Please reply to this thread and introduce yourself.

This area is strictly to get to know you, and you to know us.

We welcome you to this forum and hope that it is both helpful and enjoyable!

My best,

Jeesh Marty, thanks for stealing my topic title!   (Kidding!)

Hi everyone!

My name is Justine and, as you can probably tell by my username, I'm supporting our troops from (southern) California!  I've been sending care packages for a little over 4 years but came to AnySoldier.com only about 1.5 years ago, after another site that I was using became too political in its forums and overall mission.  I'm also the co-founder of a non-profit that supports the military members from my hometown.  I guess I'd be considered a bit younger than the "average" military-supporter, but this is the war of my generation and I will always show the troops my appreciation!  (<--- Lesson learned from previous generation!)  I've had the privilege of becoming life-long friends with many of the troops I've supported- many have visited me and my family upon returning home- and continue to keep in touch.

Aside from military support, my interests include school (finished my Bachelor's and will be starting grad school soon to become a School Psychologist), watching and playing sports, church!, going to the beach, snow, and desert (all within 45 minutes of here!), reading, and watching movies... but- probably like many of you- a lot of my free time revolves around getting those care packages and letters shipped out! 

I'm so excited that this forum has opened and just want to thank Marty and everyone else at AnySoldier.com for setting this thing up so that us supporters have a way to be in touch with each other!  Thank you Marty and the AnySoldier.com team... you all are the best!

                           ~Justine

Hi everyone.  Well, Im sort of like Cali in that Im a little younger compared to many of the other supporters on this site AND Im also a male...something else that is a little rare on the forum thus far.  Anyway Im 24, and from a very small town in northwest Illinois.  Currently I serve as a church Administrative Assistant and work tirelessly doing many civic projects and volunteer work.  I have written 3 books on local history as well as establish a fully functioning historical society/museum when I was only 18 years old and still in high school.  Currently I serve as on the Board of Directors for the museum.  After high school, I attended Western Illinois University (Go Fighting Leathernecks!) and majored in history.  While in college the Iraq war started and a very close friend of mine from high school was deployed for a second tour with the Marines when his Humvee rolled over killing him.  Needless to say it was a painful time and still is, but instead of becoming bitter about what happened I came up with a project to cope and support my other soldier friends; so I started a troop support program at my church about a year ago sending care packages to some of the troops from the immediate vicinity (most of whom I know as they went to high school when I did so I also feel a certain closeness to many of our service personnel and the current conflicts we are in.)  Well anyway, I wanted to expand our project and found anysoldier.com and was so impressed I HAD to select a few troops to support.  I have been using this site since December of '06, and dont intend to stop anytime soon!

I live Ozark, MO.  My husband, Mark, is an electrician.  I am a stay at home mom with 2 kids: Maya, who is 6,  and Mark Jr., who is 3.  I am also a home-school mom.  We are born-again Christians, and members of Faith Life Church in Branson.  We became involved in this program in April of 2007.  It started out as a fun thing to do with the kids but has become a steadily growing fixture in my heart!  Our first steady contact turned out to be a soldier who is stationed in Afghanistan.  He and his family live just 15 minutes from our home.  After that we were hooked.  It seems that we see so many examples of "things happening for a reason".  It's clear to us that this is the work of the Lord, to benefit those who are overseas doing the work of the Lord.  It has been a tremendous blessing to be involved in.

I've been an AnySoldier supporter for about 3 years now.  I have 4 kids, and I'm a newly credentialed teacher (both elementary school general ed and K-12 Special Ed).  I live in the San Diego area so many of my "neighbors" are military members (I'm actually under some of the Marine Corps helicopter flight paths - something I find very cool).

Mystic93, I completely relate to the flight path thing. I live a few miles from Charleston (SC) Air Force Base, home base for the C-17 cargo planes which transport so much to Iraq and Afghanistan. They're big, kinda lumbering looking things that bring an enormous roar at all hours of the day and night ... and I love them.

