By Staff Sgt. Nelda Pehrson
4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division
FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq – At a time of year when most Soldiers eagerly await boxes in the mail from family, 1st Lt. Kathryn Robertson received a special delivery from her grandmother, Betty Matthews.
Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 703rd Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, was abuzz after Robertson, supply and services officer, picked up her five boxes from the mail clerk.
Robertson, a native of Bellevue, Neb., opened the boxes and discovered more than 300 Christmas stockings to pass out to fellow troops. She said her grandmother and other members of the United Methodist Church in Allen, Texas, received donated Christmas fabric and decided to make stockings for Soldiers.
Most of the stockings were handmade, others were store-bought; all were filled with Christmas goodies.
"My grandmother said she remembers how it feels to be far away from family and how important it was at this time of year to get a package," Robertson said.
As familiar Christmas tunes played in the background, the troops came by the support operations office where Robertson works and picked up their stockings.
"My husband received the same Christmas packages in Iskan (Iskandariyah)," Robertson said, adding that the packages sent to FOBs Kalsu and Iskandariyah totaled more than 10 boxes.