War & Our Troops...

    I forgot to post this yesterday... :00008862:


    On 10/7/2001 the US initiated bombing attacks on Afghanistan, beginning the war on terrorism. The war is 16 years old now (longest in our history) & over 2400 Americans have been KIA in Afghanistan alone (& over 1100 more KIA from allied forces). Many more have been wounded physically &/or mentally.


    Just wanted to remind everyone of the continuing sacrifices our troops are making on a daily basis. As we live our daily lives, we tend to forget about all of those who serve. Let’s not forget them...


    The US military has over 1.3 million men and women on active duty, with more than 450,000 of them stationed overseas. @TheRock will soon be another one.


    Many of these stationed service members perform training exercises and other duties at rather safe bases. Then there are others who are deployed to conflict zones like Syria or Iraq or potential "hotspots" like Somalia.


    All of our troops, whether or not they’re in a “hot spot”, deserve our support. It’s a sacrifice just being away from home.


    There are many organizations that you can check out online to support them with letters, care packages, etc. You can “adopt” a particular soldier, etc. This information is easily searchable on the internet & I will not provide links as I don’t want to appear to support any particular organization - there are several great ones available.


    I know how much the support of this forum meant to my daughter. Let’s not forget our troops. Christmas will be here before you know it & trust me, being away from the homeland at Christmas is not a pleasant experience - a lot of us who have served, fully understand this. It’s a good time to reach out in support for those who are out there sacrificing for our freedom.



    [Statistics source: http://icasualties.org/oef/]

    Slingshots: making children out of adults since 2014

    I wholeheartedly agree with Tripod's post.
    After serving 11.5 years on active duty in the Army, I began working for the Army as a civilian Intelligence Analyst. The organization I worked for eventually merged into the The US Army Land Information Warfare Activity, later renamed The US Army 1st Information Operations Command and now part of the US Army Cyber Command, was involved in either sending troops from our organization or training personnel from other units for missions to the Balkans, several stability operations and later Afghanistan and Iraq. Personnel shortages too often meant these troops found themselves facing repeated rotations back to the same locations after relatively short periods back home with their families. These repeated deployments placed great stress on the units, their personnel and naturally, their families and resulted in too many fine soldiers having to decide between a career they loved and were dedicated to or giving up their chosen careers to save their families and marriages. The extended length of what started as the War on Terror has placed a significant strain on our military and their families.
    When sending a care package to deployed troops, keep in mind that they may not have access to what we would consider normal storage conditions. When we sent care packages, I liked to pack everything in a 5 gallon bucket with top. This provided reusable, secure storage and protected whatever we sent from vermin, rain, etc.
    Any support, even from a total stranger, can have a significant impact on individual and organization morale.