09/07/04
You can send ‘comforts of home’ to troops
By REGINA BUTLER
Progress Staff Writer
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| (Progress going with the troops - Second Lt. Chad Heatherly (left) looks over an edition of The Pontotoc Progress with his dad, retired sargeant Mike Heatherly. Lt. The Pontotoc Progress will be mailed to local troops free during their training and tour of duty in Iraq. Heatherly is on his way to Iraq after officers training. He will rejoin his unit from Pontotoc for additional training before going to Iraq. The local guard troops will be deployed for 18 months.)
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The men with the 155th have officially left town, but their journey is just beginning. Shortly after we welcome in the new year, the troops will be overseas in the danger zone.
Back at home, there are people who want to make sure that the men get the “comforts of home” even though they will be struggling against wind, sun, and fighting.
It’s just a baggie with soap and toothpaste in it, but to a soldier in the war-zone, it’s everything.
Through Operation Interdependence, which is a civilian to military support system, residents can send comforts of home to those who are the war zones.
A local effort for Operation Interdependence is continuing at the Chamber of Commerce from 9 a.m. until 12 noon getting baggies and boxes ready to ship overseas.
According to local organizers, the boxes that will be packed beginning in January will be for the men from Pontotoc County,
“If you can just come and help for half an hour that will be fine, or if you can’t come at all and would like to drop off any amount of money from a dollar on up to help ship the boxes, which cost $30 each to send, that will be fine, too,” said local cooridanitor Virginia Dillard. “And any help you give will directly help those from Pontotoc.”
The idea is to send the troops a zip lock bag of items such as lotion, chap stick and other small comforts of home that we often take for granted to those who are fighting for our freedom on the front lines.
The ziplock bags are packed in a 14x14 box and shipped to the front lines. It is easier for the soldiers to grab a baggie and go, because they already have so many things in their pack, they can’t carry big boxes of stuff around. The boxes will take care of 50 soldiers, “which is less than $1 a soldier.”
Security prevents unsolicited boxes from being sent to war zones, but a box of hope and help can go to those soldiers flung in foreign lands because of Operation Interdependence.
And anyone who wants to help send those packages of hope is encouraged to go to the chamber of commerce every Wednesday morning.
Appeared originally in the Pontotoc Progress, 9/7/2004, section A , page 1