Photo By Kathryn Summerhill | Master Sgt. James McCloskey, left, talks with Richard Edge, the FireAntz liason for...... read more read more
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FORT BRAGG, N.C. -- Planning a big event such as the Randy Oler Memorial Operation Toy Drop takes patience, time, and well thought-out collaborations throughout the Army, the Army Reserve, the Air Force and the surrounding community. It takes a tribe to raise Operation Toy Drop, but it also involves someone taking the initiative to organize all the information, the point of contacts, and the minor details so that someone who had no clue how to run an Operation Toy Drop could pick it up and figure it out. That is what Master Sgt. James McCloskey has taken upon himself.
“My role is to be the ground liaison — basically a project manager,” explained McCloskey. “I take everyone’s sections and what they do, and put it into an organized chart so that when the people who plan this event move away or retire, Toy Drop doesn’t fall to the way-side and that it doesn’t fall apart. People will know how to run the event in the future.”
Operation Toy Drop, hosted by the U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command, was founded by Sgt. 1st Class Randy Oler in 1998. The event gives the military and the civilian community the opportunity to help families in need over the holiday season.
Paratroopers bring an unwrapped toy to donate in exchange for the opportunity to get allied jump wings from around the world. This year’s event will host more than 50 allied jumpmasters from 11 countries.
The 14th Annual Randy Oler Memorial Operation Toy Drop is scheduled, Dec. 10, on Sicily Drop zone at 7:30 a.m., and is promised to be bigger and better, allowing more toys to be given to Families in need. Paratroopers wishing to participate need to bring an unwrapped, brand new toy to Green Ramp, Pope Field, Friday, Dec. 9 at 8 a.m., during the parachute lottery in order to earn the opportunity to jump for foreign jump wings from Ukraine, Uruguay, Cambodia and eight other countries participating this year.
McCloskey, a civil affairs specialist and retention non-commissioned officer for USACAPOC, joined the Army in 1983.
“I actually wanted to be a Marine,” smiled McCloskey. “But then I saw a movie called ‘A Bridge Too Far,’ and I decided I wanted to be an airborne infantryman. The Marines wouldn’t let me jump from planes, so I joined the Army.
“Before I PCS’d (permanent change of station) to Bragg in December of 2005, I had heard something about (Toy Drop), but not much information was given out. It wasn’t really available to soldiers outside of Fort Bragg,” explained McCloskey. “So when I got to Bragg two days before Toy Drop started. I went out there and looked at it and said ‘Wow, this is an amazing event.’ Since then, I’ve done everything I can to assist in it.”
McCloskey admits that Operation Toy Drop involves a lot of personal time. People involved with the planning of Operation Toy Drop start their initial organizing of the event in February by talking about that year’s operation and how it can be done. After that, many personal and professional man-hours are put into the success of a safe and profitable Operation Toy Drop.
Profitable, to USACAPOC and the soldiers who participate in Operation Toy Drop, isn’t about money. Profitable to them is the amount of toys donated to give a less fortunate child a holiday they deserve.
“You wake up on Christmas morning and you see the look in your own kids’ faces when they see the gifts they receive, the little smiles, the look of joy from all the gifts they get,” said McCloskey. “And every once in a while the soldier who gave a gift for Toy Drop will think about some kid that they’ve never met and have no idea what he or she looks like, and will know that there is a kid out there with the same smile on their face because of something they did on this one day. So it means a lot.”
Looking at the growth of Operation Toy Drop over the past 14 years, it is clear that Oler was able to bring to a big, military community the small-town “help-your-neighbor” mentality.
Toy collection boxes will be available at each Post Exchange on Fort Bragg and throughout the community surrounding the installation for people wanting to donate toys.
The local hockey team, the Fayetteville FireAntz, will also be collecting toys during their military appreciation game, Dec. 6, which they’re dedicating to Operation Toy Drop.
“The event has grown immensely, because in the past not many people outside of Fort Bragg even knew about Toy Drop. I mean, I was a part of CAPOC and didn’t even know what it was.
They just new that in the beginning part of December a lot of planes flew over-head, they probably thought it was another exercise,” explained McCloskey. “Now that they know what it is, and who it’s for, they themselves have gotten involved and support the people, the children, who are less fortunate.
“The Fayetteville FireAntz, for example, approached us last year and asked if they could do a Toy Drop of sorts on their own. Well, we don’t decide what the civilian populace does, so they held it and collected a good amount of toys for us. As well as the Fort Bragg Federal Credit Union, Wilson Off Road, Buffalo Wild Wings and others, they want to have their own toy collection,” added McCloskey. “They aren’t doing it for us. They want to do this to make sure that the kids get the toys.
“I think people understand that Christmas is a time of giving and that it’s a time of sharing to those in need. But it’s still the idea of a kid waking up to a toy. You watch any 1960s claymation Christmas movie, and it’s based around a kid waking up to a new toy, not about some kid waking up to a new pair of under-roos,” explained McCloskey.
Operation Toy Drop is now the largest combined airborne operation in the world. It is held by the Army Reserve’s USACAPOC with the help of Pope Field’s 440th Airlift Wing, the participation of soldiers from Fort Bragg’s XVIII Airborne Corps, 82nd Airborne Division and Special Operations Command.
The first Operation Toy Drop, with the help of Marine pilots, was very small and collected a small amount of toys. In the years to follow, the operation continued to grow, grossing more than 56,000 toy donations since it’s beginning. Last year, the event drew more than 4,000 paratroopers, 10,900 toys, and 24 allied jumpmasters.
“To me Toy Drop is a entity. It’s something that has grown from a one level idea to a skyscraper, if you will. We have come to a point in Toy Drop in which we have become a staple in the community for giving toys to the less fortunate. And there are people in our area that absolutely need it; if we don’t provide these toys, they won’t know what to do for Christmas,” said McCloskey.
“It’s an amazing feeling to see our soldiers give so much. It gives me, especially last year; it gives me goosepimples. We had so many toys last year that we couldn’t fit them inside a pax-shed … it’s an amazing feeling when you can’t fit all the toys that were donated into a pax-shed where you can put a thousand Joes rigged in parachutes, but you can’t get any more toys in there? It’s a feeling like nothing else. You’d have to feel it to believe it, I guess.”
For more information about donating toys, attending the event, locations of toy donation collection boxes, or the FireAntz military appreciation games, visit www.optoydrop.net. Operation Toy Drop is also on Facebook, search for Operation Toy Drop and “like” the page for the quickest, up-to-date information on the event.
“We need to ensure that after everyone in this community has retired or moved on to a new unit, that Toy Drop is still going strong,” explained McCloskey. “If I wake up 20 years from now and find out Toy Drop is still going on and is bigger than ever and it’s national and that more children are getting toys … that’s when you can call it a success.”
Editors note: This is part two of a multi-story series that will explain what Operation Toy Drop is, who started it, and the people who make the event happen year after year. This week’s topic features Master Sgt. James McCloskey, who is the project manager of the event.
| Date Taken: | 11.17.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 12.13.2011 11:54 |
| Story ID: | 81298 |
| Location: | FORT BRAGG, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 61 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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