Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Soldiers

The other day I got an email from a reader that made me feel really good about doing this blog. He'd dropped some cash in my tip jar and I sent out my standard "Thank you for your donation, here's Jane" spiel. Here's his reply, and you'll see why it made me feel all warm and fuzzy:

Ma'am

No need to thank me, reading about people living normal lives kept me sane for a 15 month deployment. So I should be thanking you. Seeing people able to have those freedoms that we gave up to serve reminds me of why I do my job. Good luck with the truck search and thank you.

Brian
It really brought home to me how the little things can make such a difference when you're so far from home. We've got so many men and women out there who probably wonder, at times, if we here at home remember what they're doing for us.

Regardless of whether you agree with what's been going on, or the timetable for pulling out of Iraq, or anything that they've been ordered to do, the fact remains that they're out there, serving their country. They're out there serving us.

We didn't ask them to, they volunteered.

So when there are such simple ways to make things easier for them, to make them smile, or just to make a crappy day a little bit better, why would anyone refuse?

You don't have to start a blog, either. Organizations such as Soldier's Angels have programs for sending care packages to specific soldiers who have been submitted to their organization. These soldiers may have been submitted by family who can't give their soldier the support that they would like to, or by friends, or fellow soldiers. You can send care packages, or write letters, or just donate some money to the organization to help them with their projects.

There are other organizations out there, like Any Soldier and I'm sure you can find others if you look.

Personally, I signed up for the letter writing team at Soldier's Angels.

Go tell a soldier that you appreciate them, just because you do. We shouldn't save that sort of thing for Veteran's Day.

And to reader Brian- I know I said it already, but again, thank you for your service. And thank you for reminding me that the little, normal, everyday things are sometimes the most important.



*Soldier's Angels and Any Soldier did not provide me with any compensation for this post. So go spit up a rope, FCC.