As a member of the military (Air Force), I can't begin to express the amount of gratitude for putting this all together. Thank you everyone for your support.
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Actually... Thank you.
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Getting ready to send out another round of care packages. Got some of the instant snow to put in the packages this round.

Let me know of some soldiers that would like to recieve a care package. You can post here or PM me and we can keep it between us.
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Hey BRC, I don't know if I ever told you, but my buddy got the stuff you sent him like 6 or 7 months ago and he really enjoyed it.

The only thing is you sent some fake snow I guess and it was already snowing where his base was. He said he laughed, which I'm glad he got a chance to do, but he really appreciated all the stuff.

When I see him around Christmas I'll see if I can get him to write something that I can post on here.
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I hope he's doing better adjusting to life back here in the real world.
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Yeah, he had an issue or two, but he's better I think. He's at Fort Polk, LA right now, but he's visiting here for a couple weeks around Christmas and then he gets out for good in February.
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cool, glad to hear.
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My friends are coming back.
They only served 4 years in a war zone.
Best wishes bros.
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I still have that red football in the OP
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Glad all my buddies and all the other troops are coming home....

Going in on April 10th...figured it was a good time as those two wars were winding down but now I'm afraid I'll be headed to Iran before it's all over. :-)
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My gf leaves in april for a 12 month deployment, thats gonna suck
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Won't be any fun. At least communication with family is getting easier and better.
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thats true, i guess any advancement is better than just letters, who knows how they managed that back then
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It wasn't fun, I promise. And I first deployed in the "advanced" era (1994) of USO phone lines to augment the postal service. My last deployment (2010), I paid 100 bucks a month for internet; email, skype, facebook.

Skype for sure makes a deployment so much different than Cuba in 94. Good and bad, it's awesome to see the face of your loved ones. Talking, crying, smiling and laughing, etc. But it's bitter for the ones back home when they hear an "incoming, incoming, incoming!!!" alarm, followed by a disconnected signal and several hours of communication silence before finding out that loved one is ok.

I made the mistake of not properly preparing my wife for that, but I also didn't really think about it until it happened. I just suggest to you that there will be some very abnormal moments that will not make sense at that time, you have to go on with your day and not beat yourself up mentally with the "what ifs" She'll get back to you when she can, trust in that.
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sorry man, sounds hard
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