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Operation Pinecone - Update Letters from the Troops

Operation Pinecone - Update Letters from the Troops

Hi Everyone!

Hope you are enjoying your weekend.

First, with Veteran's Day approaching and the Holiday drive for the troops underway, I wanted to share this video with everyone. A trip to Walter Reed Hospital and Arlington Cemetery on Friday was a reminder to me that I had wanted to send this out to everyone.

Many have seen it before but even if you have, please watch it again. (But be sure to return to the rest of this e-mail when you are done)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ervaMPt4Ha0

I hope you will pass that around to everyone you know to spur them on to contribute to our Holiday Drive for all our service members.

I have some words from "the troops" (at bottom) but before I get to them and their photos I wanted to share some news....

The most exciting news is that we have formed a partnership for the Holidays with Moe's Southwest Grills! Nine of the northern VA Moe's restaurants (and one in College Park, MD) will be collecting donations for our "troops" in partnership with Operation Pinecone. Two or three of the restaurants will also be hosting packing parties, AND Moe's will also supply some food for OUR already scheduled packing parties on 11/9 and 11/27. In addition to all of this, the owners of these restaurants will be paying for a substantial portion (if not all) of the postage costs of the donations that come in through their restaurants!. These donations will still be packed and shipped by Operation Pinecone but with the help of Moe's volunteers and some packing parties at Moe's. Moe's will be our first corporate partner and we are VERY excited about this!

Next I wanted to let you know that JK Moving and Storage is also going to donate the use of a temporary storage unit for donations for 2-4 weeks during our Holiday drive. They will also deliver and pick it up at no cost. This is another wonderful donation that will help alleviate the overcrowding at my house and give us some space to work with when things are all coming in at once.

We also have the Glory Days Grill Fundraiser going which will help us to alleviate some of the costs of postage. So please remember to get a copy of your guest check when you are out shopping and dining and send it to us (dinner M-Th and lunch or dinner on Sunday).

On to other exciting news...We have had three new schools and one new church now, step up to the plate to run collection drives for us! Christian Fellowship school in Ashburn, is doing one now-which will culminate on Veteran's Day; St. Timothy Preschool in Herndon, and the Hill School in Middleburg will both start one in the coming weeks and also The United Methodist Church in Charlottesville, VA will be doing a drive for us in November.

All of this is fantastic news as what many don't realize is that this holiday season will be the second Christmas or winter Holiday IN A ROW for many of our deployed service members, due to the extension to 15 months they received this year. It will be particularly rough on them and their families.

Now, for some words and photos from the troops...some sad..some thankful....have a great day....Mary.....

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Nov 1st - From Harrison - Near Mosul, Iraq

Yesterday morning, Halloween day, started out bad.

An IED hit a patrol killing 2. One killed was the unit's company commander riding shotgun, the other, a soldier who was driving. The gunner, and an interpreter also in the vehicle were severely wounded and flown down to Balad shortly after they were able to stabilize them here at the CSH.

Sad thing is, they were barely a month short of finishing their 15 month tour and going home.

This of course, put a huge cloud over our planned Halloween party. In fact, we thought for awhile that maybe we should cancel it.

Upon conferring with the CSM, he advised us to continue with the party. Cancelling this diversion from life here, would only make everyone focus on the loss even more.

So we had our party.

It was great! We had a large turnout, even with the day's earlier developments.

Many more than we had expected, wore costumes. Some obviously store bought sent to them. Some fabricated from things they found here.

We had Ninjas, a Biker gang, a Gangster, Burger King, Freddy Kruger, a Togo party, (who obviously improvised with their hooch bedding), a belly dancer, Go-Go girl, a couple Pirates, a guy from Scotland, some Wrestlers, and plenty of ghouls just to name a few.

Pictures below.

It was definitely the one of the heaviest armed Halloween parties on earth this year. It was strange to see Elvis carrying an auto. M4 weapon.

Even the Sri Lankan guys that work with me, Dihan and Rajith, seemed to get into as much as anyone. Even though I'm sure it was their first time to witness such a spectacle.

I found some costumes for them to wear too and after a while they started scaring everyone that would open the door to come in.

Everyone had a great time and gave us many compliments for such a great party. However, there were many that made it such a success, on both sides of the world.

I apologize I haven't had time to thank you individually.

