Giving Back-Rolling Thunder New Jersey Chapter 2

Yesterday, I joined members of Soldiers Angels, Gathering of Eagles, and Warrior Legacy Foundation at Walter Reed Army Medical Center to give a few wounded warriors a small token of our appreciation for their sacrifices.

This mission was made possible in part by a generous donation from Rolling Thunder's New Jersey Chapter 2. There were other generous benefactors, but we respect their privacy.

I met three recently arrived Marines. Their spirit and attitude despite their wounds, was incredible. It was an honor to be asked to help brighten Christmas for these outstanding young Marines. Thanks to the SNCO for rescuing our band of intrepid Elves and especially the Marine liason who assisted in our distribution.

OOOOOOOOORAHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Cooking With the Troops Website Is Live

Although not fully functional and lacking in some content, CWtT is live on the web. We are currently under development and will have a lot more content soon.

We have no less than three events planned between now and 10 September. All of the events involve cooking and feeding troops or those who are making the lives of our troops more pleasant.

Our first event for Sgt Steve Kiernan was a huge success and YouServed.com has a blogpost coming out on Monday morning covering it. Of course, we have conveniently placed the widget for YouServed on our sidebar so all you have to do is scroll down a bit and viola there you are.

I'm very honored to be a part of this organization and even more humbled that The Hammer thinks enough of our efforts to join us on the Board of Directors.

What began for me as an informal, impromptu going away party/cookout in 2006 for a wounded Kentucky National Guard soldier at Walter Reed has transformed into an international effort backed up by Soldiers Angels, Warrior Legacy, hundreds of milbloggers and ordinary Americans who just want to help.

God Bless America and God Bless our Warriors.

LETS EAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Daily Grind from The Hammer

I was actually working today, so I missed a lot of things I usually post.

Two items of a personal nature I'd like to share:

First, I've been asked to sit on the Board of the newly established EaglesUP! 501(c)(3) organization, an honor I have accepted. (Those Jersey girls have a way of talking you into anything.)

Second, I've been asked by none other than Laughing Wolf hisownself to be a member of the core group Cooking With the Wounded, another honor I readily accepted. You don't refuse a member of the team at Blackfive, you just don't. They have things and know stuff.

The Daily Grind
BY Mary Katharine Ham

Oops, again: "In a statement the authors of the paper said: 'Since publication of our paper we have become aware of two mistakes which impact the detailed estimation of future sea level rise. This means that we can no longer draw firm conclusions regarding 21st century sea level rise from this study without further work. One mistake was a miscalculation; the other was not to allow fully for temperature change over the past 2,000 years. Because of these issues we have retracted the paper and will now invest in the further work needed to correct these mistakes.'

Dana Perino and Bill Burck on the Friday night news dump: "So, in one corner we have a legal all-star team of Mukasey, Filip, Estrada, Mahoney, Goldsmith, and Margolis. In the other corner, we have OPR operating far outside its comfort zone and area of expertise. This shouldn’t have been close — and it wasn’t, on the merits. The fact that OPR almost succeeded — and was stopped only because Margolis did the right thing and brought the curtain down on this farce — should remind everyone that partisan politics are alive and well at the Justice Department."

Vindicating John Yoo.

USA! USA! USA!

E.J. Dionne goes Jimmy V on health care.

Salman Rushdie: "Amnesty International has done its reputation incalculable damage by allying itself with Moazzam Begg and his group Cageprisoners, and holding them up as human rights advocates. It looks very much as if Amnesty's leadership is suffering from a kind of moral bankruptcy, and has lost the ability to distinguish right from wrong."

Ron Paul won the CPAC straw poll, signaling something very significant. Remember how much it portended when Mitt Romney won it in a landslide?

Aww: Valerie Jarrett wants Sarah Palin to stop making fun of "hope and change."

Keith Hennessey ponders the president's goals in the Blair House summit.

Milblog Conference 2010-Featured Charities

Featured Charities at the 2010 Fifth Annual Milblog Conference
By Andi

A couple of years ago, we began choosing military charities to feature at The MilBlog Conference. This year, given it's the Fifth Anniversary Conference, we've chosen two charities to feature.

They are: Homes For Our Troops

We are Homes for Our Troops, a national non-profit, non-partisan 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2004. We are strongly committed to helping those who have selflessly given to our country and have returned home with serious disabilities and injuries since September 11, 2001. It is our duty and our honor to assist severely injured Servicemen and Servicewomen and their immediate families by raising donations of money, building materials and professional labor and to coordinate the process of building a home that provides maximum freedom of movement and the ability to live more independently.

