Columns

Supporting our troops with small comforts of home

By ANDREW SKERRITT
Published February 18, 2007

When I walked into Wesley Chapel's post office to buy stamps last week, a patriotic atmosphere pervaded the small space.

Overhead, a small television showed soldiers dressed in fatigues accepting cardboard boxes. Although I couldn't hear them speak, their faces displayed their obvious gratitude.

On the wall were taped e-mail thank you letters from soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Across from the display was a 5-gallon bottled water jug to collect cash donations.

I couldn't help but ask what was going on. The clerk promptly took me out back to meet Bob Williams.

He appeared in shorts and a Support the Troops T-shirt. Behind him stood mountains of boxes of coffee, pretzels, potato chips, boxes sealed and addressed to military outposts. Several volunteers packed and taped boxes for mailing to American troops overseas.

This kind of thing is happening on a smaller scale all over the country, all over the state. Civic and church groups, even those who might disagree with the rationale for the war on terror, are sending care packages for the troops. It's a civilian ritual of war.

In some places, though, the donors may have grown weary of the optimistic talk of resolve without results; support the troops fatigue may have set in. But not here.

A Vietnam-era Navy man and retired businessman, Williams, 60, has been supporting the troops in a hundred different ways for the past two decades. His personal mission is an act of penance for the lack of appreciation shown to American servicemen and women during and after the Vietnam War.

"If you send men and women in harm's way, you have to support them," he says.

And now, even as President Bush orders more troops to Iraq and Afghanistan and requires longer tours of duty for those already deployed, it means more service men and women overseas will be yearning for the small comforts of home.

They seek help wherever they can find it. And each day they reach out to a place in Wesley Chapel. Williams gets about 75 e-mails a day asking for help. Chaplains, squad leaders, nurses, company commanders in far-flung corners of the world send their requests. Sometimes they need hospital scrubs; flannel pajamas; overhead lamps for their Humvees, a plastic container to protect food from rodents.

Williams handed me an e-mail he received from a soldier in Iraq.

"Soldiers are getting sick because of the filthy conditions; the rats were running over the soldiers while they slept on the floor," the soldier wrote.

The soldier asked for hand sanitizer, toilet paper, cleaning supplies, baby wipes, and foot powder.

Soldiers need their M-16s and ammo to fight, but they need their coffee and personal items to survive.

The war on terror is costing American taxpayers hundreds of billions, but clearly there's not enough being spent on the basics - the little things that make life on the battlefront bearable. That's where the rest of us come in. It's the least we can do.

Companies such as Starbucks ships thousands of 12-ounce packs of coffee beans to Williams for the troops. Thompson donates cigars. Lance semi-trailers deliver mountains of potato chips and other snacks. Other items Williams buys at Sam's. Filling the boxes is easy enough. He needs help with the postage. "Support Our Troops" is not a registered charity - checks should be made out directly to the postmaster. Postmaster Kelly Rossi and her staff know the drill.

Andrew Skerritt can be reached at 813 909-4602 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 4602. His e-mail address is askerritt@sptimes.com

Fast Facts:

How to help

"Support Our Troops" P.O. Box 7560 Wesley Chapel, FL 33544. Make checks out to postmaster. Call toll-free 1-800-367-3591 for more information.

[Last modified February 17, 2007, 18:14:23]