H.C. Thomas

MWR - Camp Diamondback

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Oct 30th - Capt. Harvey - Near Taji, Iraq

I wanted to thank you for the continued support you send to my unit.

I am often asked by people back in the states why we do what we do. They ask me about being away from home, or the lack of comforts, or the mission usually couched with "I don't know how (or why) you all do it." I usually write back and tell them about the conditions here in Iraq, or tell them of the oppression I have seen or of the children's faces filled with happiness and hope, or the trash and sewer in the streets. I tell them that we are winning this fight (because I truly believe we are!) and regardless of why people think we were sent here... we are here now and we are here to find terrorist and defeat them and we are here to leave Iraq better than when we found it. Nothing else matters to us now.

I want to share a story with you. This weekend I was sitting talking to one of my troopers about re-enlisting. He is a positive kid, 4 years in the Army, motivated to his task, dedicated to those around him. I expected he would re-enlist and would require little convincing. As we were talking about his options and his motivation to soldier he said "Sir, I am staying in the Army and I will be happy continuing to do what I do. But I am not motivated by the words you say, or the money in the bonus, of for my buddies, or by the feeling I have being a Paratrooper. I do it for my kids and my wife and what my job means to them and their future."

He then handed me a tattered copy of the poem below. He said when he was here for the invasion he was a brand new private and it was sent to him in a forward e-mail or something. He has have it ever since and have never shown it to anybody but his wife. As I read it, it hit me like a bag of bricks. I thought I would share it with you. I have typed it exactly as it was on the copy he gave me and I have given credit to the author so I believe you would be free to share this story and poem with anyone you like.

I thank God everyday for giving me the opportunity to lead America's Sons and Daughters and I pray I am doing it right. May God continue to bless the American Soldier!

All the Way... and then some!

CPT Jonathan L. Harvey

CDR, HHC/2BCT, 82d ABN DIV

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10-31 - SSG Maynard - Kuwait (From Winchester Natl Guard)

Thisgs are going really well here. A lot better than the last. I am
sure I could get a bunch of soldiers to take a picture for you. I do
not think the packets got here yet. I will check with the postal nco
and find out. Hoope everything back there is going well. I have some
soldiers here that has heard of Operation Pinecone and we all want to
say thank you for your support.

Talk to you soon
SSG John Maynard

====================

11/2 -SSG Fred Quiles (Winchester Ntl Guard - deployed with Leesburg NG) in Iraq

Thank you for the Halloween box. I passed out all the stuff. The Milky Ways were a hit. The weather has changed a lot. I went out late last night in my PT uniform and I was shivering. It may have been in the low 50's/high 40's. The daily high is only in the high 90's, which is very bearable.

It's been awhile since I updated you. Our mission has changed, we have been very busy. We are out on patrols every day. We got out of the towers and guard duty. Morale is a lot higher now. One of the patrols was hit by an IED, fortunately no one was injured. Unfortunately, we had to shoot several people. It's exciting for the young guys but I'm always a little sad when something like that happens. Being a cop for almost 20 years, I always try to plan to avoid a deadly confrontation, but stuff happens. It wasn't too long ago that I was complaining about nothing to do and being bored; well things picked up. We've been rocketted pretty regularly, twice in the past week. I now know that it's a smart thing to do; give a unit time to settle in and get a feel for the area. Other units have arrived and been sent out right away and used force when maybe a more experienced unit would not.

The guys are all doing well. We have had some injuries but it's all been from playing sports. A couple of guys from the company have been sent back fom injuries, nothing serious.

Well, we have only 4 months left. We can all feel it coming to an end soon. You and your organization have been great. We really appreciate everything you have done.

I attached some pic's of the local kids.

Sincerely,

Fred

and...

The soldier is Specialist Dutrow. He is in an uparmored humvee. The turret is an older one; the newer ones offer more protection and have windows with bullet proof glass. The machine gun is a M240B, it's 7.62 mm. You can use the photo's, there's nothing classified in them.

We are on a 12 month tour; the 15 month tour is only for the active Army troops. As a matter of fact, we are one of the last National Guard units on a 12 month tour here. Right after we were activated, the tours were changed for the NG; NG tour is now 12 months total, that includes train up. Our total time will be over 15 months, 12 months in country; new NG units are only spending about 8 months in country. We were hoping we could be grandfathered in but it didn't work out.

Here's some more pic's;