Since this is an introduction thread, my name is Cindy (who knew?) and I'm a 46-year-old, single, sports copy editor at the (Charleston) Post and Courier. I first heard about anysoldier.com from a letter to the editor to our paper last August, from some wise soul who was sick of following the political bickering on both sides of the war, who encouraged people to direct their energies into something practical ... like anysoldier.com.

 I checked the Web site out and like you guys, got hooked. Hooked on the posts, and the possibilities of actually making a difference in somebody's life, even if it was something as small as beef jerky. From the first time I found a free mail letter in the mailbox to the day my American Flag was returned by the Marine Gy.Sgt. with a certificate saying it flew over Iraq on Columbus Day.

I still have political opinions but they've evolved and are completely anchored by faith and pride in the quality of people we have representing us in the military. It's been my privilege to get to know some of them and an even greater privilege to get to say thank you.

 I've also immensely enjoyed this forum and look forward to the day when I get to meet some of you in person. Think of the stories we could tell.

My name is Julie, but a lot of people know me as Free Spirit, and call me "Free."  I live in Durham, North Carolina.  Not married, no kids.  Free Spirit...get it?

I found AnySoldier last December, just in time to request the name of my first contact and rush around crazily to get a package in the mail before the Christmas mailing deadline.  I think I got hooked a month or so later, when I came to the AnySoldier website, read my contact's latest update, and found she had posted a photo of a smiling soldier holding up one of my packages!

Like most soon-to-be Junkies, I thought I would put a package in the mail to my contact maybe once a month and otherwise my life would go on as usual. Ha ha.  I'm at the post office several times a week now, my home looks like a warehouse, and I have requested addresses for over 30 contacts.  I'm relieved to hear from the old-timers that eventually you do settle out at a more liveable pace!

In the meantime, in addition to my addiction to soldiers, I've become addicted to this forum, too!

Hi! My name is Heather, aka MrsNorthCarolina. I live in central NC and am a mom of 7 [soon to be 8 {ANYTIME}] children. Married to an Army veteran, who is now a police officer. My entire family is involved with AnySoldier. This started as a homeschool project and became an obsession. We average sending out anywhere from 5-10 boxes a week. 

Hmm.. what else can I say? With 7 kids, there really isn't much that we aren't involved in! Sports, beauty pageants, community service, school, church, ... you name it, we are probably there!

And we are definately proud to be called AS Junkies!

I'm Sarah and I'm a down to earth homeschooling mom of 3.  My husband John works in a bodyshop and we were penpal sweethearts before we ever met.   We live on a farm in rolling hills of South Eastern Indiana near to the Ohio River across from Kentucky.  We've got quite a menagerie of animals.  Some of the animals are fiber producing, which supplies my hobby of spinning and knitting (I still do have to buy yarn too- can't kick that habit)  I love driving horses and I have a pair of leopard app ponies (breed called Pony of America) I would love to eventually be able to take them in parades.

Our family gets by on one income and little stuff here and there we bring in on the side.  We don't really have a lot of extra cash once the bills are paid.  We don't have any extra rooms in our house and whenever I try to keep a spare customs from handy- the baby writes on it.  Somehow though I do make up some packages to send when I can and I write lots of letters.  John is 100% behind me on this.  We love our troops and can't think of a more important thing for Americans to do right now than to show them how much we value them~!  I try to come up with creative ways to show support without spending too much and I try to spread the word about AnySoldier.  I keep some AnySoldier business card in my purse and tack them on bulletin boards and give to people when we talk.  I have a mascot, Pink Bunny, who is a beanie toy I keep in my truck in case I need to fill some empty space in a package.  Somehow he never fits in and he gets to start the next box, like button soup.

I would like to do a better job of supporting AnySoldier the organization in the future, but I'm still trying to figure out how to do that.

