M&M Ministry

Courtesy Photo | Capt. Larry Van Hook, the Special Troops Battalion, 1st Sustainment Brigade, chaplain, and Abilene, Texas native, pretends to be greedy with the candy sent from the Pioneer Drive Baptist Church. Members of the church bought candy from the local grocery stores and donated money to the church to send "candy" packages to Soldiers in Iraq.  

BAGHDAD, IRAQ

07.05.2008

Courtesy Story

1st Infantry Division Sustainment Brigade

By Sgt. Luke Robson
24th Financial Management Company, Special Troops Battalion, 1st Sustainment Brigade

CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq – Capt. Larry Van Hook, the chaplain for the Special Troops Battalion, and an Abilene, Texas, native, teamed up with Pioneer Drive Baptist Church to start a candy campaign that amassed a few tons of candy to be distributed to the Soldiers throughout the Multi-National Division-Baghdad area. Through the efforts of the members of the church, the Air Force, and the 510th Human Resource Company this task was accomplished.

Originally, Van Hook only wanted to resupply his sweets for his office. He called his wife Tina and requested hard candies (M&Ms and Payday candy bars) to be mailed to him. His proactive wife, Tina, who usually sends out a newsletter, put that information in the letter to her home church. The news caught on like wildfire once Randy Perkins, the mission and evangelism director, for Pioneer Drive Baptist Church, got wind of it, and off it went. The members of the church started buying candies at local grocery stores and donated money for this project. They have been collecting all spring.

Buying the candy was easy; getting it to Iraq was the hard part. "It is difficult to get 2,100 lbs of candy to Iraq because it is expensive to ship them," said Van Hook while eating some chocolates. He continued to say, "Chocolate cheers people up. People get less of it during the summer—especially the good kind."

The first shipment was delayed because the Air Force had no room for the order, but eventually with some coordination the load was shipped and picked up on June 18. The 510th and the 24th FMCO received 15 boxes each from the 35 box shipment. More candy is expected to arrive and hopefully, it will get here before it gets too hot.

Sgt. 1st Class David Hall, a Linden, N.J., native, and food service non-commissioned officer, from the 510th Resource Company, helped organize a detail to pick up the candy from the Air Force. He said, "The chaplain did a good thing for the morale of the unit. At first, I didn't think that it would have a great impact on the troops, but once I separated and distributed the candy to each detachment, the troop's morale went up. Chaplain Van Hook did most of the work; I just picked it up."

• Date Taken: 07.05.2008
• Date Posted: 07.08.2008 05:52
• Story ID: 21284
• Location: BAGHDAD, IQ