This is from a USO tour in Baghdad
From: SapperPest19 (YouTube)

The next time you go shopping, you may want to pick up a few items for our troops. The U.S. Troop Care Package has been meeting the needs of soldiers for the past three years. Founded at the forefront of Operation Iraqi Freedom, on March 19, 2003, U.S. Troop Care Package was created with the purpose of sending care packages to troops.

Jan Sass is the founder of the organization. She was moved to action when she saw anti war protestors displaying an American flag that they had dyed yellow. In response, Jan raised an American flag and counteracted their protest for 60 days. During this time, an onlooker asked her how she could send care packages, and Jann Sass went to work. She took it upon herself to discover the best way to send care packages to the troops and after completing her research; U.S. Troop Care Package was born.

You can visit U.S Troop Care Package online at: http://www.ustroopcarepackage.com and view the “Shopping List”. This is a great way to determine the items that are in the greatest need for our soldiers. Most sizes recommended for care packages are travel sizes, since troops don’t have much room for storage. In fact, they recommend that when you are shopping for care package items, to think as if you were camping, and shop accordingly.

Aerosol sprays and any item that may melt are also prohibited. They also recommend that you use a specific size box for your care package: 81/2” x 11” x 5”. These boxes are Post Office Flat Rate Priority and are the best size to ship your care package easily and efficiently

Some of the products that are troops are in desperate need of include:

Baby Wipes
Laundry Detergent (remember, these should be as small as you can get them
Small trial size or samples of liquid soap, liquid body wash, shampoo, and conditioner
Small bottles of lotion
Hand Sanitizer
Deodorant
Shaving cream
Eye drops such as Visine
Saline drops for sinuses
Small packs of tissue paper
Single rolls of toilet paper
Trial Size Cotton Swabs
Feminine Products: Tampons are best since they are smaller
Disposable razors
Powder (baby and foot)
Mouthwash
Toothpaste
Tooth brush
Dental floss
Vaseline
Lip Therapy (Blistex, Carmex, Chapstick)
Dr. Scholl’s Moleskin foot pads

There are many more items on the shopping list and you can access them for free by visiting the site. You will also discover that they have items categorized as Miscellaneous, Food Items, Crochet, Knitted, and Hand Sewn items, and items explicitly for Operation Comfort.

You can also donate an additional $8.95 to cover the cost of mailing the Care Package to the troops. There is also a special section that discusses donating care packages to medical facilities, such as the Walter Reed facility. Operation Comfort projects include Pillows, neck coolers, and beanies. These items are handcrafted (either by sewing or crocheting) and are a great way for those who are craftier to contribute to the troops.

Our soldiers are putting their lives on the line with Operation Iraqi Freedom, and many are coming home wounded. Now, there is a way that you can help troops who have been wounded in combat.

When it comes to helping our troops, many people feel that they don’t know what they can do that will make a significant difference. However, sometimes the things that really make the most difference may seem small at first, but have the greatest impact. When it comes to Operation First Response, you’ll find that donating something that you may not have even considered is in fact, greatly needed and appreciated by our wounded troops.

Operation First Response answers the call of our wounded soldiers and their families by providing services and items that they need. They are a non-profit organization and they provide backpacks full of necessary items to wounded soldiers as well as collect frequent flyer miles from citizens. With the frequent flyer miles, they provide transportation for wounded soldiers and their family members. When they don’t have enough frequent flyer miles, they will pay for the soldier’s or family member’s ticket, so donations are also accepted.

The backpacks that are collected are filled with various items that the soldiers need. The most popular items include are t-shirts, boxers, sweat pants and seat shirts, socks, travel sized hygiene products, and lap quilts. They also request for cash donations to help cover the cost of things that they don’t have enough funds or donations for. Operation First Response also acts on behalf of soldiers in need, by pointing them to valuable service providers that may offer them additional assistance. If you are going to donate money or backpack items, you can mail them to their address that is posted on their website: http://www.operationfirstresponse.org They also make it easy to donate cash, and their website takes Pay Pal as well as credit cards.

If you would like to donate Frequent Flyer Miles to Operation First Response, you will need to send them an email, letting them know your name, telephone number, the airline that you have the Frequent Flyer Miles with and the total amount of miles you have. They will then respond to you and let you know how they will proceed with the next step.

In addition to offering frequent flier miles and backpacks, Operation First Response also assists wounded soldiers and their family member by assisting them with the financial needs and concerns that they may face. They help with the payment of utility bills that may be overdue. They also help provide groceries and clothes for families that are in need.

If you are a wounded soldier or the immediate family member of a wounded soldier and need assistance, then you can contact Operation First Response you can request assistance on the website via email. They will keep all of your information private and confidential. They also have a phone number that you may call if you would feel more comfortable speaking with someone in person.

A tribute to those who are in the U.S. Military and showing the best military in the world. Thanks for what your doing.

