Holiday Care Packages

Sponsor a holiday care package for a service member now!

A little bird told me....

"Sometimes I think the greatest bravery of all is simply to get up in the morning and go about your business" ~ Lady Bird Johnson


Lady Bird penned that in her journal on January 3rd, 1966. I read it and immediately got this self serving flash of enthusiasm about using this quote to open a whining session about how unmotivated I have been lately and how hard it is to fund raise. Poor me. Whatever.

After that passed, I started thinking about how this quote applies to the ones who actually have to wake and be brave when starting the day.

When I get up, I make coffee, check email, yell at the cat (sorry, but she meows almost nonstop no matter how much food I pour in her) and review my list for the items I want to tackle.

Think about Lady Bird's sentiment. How do you approach your day? How do others approach theirs?

I know I am not starting my day from a combat zone far from home, scorching heat and the often times very real threat to my safety.

Seems to me that would involve actual bravery, especially that 'threat to my safety' part!

That just puts a whole new, very real spin on it, huh? I don't feel like sniveling anymore.

Please find a way to support our fellow Americans serving.

Thank you.
D.

Patience is a virtue...

...one I definitely do not possess.

I am horrible at waiting. I think I make it harder on myself than it has to be primarily because I view everything as waiting. I am waiting for one TV show to end so another can begin, waiting for dinner as soon as I finish lunch, and I react to lines as if more than 45 seconds waiting in one is going to leave me with an aneurysm.

I even furiously read through books like The Power of Now to get them under my belt and then on to the next one. Do you think I might have missed the point?!

I am not proud. I definitely need to work on my approach.

However, among many of the virtuous traits our service members possess, they tend to be an incredibly patient group!

How do I know? Well, let me tell ya....I regularly receive thank you emails from them for being put on our wait list. Yes, you read correctly - they thank me for informing them that they are going to have to wait.

Our waiting list is an unfortunate reality of having need far outweigh resource. We started it about a year ago, and it is about 3 times longer than our support list. This has always made me extremely unhappy, but I have to accept that there is only so much we can do at a time, and hope to pick up as many as we can off of it before they redeploy home.

So the way it works with us is that each troop gets an email response acknowledging their registration and information on wait time.

Typically during their deployments, these men and women work 12 hour shifts, 7 days a week, far from home in a war zone and right now they are doing that in some pretty extreme heat (I heard from one of our troops that it was 119 in the shade today in Iraq).

I am wondering how patient we all would be under those circumstances.

Below are some of the emails we have received:


Thank you for placing me on your waiting list. I know there are guys living out there in much worse conditions than I am here in Kuwait, so I am not at all disappointed in being placed on the list. Thanks for contacting me and letting me know my status and thank you for all of your support. HM1 Blake

I completely understand and thank you for your reply. I hope all is well at the homefront. All is well here, just hot out (120+ during the day). Take care and god bless. SPC David

Thank you for getting back to me regarding my registration. I completely understand about the numbers of people on your lists. Please don't feel bad about putting me on the waiting list. I am more than happy just knowing there is someone out there that supports us (soldiers in general) Thank you for all you do! PFC Jamie, Mortuary Affairs


Thank you for thinking of me and emailing me back so quickly. V/R, YN2 Ivy Thanks for the update, and thank you guys for all the support. It is greatly appreciated. SGT Jay



Daniella, Thank you for your email and know that I do understand your situation. Please take care of the other servicemen and women first.......I can wait as I'll be here at least one more year. I volunteered and am willing to do whatever it takes to make a difference. Take care and my thanks to you and everyone else at Operation Action Packed for all that you do for our servicemen and women.......you are making a difference too!!!!!!!!!! LTC Juan


You know, I am just happy to see that there are people that do this for us. You guys are great people and organizations like this make me proud to serve. SRA Kasey


I understand, at least it is a great reason for the wait. I am glad to see your project is a big success, may it continue to be a success and bring happiness around the world. Don't worry about me right now, send the packages to others that are in more need than myself. Yours Truly, BM1 Omar


Ready to end the wait for one of these hardworking, fellow Americans?

They are patiently waiting, and we thank them for that.
Support our troops!
D.

Going Ballistic

Shooting is fun.

Check out some of my scout soda sniping work. Marines - I know you are pretty impressed, and you know where to find me.

These were just with a pellet gun. The first time I really got my hands on a gun was a few months ago. It was a 9mm Smith & Wesson handgun. After a couple of shots, I got over the noise and intimidation (somewhat) and excitement set in.

Power, a little edge of fear (because I know just enough at this point to literally be dangerous), and excitement can make for a fun mixture and that is what shooting does for me.

Have you ever shot a Glock underwater in a swimming pool at 10 o'clock on a Sunday night with the pool light on to see how far the bullet will go? Me neither, but I bet it averaged about 3 feet over 4 shots.

I recently made some ballistics gel though and shot in to that. Crime labs use ballistics gel to simulate human tissue. It is basically some seriously dense gelatin. I found a recipe online that made a pretty decent version of it. It was a cool little experiment. The molds were pretty small and the pellets mostly went through it. However, a few stayed in and left little arcs of trajectory in there that resembled vapor trails that airplanes leave in the sky sometimes. Mucho cool I tell ya!


TGIM!
D.

A good sketch is better than a long speech ~ Napoleon Bonaparte

Sometimes I feel a bit preachy. Today though, I do not feel like I have much to say. There definitely aren't any speeches waiting in the wings of my brain.

LTC Juan Montoya sent me this photo the other day. He takes a lot of incredible shots, but ones like these are especially good at centering me on why I do this work.

Perfect timing too, as I have been in a bit of a rut with OAP lately. I have been feeling largely unable to connect with people and infuse them with the same enthusiasm I have for showing our men and women serving, they have our support.

Seeing images like the one above always bolster me on the importance of this work. My hope is that they will serve to remind others as well.

Our fellow Americans serving, do one of the toughest jobs this nation has to offer. Don't you think they deserve to be remembered and know they have your support?

That's all. I will let the photo do the rest of the talking.

Happy Thursday!
D.