages. First, I have refuel personnel at different locations than my headquarters and I personally flew some of the boxes in my aircraft to my FARP personnel so they received some Christmas cheer. Second, I gave the remaining boxes to a few select single Soldiers so they received gifts from great Americans such as you during the holiday season.
My only guidance to my Soldiers receiving boxes was to personally write a note of thanks to those persons that sent messages in the boxes…I trust they will follow through.
Coming in the mail will be an American Flag that I flew on a combat mission in the Kirkuk Province and a signed certificate to commemorate the flight for your organization.
I do have one request if you can help me out? Need the mailing address of the elementary second grade class that sent a booklet called “A Tribute to Those Who Serve”. Kept a box for the staff and this booklet was in that box and we flew a Flag with a certificate and I’d like to mail it to them.
Again, thank you very much for the support.
r
Brian
I would like to thank all of you for what you do. For the work filling the packages, as well as the cost to mail packages to Soldiers deployed around the world. It’s great to get mail, but even better when boxes arrive, and everyone on the team gets something out of the big box of goodies! Again, thank you…
Michael
"No arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women."
— Pres. Ronald Reagan
Package Brigade:
The Team received three outstanding care packages this week from your organization. We want to say thank you for supporting us from the homeland and bringing smiles to all our faces, especially during the Christmas season. I enjoy dumping the box out on the desk at the evening shift change and watching everybody dig in. The Soldiers enjoy these packages and it means a lot to us to receive this kind of support from you great Americans.
Our Soldiers continue to perform the mission with determination and success. The environment is improving here but a high degree of risk remains. Nothing we can't handle. I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and thank you again for supporting the Soldiers and the mission.
V/r
Greg
We received the Valentine’s packages yesterday. Thanks for the snacks, gum and puzzle books!
I return home starting 14 Feb. I would sure like for your packages to keep coming to this office. If you are willing to continue, please send packages to my relief, Charles.
I hope you don’t mind, but we distribute a lot of the gifts to Army personnel and Iraqi children. We and Army personnel love snacks, of course. And we go out with them to visit project sites in the “red zone” at least twice a week.
The Iraqi children are darling. And they need SCHOOL SUPPLIES. Toys like cars and small bags of building sets are nice, too. The most fitting, and perhaps most expensive, gift we can give to children are child-sized backpacks full of school supplies.
Thanks again for all your support!
— Scott
I am writing to thank you for all of the care packages you have sent me while deployed here in Afghanistan. I get packages from my loved ones and enjoy those greatly, but when I get packages out of the blue from your organization it’s a really nice feeling. In the area I work in, there are some guys who do not get packages while some of us get them more frequently. We all have a community pantry, for lack of a better word, where we all put our food and other items received and everyone shares from it.
One of the other things that I like receiving is the letters and drawings from the kids. We post them and get comments on them when people come through our area. I just want you to know that your efforts are greatly appreciated by all of us here and your support is what makes our time here well worth the sacrifice. I thank you, and all of my buddies here thank you.
Very Respectfully,
Lionel
I would like to take the opportunity to tell you all thank you for your big heart and gracious giving. We received three of your boxes and will proudly display the artwork done by these awesome children on our wall. The items placed in the boxes are all very thoughtful and useful.
The boxes found their way to a surgical hospital in Balad, Iraq. We work every day to ensure that those injured either by combat or domestic injury receive the best possible care and receiving the outpouring of love which these boxes represent blesses us. I speak for everyone in this surgical unit when I say thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
V/R
Douglas
Hello First Command Package Brigade Members:
Thank you for the box of items sent to deployed Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines. It was greatly appreciated. It is good to know that we are considered and appreciated by those that we have never met.
Defending freedom is not free. The cost: time away from family, loved ones, and sometimes blood and lives. Thank you for your consideration and the generous gifts.
Thank you,
Jeremy
Hello Package Brigade,
I'd like to thank all of you for your generous donations to me and my unit currently serving in Iraq. It really does mean a lot to us to know that there are plenty of good folks back home who are supportive of us and willingly take time and make the effort to send us what they can to make our days here away from family and friends that much more tolerable.
I have distributed most of the loot amongst my peers in my platoon. Some of the rest I donated to the MWR center at one of the remote outposts we stop out while on missions. The soldiers there stay and work in much more Spartan conditions than we do, and I figured some of them could use it.
Once again, thank you very much. We hope all of you have had a great holiday and will have a fantastic new year.
Sincerely,
Chris
I want to thank you for the package I received. It had one of my favorites — root beer barrels — reminded me of home. The care packages that First Command sends are appreciated and boost the morale of soldiers here in Iraq.
They provide us a diversion from the arduous task that some of us endure. Again thank you for your support!!
Jeanine
Dear Package Brigade members,
Thank you for your continued volunteer services, it is greatly appreciated. When a package arrives I wish you could see how the soldiers faces light-up. It does my heart good to know that volunteers like yourselves give an ample amount of time packaging the boxes we receive. So let me end this e-mail by saying thank you and your families for your unwavering support.
Thank You
Vicki and the Package Brigade,
I wanted to tell you that I am finally home. We made it back just a few weeks ago and it feels great. I wanted to express how grateful I am for all your packages and support throughout my deployment. The sand and the heat there seem to make everything fade and stale. Your packages brought some much needed freshness into all of our lives. We all shared and enjoyed the food and letters. The packages were a constant source of enjoyment. And filled with some "high quality" items I was told. (If we had extra left over we would bag it up and deliver it to children on the ground via Blackhawk helicopter. Just don't tell my Battalion commander, ok?)
I really hope I can convey my gratitude for all you have done for me, my unit and what you continue to do for all our service members deployed.
Thanks so much,
Mike