Christmas on the USS INGRAHAM

[Matt's Mom/Cathy]

Moms are you ready to start Christmas shopping????

 

Our adoption for October is the USS Ingraham.  There are 201 sailors serving aboard this frigate -

191 males and 10 females (all officers).  As we all know it is very difficult to be away from your family during the holidays so after speaking with our contact we have decided to brighten up these sailors holidays by helping them celebrate Christmas.

 

We can send Christmas decorations such as small trees, battery powered lights and wall decorations.

I would like to see each of them receive a small stocking (6")  filled with candy or small items and a candy cane for Christmas morning in addition to our other packages.  What do you ladies think?

They requested very few things but could use sunscreen and lip balm since the weather is hot where they are deployed.  Microwavable meals would be a big hit with the crew also.  Most of them are into games, movies and sports and could use some new items to pass around.

 

The Captain is onboard with anything that will boost the morale on her ship and they are grateful for the support from home and will appreciate anything we do for them.  They enjoy seeing the smiles on the faces of the sailors when they receive mail and care packages from home.

 

Since this is a small group could we get enough of the small Priority boxes filled so that every sailor onboard would have a box to open for Christmas plus a pillowcase and a Christmas card?

 

Okay moms what fabulous ideas do you have to help the USS Ingraham celebrate Christmas this year?

 

191 Males

10 Females

 

Check in with Nancy on We Stitch Love if you can help out with the pillowcases.

Pillowcase count - females 10 DONE

                              males 191 - we have 191  DONE

Our count as of 10/13

Nancy - stocking for the Captain

Molly - stocking for our POC

Molly - 2 energy drinks for each sailor

Susan - Christmas stories

 

Small Stockings - Total needed 201

      Great job Pam we have enough stockings for everyone on board!

Pam - 200+  MAILED

 

 

Small boxes -  We need 201

                        We have 201!!!!!!!!! 

Molly - 16 plus POC stocking, energy drinks and Pop chips- mailed

Evi - 8 plus decorations  mailed

Kim - 10 plus snacks, suncscreen & lip balm  mailed

Pam (GM Mom) - 24 mailed

Nancy - 8 mailed

Chowchow - 16 plus cards mailed

Pat L - 24  mailed

Susan - 8 mailed

Julie - 8 plus cards & decorations  mailed

Laura - 12  mailed

mominPA - 8

Kat - 14 mailed

mombyheart - Homemade cards mailed

Proud Navy/NYPD - 1 female mailed

Matt's Mom - 9 female plus two boxes of decorations and a gingerbread train kit mailed

Packing Party in San Antonio - 35 mailed

Diane - 10 boxes of treats

I know several of us have bought items to ship but not sure how many small boxes it will work out to be so I will change the numbers as we pack them up.

We have several moms sending blank Christmas cards for the sailors to send to their families and several that will be sending Christmas decorations.

 

The shipping dates will be October 21 - 26 and the address is posted in MAS We Ship Love and mark the boxes "Christmas" or we could write "Don't Open Until Christmas".

[MomByHeart]

oh, that makes me so sad!  So many moms did so much work.  It's all part of the process, I suppose, and even though everything didn't get there in top condition, at least they know we care!  That's the most important part. 

[MomByHeart]

These are bundles of cards I sent to the Ingraham.  Each bundle had one of each of the 4 card designs and 4 envelopes in it.

[Matt's Mom/Cathy]

Your cards are really nice mombyheart!  I hate that this happened to your package after all of your hard work.

Curious to see the condition of the rest of the packages.

[Molly Molly Fo Folly]

OH Mombyheart --------------thats so sad. This is another first for us ---Ive never heard this happening before. 

These poor babies some yukky people went threw their boxes ---and whats with the water damage ? 

OHHHH darn it ---- I know they have lots coming to them, so lets hope its only a few boxes that were rumaged threw

[PAM (GM MOM)]

I do not know what to say, I am so sad and alittle angry in a way.  Does this mean that the gifts we send with the games and the movies will not reach our sailors?  Has someone opened them and taken their gifts?  It makes me wonder about sercurity in sending any packages to my own son and threw mollys.  I understand that these are poor countries but, where is the secuity for our sailors?  If these packages can be opened and rewraped anything could be put in there even things that might harm our sailors.  It's a scary world out there!!!  Sorry to go on but, my background is in security and law enforcement and it just worrys me.

