Thought some of the folks here at DailyKos might be interested in this. It's an especially tough thing to be stationed in a combat zone over the holidays, and I know that a lot of the people here know exactly how this feels, either through personal service or the service of a family member. It's a great program - and one that means an awful lot to the soldiers who finally get some mail and comfort from home. (More below the fold...)
I remember how much it meant to all of the guys in my West Point buddy's platoon in the first Gulf War -- I started a penpal/goodie box campaign at Smith College my senior year for "orphaned" guys in a friend's first unit command during that conflict, and it was such a great thing for those poor guys to get mail from someone who cared about them. I'm sure that there are hundreds of soldiers out there who are dealing with the same thing this time around. It's a shame that some families aren't good about caring for their own, but no soldier ought to feel like s/he has no support from home when s/he is fighting for her/his country. This group fills that gap, and I thought some of the DailyKos folks might appreciate what that would mean to the soldiers on the receiving end. Anyway, here's the URL:
http://www.mville.edu/news/NEWS_nov04_mysoldier.HTML
No matter what you think of the war in Iraq in general, or the actions of individual soldiers that hit the newspapers or tv news, most of the folks stationed over there are decent, hardworking people who are far away from loved ones at a very lonely time during the holidays. This is something that can help them during a time of real need. Also, this group serves not just folks in Iraq/Kuwait/Afghanistan, but also troops in Bosnia and other conflict areas and peacekeeping operations worldwide. It truly is a chance to reach out to some deserving human beings and a way to say thanks for all of the grunt work they do on our behalf every day.
This is my first diary. I read the FAQ, so I hope I've done this correctly.
[UPDATE: I corrected a misspelling and changed the title a little, per a recommendation from a friend, to make it more clear what this diary intended.]