Gentleman, I received another letter of thanks today from the gentleman in the picture. They must of got the second set of boxes I sent for them to distribute. The humidor he is talking about (1 of 2) was donated by DocWatson and the scarves were made by Bulldog Bruce's wife.

Here is what he wrote:

"28 November 2008

Hello Mike

Greetings from Afghanistan to you and the Brothers of Briar. Thank you for the care packages. Good thing you sent the humidor, you sent so many cigars I wouldn’t have room to properly store them. What a great problem to have! Don’t worry; I have enough cigar buddies that they won’t go to waste. I carry a 10 stick travel humidor to work with me every day. On a good day I might get 2 cigars a day, but you just can’t be without a spare or 8. I just like to know if a guy over here wants a stogie, he can have one. Thanks to the generosity of folks like you, that’s just not a problem. Those pipes were also really nice; I think I’ll have to keep the English pipe. It’s just too cool! The scarves were a big hit; the ladies in the ER really appreciated them. It’s starting to get cold here. The afternoons are still nice, but the evening chill and morning frost are getting closer together. It won’t be long before it’s cold all the time. Fortunately, we just completed the “Shade.” You see, the hospital has a smoking area on the roof, where we took the pictures. It’s great, but we weren’t authorized to have a roof, so we built a canvas “Shade” on the top and the side’s that wind comes from. Because there is absolutely no excuse for missing out on a quality pipe or cigar, besides we had the time on our hands. You’d be proud; I think I’m getting the hang of packing my pipe. It’s a lot more difficult that I had originally thought. Practice, practice, practice, it’s the only way to get good at anything. I’m not complaining, it’s a fine excuse to smoke a pipe. Not that I need an excuse. Luckily, my boss is one of the guys in that picture, makes it easy to get a smoke break. Just as long as it’s not busy in the ER. Fortunately, things have been pretty quiet here. The bad guys really don’t like to fight in the cold. It’s about the only thing they do over here that makes any sense to me. Still, it’s nice to have the down tempo. Besides, excessive patient load could negatively impact my smoking, and we just can’t have that. On the bright side, most of our combat injuries are Afghan Army soldiers. If you ask me, that’s how it should be. I sure don’t mind patching these boys up, seems better than patching up our own. Mike, I just wanted to thank you for thinking of us over here. It means a lot to me that there are folks like you and Brothers of Briar who are concerned enough about us over here to send such wonderful gifts. Thank you, your friend, John

Sincerely

TSgt John Bartram
455th Air Expeditionary Wing
Task Force Med ER"


Great going guys. As a side note I had a two day set back in getting the last of the packages out. I had to work and my wife was feeling ill so four of them didn't get out until today. The last one apparently has a zip code issue that I need to contact the person who supplied the address and get the correct zip code. It is going to Camp Basra in Iraq. If I am not mistaken that will make a total of twelve boxes sent, all from donations of stuff from you guys and a great group of guys I work with at USAirways. They helped with donations of pipe tobacco, cigars and chewing tobacco. As soon as I have a couple of minutes I will put down the total of what all we sent and to where. I can't say it enough, Thanks again for all of your help in this endeavor.

Thanks so much Mike! Reading this thread and the stories from the troops is the highlight of logging onto BoB.

Just Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gentleman

Here is a final total of what we have sent out to the troops this year. IMHO this year was a great success and I again thank you guys and my fellow inspectors in Phoenix at USAirways for making this all happen. We sent out twelve boxes (total) to the following serviceman for distribution.

SSG Aaron Thacker (Iraq); one box
SSG John Sloan (Iraq); one box
Charles Breland (Iraq, moral office); two boxes
SSgt Richard Boone (Iraq); one box
SSgt Jonathan Bartram (Afghanistan); four boxes
1st Lieutenant? (I think) (not sure by APO if Iraq or Afghanistan, pretty sure it's Afghanistan); three boxes

In total we sent out:

42 pipe gift packs that consisted of at least four blends (at least one tin and three commercial pouches of pipe tobacco or three pouches of bulk), pipe, matches or a lighter and pipe cleaners
166 cigars
15 (5 packs) of Corona cigars
40 tins of chewing tobacco
5 tins (100 gm or larger) and a couple of extra pounds of bulk
14 decks of playing cards
Scarfs, tea, chapstix, etc.

Thank you once again for all of your support this year. You guys made this all happen, I am just the humble shipper of gifts. I am sure we have made quite a few serviceman happy this Christmas, if not for the gifts, for remembering them out there during the holidays and for what they are doing.

Mike,

As I said before, we cannot thank you enough for doing this and providing us the avenue to participate. Thank you so much!!!

Mike,

As J P said, Chris and I thankfull for the opportunity you have given us to participate and let the troops know we are thinking of them and appreciate all they are doing so far from home.

Bruce