I am so, so sorry to hear about the loss of your son. My prayers to you and your family. Diane

Welcome Home LCDR Pethel... You are needed here, too  and you have inspired others in ways you can never imagine! diane

Whoever has LCDR Pethel's contact info send me a PM or at tleat get word to him that Diane from Boston sends good wishes and all, ok? or LCDR Pethel, I passed on your intell about bringing towels to A-Stan to a young sailor about to go there! He was most appreciative, Merry and Happy. diane

Visit the Navy Seabees of America website and try a posting for your buddies.

Chaplain LT Brandon Harding serving with MARINES would like special fu fu coffee creamers, newly released DVD's mvoies and other items for his Marines. See his great posting about the LAVA JAVA CAFE and Movie Lounge.

Childrens books are a big hit, the troops have a progarm set up where they can do a dvd of them reading the book to their kids, they need the small type of dvd's to accomplish this as well as kid's books. I am sure there is a posting requesting these items somewhere on the AS site. Like some others, I just love to send the whoppie ...

You don't gripe AT ALL and tell your neighbors not to gripe about not having hot water for 4 days since you know our troops have it alot worse.  You just use the baby wipes you were planning to send to A-stan and then go out and buy another box to send! diane

thanks for the GREAT TIP....it came in really handy for my carepackages, many of the NAVY Seabee contacts listed at anysailor.com are from Massachusetts! thanks again diane

BINGO- that was probably the cause of the problem! thanks! diane

kevin hope you can do a road trip to Fredericksburg TX during the Christmas season, it's really nice and decorated, hopefully you can get to the trade fair days- a flea market texas style with  interesting stuff and those huge bbq texas turkey legs- yummy! glad things are going well   diane in boston