The homes provided by Homes for Our Troops are given at NO COST to the Veterans we serve.

Soldiers' Angels

Soldiers' Angels is a volunteer-led 501(c)(3) non-profit organization providing aid and comfort to the men and women of the United States Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, and their families. Founded by the mother of two American soldiers, we are an international, volunteer-led organization supporting America's men and women in uniform.

With over 30 different teams and projects, our nearly 200,000 volunteers assist veterans, wounded and deployed personnel and their families in a variety of unique and effective ways.

This year, we're bringing back the fun and highly successful Jail-N-Bail. We'll run the jailhouse for one hour during Friday's opening cocktail reception. All funds from the Jail-N-Bail will go to the featured charities. Attendees who issue arrest warrants and criminals who raise bail money will choose which organization will receive their donation. Both organizations will be presented with funds raised at Saturday night's dinner and party.

In the past, our attendees and sponsors have been very generous to our featured charities and we're grateful to all who have donated.

There is no pressure on attendees to give to the charities. At a minimum, we want to spotlight organizations which are doing great things for the military community, and if we can raise some money to help them continue their great work in the process - all the better.

Cooking With the Wounded and Soldiers Angels

If you heard your humble blogger on WRVA last Monday morning, you heard about Soldiers Angels and Cooking With the Wounded.

Yellow Bowl Bakery Prepares To Cook With The Wounded at Landstuhl
Cooking with the Wounded Kicks off 2010 Fundraising Campaign

The first team to travel to Landstuhl as part of Cooking with the Wounded is making preparations for their trip, and Soldiers' Angels is asking for your help. The team from the Yellow Bowl Bakery in Lafayette, Indiana, has been busy raising money locally and planning their menu and options to do a dessert bar at the USO Warrior Center. There will be other activities and food as well, to complement what they are doing.

Funds are being solicited to cover the costs of food, both for the event and to stock the Wounded Warrior barracks with supplies for later use, and travel. The team from the Yellow Bowl Bakery are donating their time to the effort, just as they did for a warm-up event at the U.S. Army Walter Reed Medical Center late last year.

"It is an honor to do this, and I can't say how much we are looking forward to it," notes Katy Gunderson, team leader and owner of the Yellow Bowl Bakery. "They give so much to us, and doing this is the least we can do for those who have been wounded in combat, and for those who are taking care of them."

Donations are being taken at the Yellow Bowl Bakery and at locations around the greater Lafayette, Indiana area. Tax deductible contributions can be sent to Soldiers' Angels by mail or through their website (http://soldiersangels.org/). To ensure that contributions through the web site go to the effort, please note in the comment field that the donation is for Cooking with the Wounded. If you also send an e-mail to cooking@soldiersangels.com, noting the date and amount of donation, it will allow the Cooking with the Wounded team to send a personal thank you as quickly as possible.

This also marks the start of the 2010 fundraising campaign for Cooking with the Wounded. In addition to raising money for this first trip, three other trips are planned to Landstuhl in 2010.

A number of chefs, including well-known chefs, have expressed interest in taking part. The money raised will help cover the three trips to Landstuhl, and support "practice" and other meals and events at locations here in the United States.

Comedienne and long-time troop supporter Phyllis Diller has generously donated photos of her entertaining with Bob Hope in Vietnam, autographed by her, to help raise funds for both Cooking with the Wounded and Project Valour-IT. One of these photographs will be given to the individual who makes the largest contribution in the first two weeks of the fundraiser; and, one will be sent to the company that makes the largest cash contribution. In addition, one significant donor will be chosen to receive a Christmas card sent by Ted Nugent to Cooking with the Wounded.

Companies who sponsor Cooking with the Wounded will be able to receive additional benefits. In a first for Soldiers' Angels, companies that agree in 2010 to provide $100,000 in funding each year for five years will be listed as Founding Sponsors, and that list will remain on the Cooking with the Wounded site until at least the end of the calendar year 2020, with links.

Individuals and companies that donate $5,000 - $10,000 will be named Bronze Level Sponsors; those that donate $10,001-$25,000 will be listed as Silver Level Sponsors; those that donate $25,001 to $50,000 will be listed as Gold Level Sponsors; and, those who donate $50,001 or more will be listed as Platinum Level Sponsors.

These sponsorships will include listing in a special section of the site along with appropriate links. Other benefits may also apply. For more details please contact cooking@soldiersangels.com.

