Soldiers Angels

I signed up recently to be a Soldiers Angel which is a nationwide group started to provide comfort and help to our troops. You can adopt a soldier, send cards and letters, provide support to the families, visit a wounded soldier, or even send help with toys and games which the soldiers distribute to the kids in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are a great organization and the troops need all the moral support they can get.

I received this email from Louise, who is the team leader here in Sacramento.

“US Marine Colonel Simcock, the commander of USMC Regimental Combat Team (RCT) 6 in Iraq, is asking for 6,000 positive emails to his Marines. That's one email for each Marine in his RCT command. COL Simcock is concerned about the effect of the negative barrage that those Marines are getting through the electronic media. So far, they've only mustered 2,000 emails. That's a crying shame compared to the amount of crap I get daily in email. This is a legitimate request. It's not one of the "little Johnny wants to break the world's record in Christmas cards" situations. It takes only 30 seconds of your time. Here's the email address:

RCT-6lettersfromh@gcemnf-wiraq.usmc.mil

If you're reading this email, then you can probably click on the address, type a few words, and then hit "send" to be all done. It doesn't have to be the Gettysburg Address. Something as simple as "Hello, Marine. We thank you for what you're doing. You are in a noble task. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Best wishes & get home soon" is more than sufficient.

An excerpt from an interview with the Colonel:

GRIM: Is there anything that you and your Marines need that we could send you?

COL. SIMCOCK: (Chuckles.) I'll tell you what, the one thing that all Marines want to know about -- and that includes me and everyone within Regimental Combat Team 6 -- we want to know that the American public are behind us. We believe that the actions that we're taking over here are very, very important to America. We're fighting a group of people that, if they could, would take away the freedoms that America enjoys.

If anyone -- you know, just sit down, jot us -- throw us an email, write us a letter, let us know that the American public are behind us. Because we watch the news just like everyone else. It's broadcast over here in our chow halls and the weight rooms, and we watch that stuff, and we're a little bit concerned sometimes that America really doesn't know what's going on over here, and we get sometimes concerns that the American public isn't behind us and doesn't see the importance of what's going on. So that's something I think that all Marines, soldiers and sailors would like to hear from back home, that in fact, yes, they think what we're doing over here is important and they are in fact behind us.”

This information has been verified and is legitimate. So, please take a few minutes of your time and email our brave men and women. They love hearing from everyone. If you have ever been in the armed services, you will remember what is like to receive mail when you are so far from home. The best I can equate it to is remember when you used to watch the war movies or mash and how excited everyone on the front was to receive mail.

And I really should not have to say this, but please keep it positive without regard to politics or whether you agree with the war they are fighting. They are doing a job, a tough job, and they deserve 100% of our support.

Do it now...it only takes a few minutes of your time.