My 'reply average' has been a pretty consistent 10% for two years now.  The most Unlikely reply came from a civilian contractor who saw one of my letters pinned on a [mechanics] shop bulletin board.  We exchanged a few emails and photos.  Nice man . . . safely home by now . . . hope you're here in the junkiedom, Jerry!

I'd guess by looking at my spreadsheet that I hear from about 1/3 of my new contacts and probably 1/3 of those become "regulars" with whom I communicate back and forth at least a few times per month.  I have a handful that I keep touch with after they are home and through return deployments.   Because I've been doing this for so long and at a relatively high run rate (=1000s of packages sent)....I have a mountain of letters and more flags, certificates, and camel paraphernalia than I can count.  This week, I received my very own authentic Stetson from a Cav soldier.  Holy smokes!     

So keep it up, the good you sow will be returned ten-fold in one way or another....we're just all paying it forward. 

cj/

Last years group of Care packages .

we sent to 15 diffrent individuals and get a reply back from 4 of them ( 30% ). We did not include email addresses though last year.

This year we have heard from 5 out of 29 ( 17% ) contacts already and the boxes where sent out less then 3 weeks ago. We did include our email address this time and have been contacted by 2 individuals this way.

3 letters and 2 emails so far.  We hope to hear from a few others especially the 2 who recieved 7 and 9 boxes. Of course if we don't hear from these individuals hopefully they weill update there AS profiles soon and say they have gotten a few boxes lately.

I got my first response today .  It was a very nice e-mail - he has visited the city where I live and said a lot of nice things about his unit. What's so surprising is I mailed the package 4/28 - just a week to get there!   So far my response rate is 12.5% (not that I'm keeping track ) 

Well, we all know how most men hate to write letters, especially if it involves hand writing as opposed to typing, and Sat. we got a typewritten note from a package that we sent at the end of Jan. and the contact (a male) was apologizing for being late in replying because they had only recently gotten an internet cafe with reliable computer service.  It seems that he was waiting for a chance to type a letter on a computer - not for a computer to send an email.  It may be that some of them also don't have a mail pickup on their post if it is a forward outpost.  Also there are almost always a few "hotspots" where they are involved in direct fire fights as has been going on at Mosul and on the Iranian border very recently, which leaves them "done in".

Gran

We ( school ) received a beautiful card and a letter from a Non AnySoldier contact today. He sent 5 or 6 pictures of him and his unit. He also sent a LSA Anaconda Arm Patch.

But what was amazing is He's a guy and he wrote a whole page letter !! 

In his letter he names  4 or 5 kids by name and thanks them personally for there beautiful letters and drawings

The kids are going to be so excited tomarrow morning when they read his letter over the closed circuit TV.  The Arm Patch, pictures and letter have already been Laminated and will be posted on the Military Bulletin Board tomarrow..

 This is our First letter where the soldier actually names names or mentions a class room.  He also says in the letter he Loved the Fruit Gushers and Drink Mixes we sent.  He says the Drink mixes are highly prized by the soldiers because the water over there really doesn't taste that good..

I'm really impressed with this 20 , soon to be 21 yr old Young man...  My family will definately make sure to send him a couple personal letters. 

Anyone ever send a Soldier a Certificate of Appreciation?  My wife and I thaught maybe  it would be something this young man might cherish while he's in Iraq..