From: OtakuProductions82 (youtube)

This is an amazing tribute to the American soldiers!
From: jestersdomain (youtube)

If you have been looking for ways to support the troops, but weren’t sure how, then you may want to visit the site: www.americasupportsyou.com or www.americasupportsyou.mil America Supports You is an official organization founded by the Department of Defense. One of the first things that you will notice, is that you can send a message to the troops from the website. This is a great way to know that your message will truly reach the troops, and with the Fourth of July just around the corner, it is a good time to sent our troops encouragement if you haven’t already.

If you have a website or are a webmaster, you can download the free America Supports You banners and logos to proudly display on your website. You may not think that displaying a banner or log is doing much, but you would be surprised to realize that it does. By linking to the site, and promoting your support you are reminding people worldwide of the sacrifice that our troops are making.

They also have embroidered emblems and logos that can be used to create a number of different products. These include sports bottles, mugs, caps, etc. you could use these for your own personal use, or spread them throughout your social groups and get everyone rallied up with support.

These may seem like little steps but every bit of support helps. However, if you feel inspired to support the troops in a larger way, you can connect to the many non-profit organizations that are listed on the American Supports You site, and find a way to support the troops that best represents the action that you would like to take. By visiting the website and choosing: Make a Difference, you will find countless non-profit organizations that are committed to supporting the troops and determine the best way that you can help. You can:

* Donate a Computer
* Donate Frequent Flyer Miles
* Sponsor an Event
* Give Gift Certificates
* Help the Wounded
* Helping Troops Help Others
* Finding Homes for Disabled Troops
* Sending Letters of Encouragement and Messages
* Helping support Military Families
* Providing Phone Cards
* Helping with Scholarships
* Sending Care Packages
* Helping with Tragedies

There are numerous ways that you can show support to our troops, and by visiting the website, you take the first step. You may not think that you can make a difference, but you can. There are organizations located in every state and you can help. So with this Fourth of July season, let us remember all that our servicemen and women have sacrificed for our freedom and safety. Everyone can remember how he or she felt on that fateful day, Sept. 11, 2001 but can you remember how you felt on Sept. 12, 2001? Our nation was gripped with fear, shock, and utter despair. Our servicemen and women have been fighting with al of their might to ensure that our country is a place where children can go to sleep at night with visions of cartoon characters, football games, and pizza parties, not terrorists bombs and destruction. Today, our children our enjoying the safety, security, and freedom that our nation was founded upon, we owe it to the men and women who are giving their lives for our national security to say, yes, America Supports You.

An amazing song..hitting home ..for many of us. The song ‘Nineteen’ by the group WAYCROSS- A song realizing the sacrifice our young men & women take everyday to be in in uniform fighting for what they believe so strongly in…the USA

In the past, when a loved one was deployed, family members had to resort to letter writing to stay in touch. Today, keeping in touch may be as close as the click of your mouse button. Instead of letter writing, email communication has enabled military families to stay connected. However, what is a family to do when their loved one is deployed and those left behind don’t have access to a computer?

This is where Operation Home Link comes to the Rescue. Operation Home Link is a certified 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization that provides free computers to the family members (spouses and parents) of deployed military personnel. Large companies donate the computers when they no longer have any use for them. Operation Home Link doesn’t distribute the computers on an individual basis, but rather donates them to bases when units are being deployed.

Operation Home Link provides a computer for those who have the lowest pay grade, E1-E5. They have found support from many top-of- the line companies, including Dell and Mastercard. However, Operation Home Link doesn’t accept individual computer donations. They work on a large scale and collect a minimum of 100 computers at a time. Currently, they are focusing on obtaining laptops in order to distribute them to wounded soldiers. Operation Home Link also has specific qualifications for the hardware of each computer. Specifically, they are looking for Pentium III laptops with a processor of at least a minimum of 800 MHZ. Due to the technical specifications required for each computer it is more beneficial for individuals to contact large corporations that are willing to donate their computers on a greater scale, than for individuals to donate computers on their own.

Members of deployed family members state how important it is that they have received these computers. Being able to communicate with their loved ones via email versus letter writing or by telephone, improves the morale of the soldiers and helps children, parents, and spouses cope with the separation that deployment entails.

Operation Home Link has already provided computers to over 2,400 families. Their efforts have not been without reward either. Just recently, they were recognized by President Bush, and Operation Home Link’s founder and president, Dan Shannon was invited to the White House for a special meeting that honored the efforts of grass root organizations that support our troops.

You may not be the head of a large corporation, and may not have hundreds of computers to donate, but if you have the time and have participated in any type of fund raising events, you may find that you would like to be involved. Your best choice is to visit their site at: http://www.operationhomelink.org you can also contact them by email, which is a preferred source of contact. There email address is: contact@operationhomelink.com

If you have no other way to contribute, yet you want to support the efforts made by Operation Home Link, you can always donate money to their cause. You will find links on their website where you can make your donations.

This is a compilation of pictures and goes along with the song If You’re Reading This* by Tim McGraw. Support Our Troops