It's like this.

You folks supported me when I was gone, now it's my turn.

I've got a gazillion hunting magazines laying around the house. Actually, I have no house. What I have is a library with a bed in it. It's bad. To say the house is a mess would be a gross understatement.

Maybe it's testosterone poisoning, I don't know, but I can't throw such things out. I keep saving them for that "ONE" day when, 17 years later, someone will say something and I'll have input from some article I've saved (that is, of course, 17 years old -- BUT PERTINENT!!!), and so... I have magazines everywhere. All kinds. Hunting magazines, gun magazines, reloading stuff... no archery stuff, "it ain't my bag," but pretty much everything else.

As I said, I just can't get rid of this stuff. It would be like cutting off a body part. I can't throw what I've got in the trash for the Silvis garbage people to haul away to some dump somewhere, where it will rot in the ground or be burned. I'd rather donate blood to a Democrat.

So... I'd like to send my gazillion magazines to some troop who's being shot at and/or mortared/rocketed on a semi-regular basis. Someone who hunts and shoots and reloads and misses the ca-ca out of not being able to do it because he's serving his country.

If any of you can submit a candidate or two, let me know. This will accomplish two things:

1) I'll contribute to the morale of someone in harm's way.
2) I'll get rid of the library and may discover I've been living in a house all this time.

Russ

Russ,

Why not send some to Walter Reed Army Hospital

Russell,
Mike's is a great idea. If there is a VA or service hospital near you, they never have enough of those kinds of mags. Kudude

Russell: I work for the Army Corps of Engineers here in Alaska and we frequently put boxes with magazines and other material together and send them to Afganistan and Iraq. (I have sent my friends caribou jerky and they love it.) I will get the addresses where you can send stuff to support Americans..I will provide that address here tomorrow. It is pretty basic public information...any military installation has an address where you can send stuff to support the troops and other Americans. No one should send them contraband.

Mike's idea above is also an excellent one..we may have sent some material to Walter Reed as well. The thought of Walter Reed breaks my heart.

Russell,
Try http://www.anysoldier.com/index.cfm They might be able to recommend someone.

Great ideas, all.

On the VA hospital thing (and Walter Reed, and such)... I'm hesitant. I'm thinking about the guys who are there -- that many probably can't hold a rifle, or walk, and so on. Maybe it would be like "rubbing their face in it" to send them hunting and shooting magazines, if they'll never do that kind of thing again. I don't know. I know this was a very sensitive thing for me during the war. The only thing I was worried about was losing my ability to hunt again. In that vein, I sent Doug Warren a check for a few bucks to help some disabled vet get out and hunt again, specifying that it went to exactly that type of person. Doug works with getting disabled vets back out "into the field" again. Anyway... I'm just not sure if sending such magazines to military hospitals would be good or not. I will think about it, though. I'd welcome more input on this idea.

Thanks, guys.

Russ

Check out the grocery chains in your area. The safeways here in Flagstaff adopted the 3rdID recently. They will be setting up donation boxes and such, have printed a list of items that US service men and women really need.
Just a thought
Derrick

Safeway Cedar adopting a military unit in Iraq

By Betsey Bruner
05/20/2005

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Safeway Cedar, 1500 E. Cedar Ave., has been selected as one of three stores statewide to sponsor a "Support Your Local Heroes" campaign. Each of the stores has "adopted" a military division in Iraq and will conduct drives to collect items that these units need.
From Saturday (Armed Forces Day) to Tuesday, May 31 (Memorial Day), store employees will be accepting donations of merchandise and/or funds to buy items that soldiers need in the 3rd Infantry Division in Iraq.

Some of the items needed, for men and women, are razors, shampoo, athletic socks (must cover ankles), black knee-high socks (thick to absorb sweat), manicure and pedicure kits, underwear, foot lotion/powder, talcum/body powder, deodorants, hair conditioners for daily use, towelettes, body wash, breath mints, Campbell soups, cracker snacks, chips, tuna fish, action and comedy DVD movies, country and easy-listening CDs, cookies, cereal, power bars, powdered juices, hometown T-shirts, low-fat snacks, (non-melting), Fritos dips and hair conditioners.




Men need shaving kits and women need face mask and feminine sanitary products (tampons, etc.).

Safeway will be donating products and also will pay 100 percent of all the shipping costs to Iraq.

For more information, call Wanda Noffz, assistant manager, at 774-3774. Her daughter, Meghan Koziol, 21, is serving as a medic with the 3rd Infantry Division stationed in Iraq.

Remember and honor our armed forces

By Betsey Bruner
05/20/2005

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Armed Forces Day will be observed Saturday, starting at 11 a.m. in Wheeler Park downtown.
The American Legion, Post #3 and the other veterans organizations will be hosting the Armed Forces Day ceremonies.

The public is invited to attend and join local veterans to honor men and women who are serving in the military, and to remember fallen military personnel.

"Armed Forces Day is a time to remember our folks who are serving in the military and the sacrifice they are making for freedom," said Bob Reyes, post adjutant with the local legion.

During the ceremonies, the name of Marty Mortenson, a 22-year-old Marine rifleman from Flagstaff who was killed April 20 in Ramadi, Iraq, will be unveiled at the Flagstaff War Memorial.

The American Legion will be presenting his parents, Ken and Ruth Mortenson, with a Gold Star Banner, which signifies that they lost a loved one during wartime.



"The banner was started in WWII by family members who lost someone," Reyes said. "It was blue if they had someone in service, and it reverted to gold when they lost someone in the military. We'd like for the community to come out and remember the young man who was killed over there. He gave the ultimate sacrifice for freedom."

A young woman who attends Sinagua High School, Mortenson's alma mater, will sing the National Anthem and several other patriotic songs, Reyes said.

Bobbi Peterson, the Flagstaff mother of U.S. Army Spc. Alyssa Peterson, who died Sept. 15, 2003, in Tel Afar, Iraq, will speak at the ceremony.

Armed Forces Day, which has been celebrated on the third Saturday in May since 1950, is also known as Law Officers Memorial Day. The ceremony in the park will also pay tribute to law enforcement officers.

For more information, call Bob Reyes at 773-0084



Send your community news to Betsey Bruner, Community Editor: By phone at 556-2255, by fax (to the newsroom) at 774-4790 or by e-mail to bbruner@azdailysun.com.

Well, yeah... but I really want what I've got to go to hunters and shooters, not just any ol' someone. In my unit, I was the only shooter/hunter. Thank God, I found one other guy in a subordinate unit who liked hunting. Toward the end of my tour, I found a guy who was into cowboy action shooting like me... but most of the gun and hunting magazines I had read, that folks sent me, went untouched for the most part. Guys were into "jock" sports and such. The gun and hunting magazines hardly got touched. I'd just like to send these materials to people who would really "appreciate" them, like only hunters and shooters would. I just figured someone here might have a nephew or son or someone who was going to be missing out on the Fall bear hunt, et cetera, who would really enjoy the magazines I've got.

Russ