The great Holiday care package project - 96 days to go!

There may be a lot of shopping days left until Christmas, but we have only 96 days to collect items for our soldiers holiday packages and ship the packages overseas. By November 1, 2009, our goal is ship 180,000 packages to the war zones.

How did we come up with that number? Simple, one for every single member of our military who will be away from home this Holiday season. We are sending every deployed service member in a combat zone a care package with holiday greetings, including goodies and a beautiful homemade blanket.

Monetary donations are always accepted as we need postage money to ship our
holiday packages. Our website www.SoldiersAngels.org has a paypal option - click donate on our site or mail a check to us.



How Can You Help?
Challenge your school, PTA group, teachers, parents, senior citizen centers,
businesses, church, college, radio & TV stations, and newspapers. Get the word out tell everyone you know you are collecting hot cocoa packets to provide comfort and warmth for our military.

Every item collected is that much closer to filling a care package with
holiday cheer.

We need 180,000 of everything:

Hot Cocoa Packets
Hot Cider Packets
Men's White Socks (sizes 9-15)
Candy Bars (any size)
Hard Candy
Candy Canes
Power Bars
Nuts
Christmas Cards- signed but not sealed
...and we are open to just about anything that could be a "stocking stuffer"

Handmade Blanket of Belief - directions on our website
here



If you live east of the Mississippi, please ship care package donations to:

Soldiers' Angels
112 Greenhill Road
Ramseur NC 27316
(Dropoff avail. M-F, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.)


If you live west of the Mississippi, please ship care package donations to:

Soldiers' Angels
914 Tourmaline Dr
Newbury Park, CA 91320

Soldiers’ Angels is a volunteer-led 501 (c)(3) non-profit supporting the
troops since 2003
Help us meet our holiday goal of 180,000 by November 1, 2009
Soldiers' Angels

A friendly neighbor hood garage sale helps our troops

This is a picture of my neighbor Jennifer, who was holding a garage sale recently. I dropped in, and Jen and her husband had over 300 CD's for sale. I told her I was looking for music to send to military hospitals in the Middle-East, and she gave me all of them for about half the asking price, and threw in a bunch of DVD's too.

Patriotism is everywhere, sometimes just down the street door.
-Rog

Three U.S. POWs added to roster of Hiroshima deaths

Army Sgt. Ralph J. Neal


Army Sgt. Buford J. Ellison


Ensign John J. Hantschel


By Chiyomi Sumida, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Friday, July 17, 2009
Photos courtesy of Shigeaki Mori

The names of three American World War II POWs will be added to the official list of persons who died after Hiroshima was leveled by an atomic bomb on Aug. 6, 1945.

The three are Ensign John J. Hantschel, 23, of Wisconsin, a fighter pilot assigned to the USS Randolph; Army Sgt. Ralph J. Neal, 23, of Kentucky, a gunner aboard a B-24 Liberator named Lonesome Lady; and Army Sgt. Buford J. Ellison, 22, of Texas, an engineer on the Lonesome Lady.

Their names officially complete the list of the 12 Americans who died in the blast.

Shot down during bombing runs over Hiroshima, they were being held in Chugoku Military Police Headquarters, about 1,300 feet from the epicenter of the blast from the bomb dropped by the Enola Gay.

Their inclusion on the list of the 140,000 people believed to have died is the work of Shigeaki Mori, 72, a Hiroshima historian and atomic bomb survivor who spent three decades locating the families of the fallen Americans so they could officially request the names be added to the list.

Their photographs have been added to those on display in the Hall of Remembrance at the Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims.

"These Americans experienced unimaginable suffering, just like the Japanese people," Mori said.

"Remembering each and every victim is important not only for them and their families but for all human beings."

Welcome home brothers
-Rog

Inside the brutal Afghan war zone

Another view of the action ongoing in Afghanstan's Helmand province, from the BBC.

This is another difficult video to watch; view it wisely.

Soldiers' Angels has adopted the Camp Bastion UK hospital, and is supplying over 250 backpacks for injured soldiers every month, in addition to large amounts of other supplies for the medics and patients.



We at Soldiers' Angels are proud to support theseBritish medics, as they care for injured British, US, Danish and Estonian NATO allies.

-Rog

Independence Day at Bagram Hospital in Afghanistan

Our troops in Afghanistan are taking heavy casualties. Always remember what they do for us
-Rog
Medical Support Director



Chaplain's assistant and one of our heroes on Independence Day at Bagram Hospital - July 4, 2009

Dear Soldiers’ Angels,

It’s hot here this week, and I bet it’s pretty warm where you are, too. And in the middle of the heat of summer… it’s time to think of winter holidays and Christmas! Yes, we’re making plans to wrap our heroes in love again this holiday season!

The centerpiece of this year’s care package will be our wonderful Soldiers’ Angels travel mugs. I’m so excited! We get such great feedback from soldiers who receive an Angel mug—they just love ‘em!

Major T.A. recently wrote to us, “I just arrived at a deployed location and inherited one of your travel coffee mugs. It keeps my coffee warm and me awake while I work nights. It’s…a reminder to all the Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Airmen and others who are deployed that we still have the support of our nation behind us.”



Soldiers’ Angels Soldier Liaison Toby Nunn knows how it feels to receive an SA mug with packets of yummy hot chocolate when you’re fighting a war far from home. “It warms your heart. You get to enjoy sweet comfort, just like you when you were a 12-year-old playing with marshmallows. Pure gold,” he says. “It might be only two cups of hot chocolate, but it’ll be the best two cups you’ve ever had, because someone cared enough to send it.”

Please help us make sure each deployed service member knows the nation cares by donating especially to this project—every donation will go directly to buying and shipping the mugs and hot chocolate for our deployed heroes during the holiday season. We need to plan ahead in order to have enough mugs—and so we have until July 8th to raise $138,000 to buy mugs for our deployed heroes this winter!

DONATE HERE

To warm a soldier’s heart even more, you can write a note to be sent with along with the holiday care package for a hero! Just write it in the Comments section of your online donation, or email it separately to angels@soldiersangels.org (Subject: "Holiday Note").

Let's pull together to make sure the holiday season is a time of warmth and love for all the service members who will be serving our country far from home this winter! Please help spread the word!

Hospital sees more GIs from Afghan frontline

‘We’ve seen a lot ... and I hope we can handle it,’ says one staffer


This is a very difficult video to watch, with some graphic footage of war-time injuries but it is valuable to see just what our medics and the soldiers who are injured experience.

The task force hospital at Bagram has been one of our main recipient of Soldiers' Angels support for over three years, and we've increased that support dramatically this year. Soldiers' Angels is sending over 200 First Response backpacks there every month now, and trying to help the medics any way we can.

-Rog

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Doctors at Bagram say there is nowhere in the world — except other war zones — where physicians face such severe wounds day after day. That constant stream takes a toll.

From MSNBC