Operation Pinecone - Update: Photos/Letters

Operation Pinecone - Update: Photos/Letters from Troops (at bottom)!

FROM: Admin Operationpinecone

NOTE:  I tried to send this yesterday but it wouldn't go out!!

First I want to acknowledge any of you who are currently serving our country or are veterans.  We all appreciate your service to our country.

Next I want to thank all of you who came out to the packing and wrapping party Friday night. What a great turnout and huge success!

Although I was a bit nervous as to how things would go at a new venue and switching things up a little as to what we've done in the past I was very pleased with the way everything turned out.  Thank you so much to all of you for your hard work and of course all the donations that your brought.  Also a special thank you to Moe's Southwest Grill of South Riding for providing the yummy food and drinks.  Although they had to cut back on the menu last minute when we found out from the Sheriffs office that we weren't supposed to even have food there, it worked out nicely and nobody made a mess :-)

I just came back from a fabulous Tribute to our Veterans assembly at Christian Fellowship School in Ashburn.  It's been a long time since I attended such a program now that my children are all grown and moved out.  It was great seeing the young children performing and learning at the same time about our nations heroes.

This school and church members collected donations for Operation Pinecone for the past month and presented me with over 16 bins full of wonderful goodies for the service members PLUS a check for $1,000!!!  I was truly overwhelmed with gratitude.  I know I said something in thanks through the microphone but I don't even remember what because I was so astounded.  The generosity I see in support of Operation Pinecone and it's mission is truly amazing.

Believe me, every penny we receive is spent either on shipping or in the most cost efficient way as possible.

Speaking of generosity and thriftiness...I have to share the most astounding thing that happened last week that I didn't get to share with you.  I called the company that makes the gift bags that we stuff for the deployed service members. I wanted to see if they would give us a discount on purchasing them if we bought them directly from them rather than through a party store.  After about a 10 min. discussion about Operation Pinecone and our mission and having her check out our website, the customer service manager said "you worry about stuffing the bags and I'll see what we can do to get you some bags".  Well, I wasn't sure what that meant so I went out the next day to see what was available in the store as we needed more for Friday night.  Well, they had none out yet!!  I was starting to stress until I got a return phone call the next day from the customer service manager at Creative Expressions.  She said that I should expect a call from the trucking company who would deliver the bags the next day, in time for our packing party.  Now here is the thing...THEY WERE DONATING IT ALL, AND THEY WERE SHIPPING THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF BAGS!!  She said they were thrilled to be able to pitch in and support our cause and hoped that we would spread them around to support our service members however we could.  (I had also mentioned that other groups have been asking for help too.).  When I received 65 cartons off a tractor trailer I walked around dumfounded the rest of the day!!!

I immediately contacted the wife of a LT Col in Kuwait who had asked for help for the thousands of service members that come through on their way to and from the war zones, for deployments, and told her I'd ship some.  There will be many service members stuck their awaiting transit over the holidays who will need cheering up.

I also contacted my friend at Ft. Bragg who would be coming through this weekend and told her I'd send some down for her to give out to the Family Readiness groups there.  This way they can send to the 20,000 soldiers they have deployed.  I took those down to Ft. Belvoir yesterday and passed them off to her. I know this was a long story but think how many service members will be touched now with this generosity!!  I'm already thinking that maybe we can fill some for all the service members at Walter Reed for the Christmas Breakfast. Wouldn't that be nice?  We'll just need something to put in them.  Even if it's just popcorn and hot chocolate and some candy and gum.

Well this was a long one and I won't keep you much longer..below are some more words and photos from the troops that came in the past week.  Have a great week.....Mary

From Tom Hamilton stationed in Al Asad, Iraq:

Hello Mary,
I believe the best type of phone card would be an AT&T card or an AAFES phone card, but the latter is only available at military PXs/BXs. I was also speaking with some of the troops and received some feedback which the unit command also agrees with. Some of the soldiers were wondering if board games were available. I heard several different titles including Monopoly and Risk. I am not sure if that is something you have the ability to send out, but that was another item some soldiers were asking about.
We are grateful for you and the organization which you are working within. Thank you for supporting us over here while we are separated from our families, every little bit helps.

CW2 Thomas A Hamilton
C/1-214th AVN

From Sean Burke - Analyst stationed near Baghdad

Mary, 
Anything sent we could use.  Everyone has such different tastes
that someone always has a need to like of something.  Recent DVDs and
games for gaming systems like Xbox and Playstation 2 are always
something people here are looking for as the PX here usually has a very
limited selection and they disappear quickly with the amount of people
here.  

The weather here has been very pleasant, a few of the mornings when
I went outside it was actually cold enough to give me a good amount of
goosebumps, lol.  Well different than the 120 days or the morning when
you would wake up to 95 or more sometimes. 

Well time to get into a meeting.  Last week was not a very good one for
us here.

Thank you so much,
Sean

From SSG Fred Quiles (attached to Leesburg Natl Guard): I have included some more photos.

0227 is some of our guys shooting a mortar at night

sheiks kids etc is SGT Schilling, SGT McRae & SGT Clark

3rd squad is Back Row: SGT Schilling, SPC Leitao, SPC Clara, SPC Cruz, Front Row: some civilian, SGT Clark, SPC Foster, SPC Dutrow, SGT Gossett.

Thanks, Fred