Reaching Out To Our Troops

I received an interesting email from a friend today. It was about doing something to support our troops abroad. It sounded a bit suspicious and so, as with all suspicious sounding emails, I went to Snopes to see if it was legit. Although it was a legitimate email, Snopes pointed out that it did very little to actually support our troops, but listed a few websites to visit if I really wanted to do something meaningful. That's how I found AnySoldier.com!

"Any Soldier is a non-profit organization started by Sgt. Brian Horn, with his mother and father Marty and Sue, of LaPlata, Maryland. Sergeant Horn was one of the 1,000 soldiers who parachuted into Northern Iraq on March 26th, 2003 with the 173rd Airborne Brigade.

What started as a simple family effort to help their son blossomed into a nationwide grassroots effort that now helps and supports thousands of military men and women. Sgt. Horn's father (who served in the Army for 20 years) started the web site and today, Any Soldier has delivered supportive items to more than 100,000 soldiers in all branches of the military, both active duty and reservists.

This is a perfect way to remind our men and women in uniform just how grateful we are for the tremendous sacrifices they make. And I hope you'll help get the word out by forwarding this e-mail to friends and family members."

May I humbly implore you if you are able, and you're not already doing something tangible to help support our men and women in military to put it off no longer? I'm not suggesting that you buy material things. Do that if you can or want to, but sending something as simple as a brief letter or card would obviously do wonders to lift their spirits. Before now, I never even gave any thought to the fact that some of these soldiers don't have any family back here in the US. For them, their Unit IS their family. How discouraging that must be to see others receiving packages and or letters and they are left empty handed.

When you visit Any Soldier, please make sure you take the time to read the FAQ section. Any question you have will be more than adequately answered and probably then some!