This is the downloadable flier - click mardigras2.pdf to get the (PDF) to print and share.

OK Louisianans and Mardi Gras enthusiasts everywhere - time tor spread the love! We have 320 Louisiana Guard Soldiers who have been in Iraq for a while and could use some Mardi Gras cheer. This effort was done in coordination with Soldiers’ Angels and the LA Family Readiness Support Assistant (Contractor) Anglia (Nikki) Ganey. The 244th Louisiana Guard unit out of Hammond will be the recipients. If we get a huge response, we have a second unit in the wings.

This post will remain on top (scroll down for new items) until the second week in February. Here is our press release. To obtain the address to send your package, please contact gretaperry@gmail.com

1. Go to the Post Office and get:
*** the 12×12 flat rate box that says America Support You. It is free.
It will cost $10.95 to ship to an APO. Yes, you can use a larger box and calculate the expense and weight here.

*** Pick up Customs Declaration and Dispatch Note (2976-A)

2. Fill the box with Mardi Gras themed items (no pork products, liquids or obscenity): throws (not jumbled together), costumes, LA inspired food products, costumes, Mardi Gras decorations, cards made by kids

3. Place a nice note in the box with your return address on it (you may or may not receive a follow-up letter).

4. Write Soldiers’ Angels Operation Overseas Mardi Gras on the side of the box.

5. E-mail Greta gretaperry@gmail.com and you will be given the address to mail the items.

6. Head to the post office with your customs form filled out and box of Mardi Gras cheer. It will cost $10.95 to mail and you must be present to mail it.

7. Check back on http://soldiersangelsla.org for pictures and follow/up information!

Thank you ahead of time for sharing Mardi Gras with our heroes!
operation-overseas-mardi-gras.mov

Read all about it here.

***Some Louisiana soldiers make it home for Christmas.

***Louisiana Airman of the Year featured on NFL Saints trading card.

Thanks to Shelle Michaels - my dear friend and fellow angel for posting this on Facebook.

Keeping in great Spirit the 1st Battallion 4th Marines, Bravo Company 3rd Platoon has produced this hilarious Christmas video. Out of ECP1 in Fallujah, Iraq.

We would like to thank everyone who has supported us through the first half of our deployment. This project was a challenge for me but in the end quite worth it. Merry Christmas everyone! -Nick Hesselgrave

Our Twelve Days of Christmas in Iraq

1- full resupply of TP
2- megaphones
3- crappy humvees
4- portajohns
5- hours of sleep
6- rusty dumbells
7- months deployment
8- IPs(iraqi police) dancing
9- sentries standing
10- hours posting
11- bags of trash
12- freakin’ flies!

To the Men and Women of the United States military, and all the armed forces around the world, thank you for everything that you do. And to those who are laying their heads down tonight in a foreign land, away from your loved ones, thank you so very much. Stay safe, you’re in our thoughts and our hearts. Merry Christmas.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

I have to confess that this show was done very well. I am a bigger Dr. Phil fan than ever before. Here is a clip of his opinion. Here is the archive of the show. I am glad to hear someone use their platform to help our heroes!!!

Source

Louisiana National Guard Soldiers Pay Holiday Visit To VA Hospital. In a story submitted by Staff Sgt. Rachel A. Hall, the 199th Leadership Regiment Unit Public Affairs Representative, the Alexandria (LA) Town Talk (12/17) reported, “Soldiers from the Louisiana National Guard’s 199th Leadership Regiment Officer Candidate School recently filled the halls with holiday cheer and song” at the Veterans Affairs medical center in Pineville. The “officer candidates visited the hospital Dec. 6 as part of a community action project required for their August 2009 graduation from OCS.”

Read the entire article here.

Army Lt. Col. Stephen Jeselink, Task Force Warrior deputy commander, is recorded while reading the poem “The Night Before Christmas” at the USO at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, Dec. 16, 2008. Through the United Through Reading military program, the Jeselink family in Louisiana will be able to continue a long-standing holiday tradition of listening to Stephen read the poem on Christmas Eve…

I had the pleasure of spending the morning at the Southeast Louisiana War Veterans Home in Reserve, LA. Today, I got to play Santa Clause as I came bearing gifts. My tour guide was Kerry Ermon, social worker extraordinaire. I brought hand-sewn bags stuffed with goodies from a local church group of women. I also brought with me items donated from 2 other angels as well as came armed with cards from my second grade daughter’s class.

Everything was so appreciated. Theses heroes from Vietnam, WWII and even a Pearl Harbor survivor were thrilled just to have someone pay attention to them for a couple of minutes. Handing out the cards made by the kids was extremely touching to me. You would have thought I was handing them a million dollars. They studied it, opened it, read every word, smiled, ran their hands all over it and held onto it after I left. I held back the tears as how much just a small gesture of giving a card from a second grader meant to them. One man was upset that he did not get a card that a woman who was there helping care for her husband said she would share his card with him. He went through the same ritual with the card as it was just as special for him.

I made sure to visit the hero who had given me my tour the last time I was there. When I got home from my tour, I wrote him a note and sent him a Soldiers’ Angels challenge coin and pin. This visit he told me another veteran said he would do anything if he would give them to him so he figured he would. He told me he sure wished he could get another one. I ran to the car and got him a pin and told him I would get him a new coin. Again, something so small meant so much to him.

If you have any time, this facility as well as any of the 5 War homes throughout Louisiana need people to go visit and just spend some time with these heroes.

c/p at Hooah Wife

Send a holiday message to the troops on Moment of Thanks. Let’s give our family serving abroad some cheer and send them a message or a photo to put a smile on their faces…and let them know we’re thinking about them this holiday season. Go to Moment of Thanks and share.