Opinion

A real soldier's story

Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Care packages, with their recipients. (Courtesy photo)

With all the hype on TV of our Commander in Chief's trade of five really bad guys for an army deserter it may be time to share a good news story. In my 25 years of duty in the Air Force I never personally knew of a person to desert, or even go AWOL, of their own volition. Some airmen maybe had a little bad luck and were late getting back to base on time but those were minor problems generally overlooked. So it is a little hard to judge Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl on obviously walking away from his unit in a war zone. I will leave judgment up to the Military Courts Martial that is sure to follow.

With the wonderful support from this community Grannie Annie has, for seven years, been sending "care packages" to military chaplains assigned to units deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Those flat rate boxes have been well received. Reportedly the chaplain sets up a "free" BX in his/her chapel and the soldiers come in to help themselves to the goodies and sometimes strike up a needed conversation with the chaplain. Now we all know that a young American fighting man facing combat would never admit to needing to go to a chaplain for counseling. However if he has a hankering for a sack of M&M's or jerky or some other of the goodies that Grannie sends and those items are available in the makeshift chapel, well then it is okay to grab a handful and just happen to strike up a conversation with the friendly man of the cloth. It works time and again and the love from back home is appreciated more than we know.

This time around Grannie had six chaplains that she has regularly been sending the large flat rate postal boxes in Afghanistan. However at a chaplain's recommendation she has also been sending boxes to a small medical unit attached to an austere Marine outpost somewhere in the hinterland. Evidently that unit is Navy as the Marines have no medical corps of their own. Their description of what the unit does reminds me very much of the Korean War MASH unit made familiar to us all in the movie and TV series of that same name.

In my war, Vietnam, we communicated with our loved ones, and other friends, back home by writing letters. Today our deployed troops use the internet. Grannie sends boxes and "her" Chief, the non-commissioned officer in charge of the unit sends thanks through emails. Allow me to share a recent missive:

"Grannie Annie,

Thank you so much again for the boxes. We already received them. We all get excited here every time we receive and open boxes. It is such a morale booster. I am attaching our pictures, myself and LCDR (he sent a picture of the female doctor holding three jars of the JIF chocolate mocha flavored peanut butter) who is very happy about the bread spread you sent. She is the one who loves baking bread.

HM2 (an enlisted man who never receives letters or packages from home) also have received your package. He is very glad. I hope he e-mailed you back.

So far we have approximately 2 months left here. I am getting excited by the day. But I will miss my daughter's graduation and birthday again this year. I will also not gonna be there when my daughter start the college enrollment process. I have missed so many important dates in our family that sometimes, I really feel that my retirement next year can't come soon enough. My family have suffered and sacrificed as much if not more for my career. It's time for me to give them the time and full attention that they need. Sorry for venting Grannie, I just feel lonely whenever I think about them.

Again, thanks a lot for everything that you do. You are one of the best thing that happened to me during this deployment. I have found a true friend in you....

Very Respectfully,"

I have of course omitted the unit and real names to protect the innocent. Yes some of the text may not be grammatically correct but not bad for a true patriot born in another country with English not his first language. Now he is an adopted citizen but being Navy probably not real proud to be called a "soldier"! Sailor, Marine, Soldier, Airman, all are meant with great respect by this writer.

Grannie and I just want to share the pathos of a real fighting man sacrificing himself and family for our country in an almost forgotten war. This community is to be thanked for your generous support of items to send and money to enable Grannie Annie to carry out her wonderful ministry. Those troops and you all are true Americans!

That is the way I saw it.

Dick Trail

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