[Molly Molly Fo Folly]

Ive never heard of this ---then again you need to find HOW they got their boxes ---remember its THE MILITARY that delivers to them ! if foreigners got to the boxes its because THE MILITARY left them there somehow.

I do know sometimes they come into port to get their boxes and maybe the military leaves them with a guy on the dock or some place they trust

but what i know UNEQUIVICTLY  and FOR SURE is that we all send to an APO/FPO  and the zip code is a MILITARY BASE --------(( thats why you cant send fed ex or ups because ONLY post office can get onto a base to deliver)) The military post office on that base takes it and delivers it to the destination (ship/ground/island)  

ONLY THE MILITARY CAN DELIVER TO THE MILITARY --------------period dot dot dot !!! 

Thats why apo/fpo address are really no big deal --its the *name of the servicemember* thats the big deal 

You cannot find any one or any place with just an apo/fpo because its not a location its for the military post office. 

So sending boxes is only as safe as the military deems fit to whom to leave them with -----  the worry for them is who WE are sending them boxes!! 

I am not sure what happened to these boxes ---but I have a good guess , and that is military left them with someone who they trusted and well --maybe they should not have OR some of the boxes got opened and re-taped by customs (ie military police)  

caution though ----- be careful what you write on the customs form ie: dont write xbox and games just write toilet paper (lol lol lol )  

[diane {Shawns mom}]

So sorry to hear that Mom by heart!...I gather those are the risks we take...but I think of it this way-think of the risks our troops take-if a few packages got opened and someone that was SO POOR felt that they needed something that Molly's MOMs sent, we have to say -so be it-use it well-but shame on you.

I Know I feel a little sick too, I sent 10 boxes with treats, t-shirts -cards-letters-that I planned on USS INGRAHAM SAILORS getting -I hope they do but....I cannot control who's hands they land in.

One thing....What a sweet note our POC wrote to you!...He obviously looked through each letter to find someway to contact YOU-he could of just wrote to our Mom of the Month and said-received some packages today they had some damage...But  he didn't he reached out to YOU-I think that is pretty DARN SPECIAL!!♥

Just trying to think of in a different light!.....♥

[MomByHeart]

Diane, I agree 100%!!!  I thought it was very sweet of him to write to me and let me know.  He could have easily not said anything at all to any of us.  I hope my message didn't sound as if I was peeved...I wasn't. 

 I know that so many of the moms do so much more and give so much more than I can right now.  I am just thankful that some of my cards survived and hope that the other damaged boxes MaryBeth heard about are the only ones that had troubles. 

 I also agree with what you say about the risks...sometimes things go wrong, but that can't stop us from doing good!  I am sure this happens very infrequently... and honestly, the pleasure I get from making and creating makes me feel so good that I already got my blessing before they were mailed off  :)

 

[diane {Shawns mom}]

mom by heart....I also have to say, my son's ship, The Davis did the same tour that the INGRAHAM is on and it is not the best of ports! Most of the time the sailors are escorted when they leave the ship and absoultely NO UNIFORMS-some of the countries would NOT let the ship even pull in UNLESS the ship provided names & SS # of all Sailors aboard. Can you imagine that/??...HORRIBLE part of the world.....and it is mostly due to the drug runners down there-Well that is why our NAVY IS THERE...it's NACRO-TERRISOM-and OUR US NAVY with the US COAST GUARD kicks ass and takes no names.....

Let's just say......I have some "FIRST" hand info on some things that go on-the stories would shock-n- awe all of us!!! I am just happy that the INGRAHAM knows YOU attempt to do a kind thing for it's crew-and in my book that is what counts in this crazy world!!!♥

[Proud Navy/NYPD Mom (Donna)]

Well, I sent 2 large boxes that were literally stuffed to the max with cards.  I'm glad now that at the last minute I decided to put them into smaller piles and put them into ziplock plastic bags.  Hopefully they will all have as many as they need to send holiday wishes and greetings to all their friends and loved ones.

Thanks Diane for putting such a positive spin on this!  You match my name for you perfectly.

[Matt's Mom/Cathy]

The USS Ingraham will be making a port call soon and hopefully they will have a pile of packages waiting for them.

[PAM (GM MOM)]

Yea!!!!  I hope there is a ton of boxes waiting for them.