HI! My name is Mary (duh) and I live in South Central Wisconsin in a suburb of Madison, the capital. I am married, the mother of four children two birth daughters (one who gave us a beautiful granddaughter you see on my posts) and two adopted sons both of whom were crack/cocaine babies.  They are now 19 and 21.  I found AnySoldier.com in Oct. of 06.  Our nephew, Patrick 21, was deployed to Iraq and I was looking for info on how to send packages and what to send that was needed.  Four weeks later Patrick was in a Hummvee convoy hit by two IED's.  He lost his right leg and severely injured his left.  He is still an outpatient at Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas.  Doing Okay but still has some PTSD issues.  I went back to AnySoldier and got hooked.  I don't have lots of funds to spare, but try to send about 10 boxes a month.  I also write lots of letters.  I have several "penpals" of young soldiers who don't have much family of their own.  I write them often and send each a box a month.  For Christmas last year our whole extended family sent boxes to soldiers instead of giving gifts to each other.  I was very proud of my kids for doing that.  My husband just bought a new truck (our car died after 11 years - cars just don't last like they should) and luckily the big "I Support AnySoldier.com" magnets arrived just in time to cover the truck sides and back before it ever got out of the driveway.  AnySoldier business cards get passed to nearly every stranger I meet and there are also those flyers one can print out and stick under windshield wipers.  To say this is a passion of mine is definitely an understatement.  I have a niece who is a Lt.Com. Pilot in the Navy but who is presently the CO of a naval base in PA.  My brother-in-law is also a former Navy Pilot and flew troops back and forth to Viet Nam.  They were more than happy to hear about AnySoldier.com and are active contributors to the sailors. 

I am extremely grateful to Marty, Sue and Brian Horn for starting this all up and to all the Support Staff that are ALWAYS there to answer some of my really dumb questions.  Even when I wrote to ask if I could send plaid boxers to the soldiers or if they had to have plain colors.  Brian Horn wrote back, manning the Support statioin that day, saying they never had undershorts inspections when he was deployed, so guessed the plaid would do fine.  What an honor to hear from Brian himself.

 There's nothing like seeing that "Free Mail" in the top right corner of a letter when the mail arrives.  I even have a movie/slide show that one of my soldiers produced that shows the day to day life of the soldiers in Afghanistan.  What a treat that is.  I watch it often. 

Mary 

Hello everybody!  My name is Sheelagh and I live right outside of Philadelphia.  I am married and the mother of three daughters and two furry children, my cat, Tinky and my collie, Toby. I was led to anysoldier in March 2007 and I have been addicted since.  The house is a mess and the meals lately (since the forum started) have been less than spectacular!   Oh well, the family gets used to it, right? 

A little about me: in my spare time I try to read and I love to quilt.  I am of Pennsylvania Dutch background and I am fascinated with the Amish culture.  I live about one hour away from Lancaster County, PA which is Amish country here in Pennsylvania.  That is my favorite place on earth.  I try to escape to there at least once a year. 

I am also so grateful to the Horn family for this website.  I feel that it has filled something that was missing in my life.  I am blessed with wonderful family and friends and had been searching for some way to help out other people.  I am not from a military family but from the moment I saw this site, it touched me and I have been hooked since! 

I originally tried to send out 2 or 3 packages a month, but I have many family and friends who help out with the shipping costs and try to find bargains for me and take of collections of items also.  Without their help, I don't know how I would be able to afford it (I'm a stay at home mom and funds are tight, just like everybody else, right?).  Anyway, it always seems like when I need to send out a box to someone who needs something, I can always find the money to make it happen, somehow!

 Everybody have a great day!

Hello, my name is Vanessa, I am a mother of 4 children, 3 daughters and 1 son.  I am currently raising my 6 year old granddaughter.  Four and 1/2 years ago, we met when she came to visit for Christmas; my oldest daughter was in the Army, going through a divorce and was soon to be deployed to Iraq.  The rest is history.

I have been attached personally to this war since, I discovered Anysoldier.com shortyly after she returned from Iraq.  PTSD is an awful illness when you live in denial; if I can help one soldier see the warning signs and not deny them; well then I have done something good.

 I enjoy sending cards, letters and packages to soldiers.  I have enlisted the help of my church also.

I have a few young soldiers that still keep in touch now that they have returned to the states and one who is in Germany.  I do enjoy hearing from them.  I think I enjoy it as much as they do.

 I pray for each and everyone of them to return home to their loved ones; let this be over!

 Sincerely

Vanessa

Just a Mom