In Their Own Words

This is part of an email I received from a soldier I had sent a letter to last week, and is the only way I can explain when people ask why I do it what I do for our soldiers:

I RECIEVED A LETTER FROM U IN THE MAIL, AND I WANTED TO WRITE U BACK AND EXPRESS MY APPRECIATION.. ITS VERY HUMBLING KNOWING THAT SOMEONE I HAVE NEVER MET, ALTHOUGH THRU 6 SIX DEGREES OF SEPERATION PROBABLY COULD, WOULD TAKE TIME OUT OF THIS FAST PACED WORLD WE LIVE IN TO WRITE ME A LETTER... I WANT TO THANK U, AND IM SURE BY NOW YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THESE SEEMINGLY LITTLE GESTURES MEAN TO SOLDIERS DOING WHAT WE HAVE TO.

I've saved every piece of correspondence I've ever received from any of my soldiers, and will start posting snippets of them here, to show those that maybe haven't taken the step to write and/or adopt a soldier why it is so worthwhile to do so.

So expect more in the near future.


A couple more while I'm here:

Well let me start out by saying thank you for being involved in the "Soldiers Angel's". You are doing more for our troops than you could ever imagine. You lend a friendly ear where there sometimes isn't. I commend you for what you are involved in.........Thank you all again from the bottom of my heart and God Bless each and everyone of you. Please keep up to great work.

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Well, I enjoy helping out here buy you and my fellow supportive Americans are my main reason for being here. I will make a large frame with your card and the dozen or so others and I will hold on to it until I have a family so they can see it when they ask about Iraq and the U.S.

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I must start off by saying thank you. I thank you for the taking the time out of your busy schedule to correspond with a stranger thousands of miles away from home. Receiving mail while out here is kind of like getting a hug from your secret crush. As every day goes by you find yourself waiting and anticipating these moments. I don’t get much mail. My family loves me but they don’t exactly know how to show it, I guess. At mail call, I usually don’t stick around to see other people’s faces light up as their names are called but today I was the one issuing out the mail. There was a box and a letter. The box belong to someone else but the letter was mine, all mine; from you.


That, y'all, is why I do it.