Cooking with the Wounded began with one person wanting to cook a steak dinner for the wounded at Landstuhl. As other chefs asked if they could do a meal of their own, it has grown into a program that seeks to send a team of chefs to cook a special meal for the troops at Landstuhl and those that care for them.

In addition to the meal, these guest chefs also take the time to talk about their experiences in getting started and share lessons learned. The ultimate goal for the program is to help those leaving military service, most especially the wounded, who are interested in a career in the food and beverage industry get the knowledge and training they need. It is also hoped that teams of chefs can be sent to Afghanistan, Iraq, and other locations to cook for the troops there.

More information on the program can be found at http://soldiersangels.org/cooking-with-the-wounded.html. More information on the Yellow Bowl Bakery can be found at http://theyellowbowl.com/

Soldiers' Angels is a volunteer-led 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.Tax ID #20-0583415.

Started by a self-described ordinary mother of two American soldiers, Patti Patton-Bader, Soldiers' Angels currently supports American military personnel world wide. Through the activities of more than 200,000 volunteers, Soldiers' Angels works to address military-related needs ranging from deployed support to wounded care, to remembrance of the fallen and a wide variety assistance for military families.

For more information, please contact Soldiers' Angels e-mail angels@soldiersangels.org.

URLs of Interest:
http://soldiersangels.org/
http://soldiersangels.org/cooking-with-the-wounded.html
http://soldiersangels.org/project-valour-it.html
http://soldiersangels.org/press-kit.html
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=18607581484
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=169172159549
http://theyellowbowl.com/

Warrior Legacy Foundation on WRVA

This morning at 0635 I was interviewed on Jimmy Barrett's morning show on WRVA, regarding the efforts of Warrior Legacy Foundation to help returning vets find employment. It was an honor to be able to speak for WLF and the men and women who helped create this great organization and I want to thank WRVA and Jimmy Barrett for allowing me the time to tell Richmond and the listening audience about Warrior Legacy.

WLF is committed to helping our veterans in any way possible. The jobs effort, Cooking for the Wounded (with Soldiers Angels) and the newest program, When They Come Back, We Give Back, are just the tip of the iceberg. We have more programs underway and in development.

Meanwhile, if you know of potential employers who need well-trained and disciplined employees, feel free to contact me through this website.

Our veterans deserve nothing less than our full and complete support. They have given much.

Its Two and a half hours til Veteran's Day

But I can't wait. To all my friends who served, Thank You. Not just for your service to our Nation, but for allowing me the honor of working for you and with you.

I have been fortunate over the past 4 years to meet some of the most amazing individuals this country has ever produced, and not all of them are veterans, but all are serving this Nation in some capacity.

From Soldiers Angels to the milbloggers to the extraordinary civilians who sacrifice so much so that deployed Warriors will know they are being thought of.

Your friendship means more to me than you will ever know, and I can ever adequately demonstrate.

Semper Fidelis

and I have to post this video one more time, (well, this week, anyway):

October 26-Day of the Deployed

From my second family at Soldiers Angels.

Our soldiers need our help.

Chuck Zeigenfuss of From my position.....On the way! says that Soldiers' Angels - Germany needs our help. Every little bit helps.
h/t Traction Control

All summer we have been experiencing a very large number of incoming medevacs, particularly from Afghanistan.

Unfortunately, the past several weeks have been even worse. We are in urgent need of the following items. Please help if you can. Please also pray for our patients and staff during this very difficult time.

Thank you.

MOST NEEDED:
- Sweatpants and Zippered Hoodie Sweatjackets (M, L, XL - Gray, Black, Dark Blue)
- Blankets of Hope
- Lounge/sleep pants/pj bottoms (M, L, XL)

2ND MOST NEEDED:
- Undershirts and plain T-shirts (M, L, XL)
- Shorts, baggy basketball-type (M, L, XL)

3RD MOST NEEDED:
- Men's Boxerbriefs (M, L, XL) 2nd choice boxers. Please do not send "tightie whities"
- Socks

COMPLETE LIST OF ALL NEEDED ITEMS CLICK HERE
- Please do not send clothing sizes Small, 2X, or 3X.
- Please do not send books or magazines.

Please send items to:

MTD
Attn: Soldiers' Angels
CMR 402
APO AE 09180

Important:
- Please email me mphillips AT soldiersangels DOT org when items are shipped.
- Include a note with your name, Email address, and brief description of items sent in your packages. Without this information, we will be unable to confirm their receipt.
- Please allow 6 - 8 weeks for receipt confirmation.