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| Iraq | |
| Operation Gratitude in Iraq | |
| 2008-02-20 | |
"We hate the war, but we support our troops." Lest we forget, however, a good number of these are the same people who call terrorists "freedom fighters." So, who do they think they're fooling? Meanwhile, the flip side of the say-all-and-do-nothing leftists are the myriad silent-majority forces at work day and night proving with their actions that they truly love and support our valiant military men and women. One of the most effective groups at work on behalf of our troops is Operation Gratitude, an assemblage of Americans who put aside every difference among them in the common cause of loving our soldiers. Since its founding in 2003, this one group of all-volunteer supporters has sent 300,000 care packages to our troops serving in harm's way. And all of it started because one American mom decided that she could not sit idly by in her safe, comfortable home doing nothing while our young men and women willingly left safety and comfort behind to fight for the rest of us. Carolyn Blashek, founder of Operation Gratitude, has become for all intents and purposes, America's Troop Mom. She and her mission to minister to the morale of our troops through her simple, but ingenious, "care" packages are living proof of Basil King's famous injunction: http://www.online-literature.com/basil-king/ "Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid." Mighty forces, both seen and unseen, have indeed come to the aid of Operation Gratitude in its essential mission of showing our soldiers we all do care. And those mighty forces just keep on coming, time and time again, in the most unlikely "coincidences," from the most unlikely sources. Mighty Forces Take Carolyn to Iraq In late December last year, when Operation Gratitude's holiday drive was in full gear, with hundreds of volunteers packing thousands of packages, and carefully addressing each to an individual soldier overseas, Carolyn realized that a mission milestone would be reached within the month. The 300,000th package was nearing assembly and its recipient was already named by the computer's data bank. One of OpGrat's mighty forces had already donated the keys to a brand new Jeep Liberty for the recipient of this milestone care package. And the excitement among the volunteers was palpable. Coincidentally, the soldier picked by the computer to receive the 300,000th package was a member of the brigade under the charge of Major General Hertling, commanding general of Multi-National Division North in Iraq. Carolyn Blashek and Major General Hertling go all the way back to OpGrat's founding in 2003. In the beginning, when Carolyn was merely bold, she had no mighty forces. But she had enough boldness to be mighty in her own right, and she got ahold of the General's name through channels, and sent him an email asking for the individual names and addresses of all the soldiers under his command, so that she could send them each a care package from home. The general now says he thought she was a bit out of it at the time, and wrote back simply: "Ma'am, I don't think you know who I am or how many soldiers I have under my command. I currently have a force of 39,000 soldiers," thinking that would be the end of it. But our Troop Mom wrote back to the general, quite boldly indeed: "General, I don't think you know who I am. Just send me the names and addresses and I will make sure every one of them receives a care package from us at home." When the 39,000 packages arrived as promised, and the general saw the amazing effect they had on the morale of his troops, he immediately became a treasured mighty force on the side of Operation Gratitude. And as soon as he was notified that one of his own soldiers was slated to receive the 300,000th package, he immediately set things in motion that would coalesce in bringing Carolyn Blashek and her trusted right-hand man, Charlie Othold (USAF, ret), to Iraq to present the package with the keys to the Jeep in person. Pictures and rest of the story at the site -- you want to read this one | |
| Posted by:Sherry |
| #4 Wonder what the effect would be if she expanded her operation to send care packages to the Berkeley USMC Recruiting Station with request to forward to local vets on leave; the lefties would go bug-sh!t seeing UPS or US Mail trucks pull up unloading scores of packages, especially if they used Code Pink's special wet spot. |
| Posted by: USN,Ret. 2008-02-20 16:13 |
| #3 I have cooked lunch for the folks as they package up the goods. Wonderful group of people. |
| Posted by: rex havox 2008-02-20 13:56 |
| #2 this is the first place i have read about this woman going too iraq and amongst the ppl at that. Way too cover REAL new MSM |
| Posted by: sinse 2008-02-20 13:20 |
| #1 According to their website, they are now up to 319,856 packages delivered including the keys to a Jeep at 250,000 and 300,000 packages. Looks like an organization I |
| Posted by: Bobby 2008-02-20 12:08 |