KANDAHAR AIR FIELD, Afghanistan - Soldiers of Joint Sustainment Command – Afghanistan received care packages from a variety of civic, charitable and church organizations, just in time for the holidays.
“There is a lot of support for the troops out there,” said Capt. Gary Crist, Headquarters and Headquarters Company commander, “whether the individual soldier is signing up on his/her own with support websites and the like, or if it’s a church group or other organization reaching out to the soldiers.”
There are a number of websites that send care packages to troops overseas, as well as church groups and civic organizations that conduct care package drives, and they are especially active during the holiday season.
“We have a very diverse unit that has a lot of connections throughout the state of Mississippi and the rest of the country,” said Crist, “and they have been in contact with the local VFW's [Veterans of Foreign Wars], churches, school districts and even some individual school classes to coordinate care package drives for the soldiers over here.”
Many members of the unit are also members of the groups that are supporting the troops, said Crist.
“Temple Baptist Church in Hattiesburg has its Military Ministry Team that started year-round operations about three years ago in support of military family members and deployed soldiers,” said Crist, “and we have three church members in JSC-A who saw the deployment as a little extra incentive to make sure that everyone in the unit was able to get care packages and support from back home.”
Other groups from Miss. that have contributed to JSC-A include: Jones County Cattlemen’s Association, Gilbert’s Home Health and Hospice (Flowood), First Church of God (Laurel) Hinds County Beef Association, Laurel Gymnastics and Cheer, Petal-Harvey Baptist Church, Jones County Schools, Jones County Economic Development Authority, Petal Primary School, Oak Park Elementary School (Laurel), Wayne County Schools, Park Place Christian Academy (Brandon), Rosedale Missionary Baptist Church, Benton Academy, American Red Cross Youth (Laurel), Byram Middle School, Bay Springs Community Center Missionary Baptist Church, Cub Scout Pack 329 (Brandon), Co-Lin Community College Nursing Students, VFW Post 3036 (Hattiesburg), Methodist Rehab (Jackson).
Outside of the state of Miss. JSC-A soldiers received support from Jefferson State Community College (Birmingham, Ala.), Frito Lay (Sterling Heights, Mich.), City of Council Bluffs, Iowa, Fellowship Square (Mesa, Ariz.), Bartlett Woods Church of Christ (Arlington, Tenn.), 4H Club Just Horsing Around (Earlton, N.Y.), Cairo Chamber of Commerce (Cairo, N.Y.), American Legion #983 (South Cairo, N.Y.), East Valley Military Support Group (Chandler, Ariz.), Royal Oak Farm (Harvard, Ill.), Herobox.org, AnySoldier.com, OpGratitude. com, BooksForSoldiers.com, AdoptausSoldier.org, and many other organizations.
“The level of support is highly visible when you look at our postal operations,” said Crist. “There is no other unit on Kandahar Air Field that gets more mail than JSC-A, and it’s really nice to know that there are so many folks back home supporting what we do.”
Joint Sustainment Command- Afghanistan is comprised of soldiers from the 184th Expeditionary Sustainment Command, a Mississippi Army National Guard unit that deployed to Afghanistan in early October.
| Date Taken: | 12.15.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 12.15.2010 01:59 |
| Story ID: | 61989 |
| Location: | KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, AF |
| Web Views: | 198 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
This work, Care Packages Brighten Holidays, by SSG Kenneth Hatten, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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