Seabees in Afghanistan

[DC - G'mother of My Fav Sailor]

Happy Easter!

The groups in Haiti are rotating in and out too quickly.  We have tried to pick up a couple of units but have not had luck yet.  So Sue asked me to search for another unit to adopt.

There's a group of seabees in Afghanistan that would like to be adopted.  There are 80 males and five females.  The unit is from Mississippi and they will be there until August.

I know that several of your volunteered to make whimsical pillowcases and if you still have them set aside, I would love for you to volunteer to send them.  The turn around on sending them is fairly short since many of you have a stash sitting in your cupboard.  How about targeting tax day (April 15) for mailing?

Once I have the volunteers, I will send you the address via a private message.  If Sue doesn't have your e-mail address, please send it to her.  She has mine or you can make me a friend on N4M and I will send it to you there.  I have a list of goodies on their wish list.  If you have room, you might want to include a few of those.

[Sue-Pillowcase lady]

hey Donna, thanks for doing that. Dori tells me this group is done, so I have added them into the count.

[Dawn ~]

Good Morning ladies! I received this Thank You this morning and wanted to share! Have a great day!

Ma'am,

My Name is IT1 Stefan XXXXXX from the 22nd Naval Construction
Regiment currently stationed in Afghanistan, and I would like to say
thank you for sending us the pillow cases out here. It is very sweet of
you to make them and send them to us. It is a nice piece of home when
we are out here and it means a lot to us that there are people out there
who care about us and are praying for our safe return. So from everyone
here in the 22nd Naval Construction Regiment THANK YOU!

From,

Stefan XXXXXX, USN

[Kim (Ethan's Mom)]

Dawn, that is awesome! It is always good to hear that they like them.

[DC - G'mother of My Fav Sailor]

Thanks for posting, Dawn! It is always so nice to know that they arrived and it is even nicer to knnow that they appreciate them!

[Tamara]

Dawn,

Thank you for sharing. It is so exciting to receive these thank yous.

[Sue-Pillowcase lady]

Great! I got one from him too, so I will leave Dawn's up. I wondered who made his. great job ladies! did you post pictures here? and to me?

I'm in overload, AGAIN. I have a craft fair on Saturday.

[Sue-Pillowcase lady]

I have been chatting with Stefan today. In his last email after he received my HAE letter by email, he asked me if Little Ray would like a flag flown over the region.

I told him yes! please send it. Little Ray was sent home today. Not because he is doing better, but because the docs can't do anymore for him. He wasn't a candidate for the heart transplant.

Anyway, what a nice man. A couple of months ago, I added to the base of my letter about Little Ray and asked if they would send him a card.

[Sue-Pillowcase lady]

Cathy got these notes today:
Good morning ladies! I wanted to share a couple of notes that I received.

I wanted to thank you for the pillowcase with the bald eagles on it. We are a reserve unit out of New Jersey. We were restricted on how much weight we can carry on the plane which means only the really important gear made it, which means not bedding. Thank you.

Just wanted to thank you for the awesome pillowcase! I was able to pick out from a very nice selection and I chose the pillowcase with puppy dogs on it. I have two Yorkies at home that I miss very much so I particularly enjoyed getting this. Thank you for thinking of us here at the Regiment - we appreciate your support and thoughtfulness.

[Sue-Pillowcase lady]

this came this morning. What a great group of Seabees! And good going Donna! First to mail and it was a hit!

To all you WONDERFULL Navy Mom's Thank YOU ALL VERY MUCH!! I am a BIG
Detroit Tiger fan and got a Tiger pillow case made by Donna P of FL,
Thank You Ma'am, I have an extra pillow with no case, so
it arrived just in time. We have it relatively easy here at KAF, while
others go out and find the bad guys we provide construction support to
the different units deployed in Afghanistan. All the support that we
receive from the Folks back Home is really heartfelt and every time I
deploy, in spite of our countries challenges, I KNOW WE LIVE IN THE
GREATEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD!!

Thank All of You again and GOD BLESS, Scott
22NCR (Twenty Second Naval Construction Regiment)

[DC - G'mother of My Fav Sailor]

Since this note is from a Seabee in Afghanistan, I'm posting this here:

Mrs. Lamberson,

I plan to fly a flag for your son, Ben, today (4 July 2010). I need to know
what his rank/rate are and if he has any warfare devices (eg. RPCS(FMF),
RP3, etc). Thank you for all the pillowcases you sent to our Seabees - the
pillowcases were greatly appreciated. Thank you for all that you do. Take
care.

V/R
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
RPCS(FMF) USNR
22 NCR/ TF Alliance

[Sue-Pillowcase lady]

here's another thank you note that came this morning! Dori, you picked a great group! Thank you.

Hello I am LS1 Tony from Kandahar Afghanistan and I would like to
send a thank you to you all for what you do. Many of the personnel I
work with had received a pillow case from your organization. I would
like to say that all of them were very happy to had received one, as
many came without one to the country. I just can't say enough, The
program that you have is an awesome one and I would like to say thank
you for all your hard work and support that you give to the troops.

The pillow case I had received was made by:

Kim - Dover, OK
Mainly black with red and yellow flames at open end.

Thank you,
LS1 (AW/SW) Tony
R41, 22nd NAVAL CONSTRUCTION REGIMENT

[Sue-Pillowcase lady]

More from Tony:
Hi Sue,

That is amazing that so many pillowcases had been made for the service
members. I have to say what I liked the most about the pillowcases is
that they were all made using different patterns, so everyone was able
to fit their own personality with a pillowcase. I wish that you could
had seen the men and women when I set them out of them to take. You
could see everyone looking at them and hear them say how this one fits
me. All I could do was smile and walk away.

We are just about finished with our deployment over here, I know that we
are all ready to get back home and be with our families. Please keep up
the great work over there, there will be more troops coming and I am
sure they will be needing a pillowcase to sleep well at night. Thank you
gain!

Thank you,
LS1 (AW/SW) Tony
R41, 22nd NAVAL CONSTRUCTION REGIMENT