Teaching the truth to the next generation.

[daddyusmaximus]

While gathered together for Thanksgiving, my great nephew was watching me sort out all the new photos from our family vacation down here in Florida. As he sat by me at my laptop, he began to ask questions about all the photos, and folders of photos. "Army photos" caught his eye. He thought it was cool to see some shots of military vehicles, and other countries, so I took the chance to teach him about being thankful, seeing as it's that season.

I showed him a couple photos of an instance where I was passing out Girl Scout cookies to poor Iraqi kids back in 2005. I was a Cub Scout den leader prior to the deployment, and the Girl Scout leader had sent me several crates of cookies to pass out among the troops. I did pass out quite a few, but being the good, kind, generous Americans the media never gives us credit for, we also decided to pay it forward to the local kids. I started taking them on missions that were going into less dangerous areas. If we stopped, and some kids came out (they almost always did) I became the cookie Santa.

https://i.imgur.com/IyXiYBd.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/1yPZE4x.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/NEdJbwU.jpg

I'm sure they were thankful for the Americans that came over to help them.

No matter the political objectives, we (the troops) tried to do a lot more than just kill the bad guys, and take their oil... not that the media or the school system will ever admit to it.

It's Thanksgiving time. Be thankful.

[Buckaroo]

That's really cool.
Thanks for your service and for representing our nation in such a way!

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

[R6436]

I have to ask, is that Tampa about 15-20 miles South of the split as you approach the greater Baghdad area? The tree line and salt ponds look eerily familiar.

[daddyusmaximus]

I have to ask, is that Tampa about 15-20 miles South of the split as you approach the greater Baghdad area? The tree line and salt ponds look eerily familiar.

Yes... yes it is. We had a truck go down, so the convoy stopped. Good eye...

[ramairthree]

We had some ginormous boxes of little beanie baby type stuffed animals some church had sent on one deployment.

We handed out those to kids by the handful.

Sometimes I think they appreciated them.

Sometimes I don’t think the stuffed animals and pool of red on the floor and a “hey, um.. sorry about your dad” we left them went over that well.

[R6436]

Yes... yes it is. We had a truck go down, so the convoy stopped. Good eye...

I know that route way too intimately. Also familiar with trucks going down, and the resulting crowds that would gather. Always made sure we had at least a spare case of bottled water and MRE's to pass around in the early days. Later deployments we were only allowed (supposed to be) driving at night during the civilian curfew so we didn't interact as much with the locals.

[The_War_Wagon]

Teaching the truth to the next generation.

Geez... that was MY Pastor's Thanksgiving Eve sermon - that thankfulness MUST be taught to EVERY generation, regardless of what WE personally might have come through in OUR lives (Great Depression, WWII, 9/11, OEF, etc.). I see you're in IN; maybe that was the standard-issue LCMS sermon that night. ;)

And on behalf of a grateful American, I thank YOU for your service!

[AKDoug]

Very little of history is being taught in schools anymore. I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to give my kids a basic U.S. History education before they left school and I pretty much failed compared to what I received in the 70's and 80's. I still have a stop action film I made in THIRD grade about the bombing of Hiroshima. History was part of every year of my 22 years of education.

For the modern GWOT history, they get lots of info from their uncle and friends of mine that served. We also sent a metric shit ton of Girl Scout cookies to Afghanistan and my kids helped me gather up archery supplies (along with dozens of other donors) to send to Iraq to set up an archery club for one of the camps there. In return they got a bunch of letters and photos from many serving over there.