Free Mail!

Did you know that letters sent from downrange dont require a stamp? Very cool if you ask me.

I'm with a writing organization called Tell Them Thanks (T3) where you can adopt a soldier, marine, seaman, or airman and write to them for the duration of their tour downrange. I have written to 5 people in the last 4 years. T3 tells you that you might not ever hear from your adopted serviceman; many of them are very busy and dont have internet access. I never heard from the first guy, but that's what I was kind of expecting. The second guy was a Soldier and I heard from him right off the bat. We talked online a lot. I never heard from the third guy, he was a Marine. I got him at the beginning of his 15 month deployment and sent him some pretty cool care packages! When he got home, he sent me flowers!! Didnt heard from the forth guy.

So JH is the 5th name I got from T3. I knew he was a Seaman. I wrote to him twice and... he wrote me back!! I know after 4 years of this, getting a letter from one of them may seem dull, but through it all, I never got a handwritten letter from downrange. Without a stamp. With a Marine Corps ink stamp on it. It was very exciting.

JH is really nice. He sent me a pic of his family. Told me about his girl friend that he's marrying when he gets home and the dog he misses like crazy. And a fire fight he was in a while back- it was probably really against the OPSEC rules though. So I'm writing him a letter right now. I was under the impression that his unit was coming home in August so I stopped writing him in July. But he didnt say anything about coming home soon in his letter. And he told me he hopes I write back. So I'm going to just in case he's not coming home yet. I would hate for his tour to be extended and me not know about it and just stop writing.

Sound fun to you? Want to adopt your our serviceman? Go to www.tellthemthanks.com and let them know you want to support the deployed troops!

Know of any serviceman or troops that need a little more support from home? You can sign them up, or download a flyer to give to the FRG. Tell Them Thanks is serious about helping any way they can and completely understand OPSEC and the regulations that follow.