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Richmond K. Turner Reunion
Support Our Troops

What began with a simple email: "Mom, we are rebuilding schools for the children, but they only have a blackboard and the entire class has to share one pencil..."

Helen Kyle, wife of shipmate Bill Kyle, has been involved in supporting our troops since the beginning of the war in Iraq.  With the support of her company and friends, they have sent over a thousand care packages, including web cams, Christmas trees and stockings for two battalions, school supplies, toys, and ping pong tables.  They even provided an airline tickets for a mother to be by the side of her injured son. She knows from experience how important a care package means to our service men and women.  She says, "I have been humbled by their simple words and gestures of thanks.  This is one of many emails and letters I received:"

"Hello, I'm one of the soldiers you and your workers sent us some goodies.  Thank you so much for that.  I've been here since March and getting goodies from people I don't even know keeps my morale up.  Thank you so much for the packages."

Helen's philosophy is simple.  "No matter what your political views on this war, these are our sons and daughters, who have volunteered and taken an oath to defend our freedom.  They believe in their mission and we need to believe in them and express our love and support.  The news media has made us immune to our young servicemen and women who die each and everyday, by reporting "5 soldiers killed."  They are more than a number and they deserve our support.  The biggest casualty of war is being forgotten."

Here's an opportunity to be proactive and provide our military personnel who are in harm's way with items that you and I have readily available.

anysoldier.com Click on "Where to Send"

For those who would like to do something for our service men and women on a personal level, this site offers you the opportunity to contact and send care packages.  You can choose by branch of service, rank, gender, etc.
All military personnel on this site are in harm's way and each one provides a list of needed items.  The items are usually disbursed to a service member who receives little or no mail or packages, so note on the address: ANY SOLDIER.

The Wounded Warrior Project

If you would like to donate to a very worthy cause , you might consider The Wounded Warrior Project (WWP). 
The mission of the WWP is to raise public awareness and enlist the public's aid for the needs of severely injured service men and women and to help them aid and assist each other and provide a unique programs and services to meet their needs.

Fisher House

Another very worthy cause is Fisher House.  Because members of the military and their families are stationed worldwide and must often travel great distances for specialized medical care, Fisher House™ Foundation donates "comfort homes," built on the grounds of major military and VA medical centers. These homes enable family members to be close to a loved one at the most stressful time - during the hospitalization for an unexpected illness, disease, or injury

If you really want to know what is going on in Iraq, check out http://www.mnf-iraq.com/.

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