From Our Soldiers

2

Hello everyone. I wanted to reply to you all and say THANK YOU for the great package you sent! The guys really eat this stuff up when ever we get something new in from you guys. They now have a really great compliment of basketballs and have been shooting hoops like crazy when the weather is nice. Even though winter is setting in, they still go out and play. It's always good to see them keeping each other's spirits up on the court, while talking trash to each other of course. I've been really amazed with the amount of stuff you all have sent to us and appreciate every single package and letter we receive. Everyone really loves getting stuff in the mail, but a majority of them don't get stuff very often. They always get a smile when ever I hand stuff out to them. It's like Christmas every time. I'd like to extend a personal thanks for the Hooter's stuff. It lasted about 2-3 minutes before it was all gone when I set it out for the guys. The funny thing is I made the point of not telling everyone I had that stuff and just set it out to see how long it took to disappear. No one was in the office and literally not more than 2-3minutes later I had a huge group of guys picking up magazines, it was like they just knew it was there. Pretty funny to watch the guys walk into the office and see them stop in their tracks when they saw the stack of magazines, posters and stickers. I got a kick out of it and they REALLY loved it. Thank you all for your fantastic show of generosity, consideration and support. This is what makes fighting the war worth it. Knowing fellow Americans who truly care for their countrymen and do anything they can to support us is a pretty amazing feeling. I can't tell you how much easier it makes being down range for 6 months to a year just that much easier. Thank you all again for your wonderful support. It is definitely appreciated and extremely effective in keeping everyone's morale high. Take care and God bless.
Jon

Mr. Sundt,
On behalf of myself and the troops I share this box with, we all thank you and everyone else that helped you in your efforts to bring some fun and sports to Bagram, Afghanistan. My wife and I are both in the military and are deployed to Afghanistan; she is in Kabul and I am in Bagram. She discovered the box and your letter, after a fire destroyed one of the buildings. The Hooters items were not to be found, but I am sure that there were really appreciated. I just received the box of golf balls today, and I was really overjoyed. I have been writing to my friends back home to send me some golf balls and clubs because that I am organizing what we call the 1st Bagram invitational. We have all been getting our Hawaiian shirts ready and we have the place all lined up. There is a minefield near by and we have a location to drive the balls out there, and we are setting up a place for chip shots so we will all be ready for the tour when we return. If you wish to keep this effort ongoing then my wife and I will be happy to be your points of contact for future shipments of your and Americas generosity. Just to let you know, that on our second date, my wife took me to hooters. It's a Saturday afternoon tradition for us to ride our motorcycle and stop off at hooters for wings; they really do have the best wings. Once again, thank you for your generosity and thoughtfulness toward our troops.
Greg and Lori

From all of us at Charlie Troop, 124 CAV, South Camp, Sinai, Egypt.…THANK YOU. We got the packages and they are great. I will send you some pictures after we get some down time when the firing range is not in use so we can hit some balls. Our driving range is in the danger area of our firing range. We have a driving range of sorts set up overlooking a wadi. Our only problem is that the balls go out over the wire into “no-mans-land”. No one is allowed in that sector so the balls just sit there. We are currently trying to get approval to go on a recovery mission outside the wire into that sector to pick them up and approval to change the direction we hit the balls to allow them to fall inside of the fence. We are on a small camp so real estate is a premium. We really appreciate to hear from folks back home. The letters and packages are great. For your group to take the time, effort and expense to support us over here shows what true patriots you are. Team work is our motto also, you can do so much more with a team effort. Do you four get to play golf together? I am not much of a player. I have fun when I do get to go though. There are some wonderful golf courses in Egypt but I doubt we will be on any of them. One of our biggest enemies here is the boredom; gifts like this really help because it is something we can do together as a group. We plan to get together and have small competitions like longest ball or closest to the pin. We don't actually have a pin set up but we do have plenty of big rocks to shoot at. Being National Guard, many of our soldiers have not been on deployments before. For many of them, this is their first time away from their families for an extended time. This reality has hit some of them real hard. Being able to get them out of their rooms during down time helps them cope with being home sick and missing their families. Your effort has more impact than you may think. You may think it as a small jester of clubs and golf balls so we can have a little fun, for me as a leader of soldiers; it's what we call a combat multiplier. When our soldiers can relive some stress and forget some of their woes from being homesick, they can concentrate more on the mission at hand. This in turn has a big impact on mission accomplishment and may even save a life. Once again, from all of us here, thank you all for being patriots.
Randy

Dear Mr. Sundt,
Thank you so much for taking the initiative to get us golf clubs and golf balls. The guys couldn't believe it when they came, they were all amazed. It is great to know that there are people like you guys out there that are willing to do things like this for military members. All the things (even little ones) that people like you do make things for us so much easier. So, how is the weather there? I am originally from Minnesota, but moved to Texas for a job after I graduated from Moorhead State. I am just waiting for a job to open up so I can move back. I want to thank you again for what you have done for us. We greatly appreciate your efforts.
Respectfully,
Leonard