A Message from Afghanistan

I received this in my email this morning after posting the "Christmas To Our Troops" post earlier with a soldier singing Blue Christmas and had to share with everyone.  I've edited it out this soldiers first name but he asked me if I would share this with all of you.  This is the reason why I do what I do right here, nothing makes my day more than getting emails like this from soldiers.

"To all the members of your "Thank A Soldier" page :

My name is PFC T. Joyce and I am a member of the US ARMY currently stationed in Afghanistan,  This is my first Christmas away from my wife and daughter who just turned four the day before I left for my last deployment which still has about six months left to go in it.  It is rough but going on your webpage and seeing all the messages and photos of support gets us through the day.

I was recently directed to your Facebook page and website and was blown away at all the messages of support.  I was told about it by a member of the Canadian Forces who had received a care package from home and he had brought over some brownies and candy to share with us as this woman had sent him over ten boxes of goods.  This package had came from a Lady in Trenton, Ontario and I'm sorry I don't remember this but maybe if you post this on your website she will see this and know how much her parcels were appreciated.

Another member of my unit prints off some of the photos on your Facebook page and has them up here in our outpost when most of the other guys have girls in bikini's and on motorbikes.  Every day before we go out on our patrols a few of us have a look at them and it gives us that extra boost before we start our day.

I read a post that you put up here yesterday about the day you almost quit your website because of hackers and I just wanted to say all of us are certainly glad you didn't.  My wife has met other military wives due to your Twitter page and without your page she wouldn't have someone to talk to and go through the same things she is going through.

We've heard a lot of bands come through the base and various celebrities come visit the guys on the base but the guys out here on the FOB units we are the forgotten one's most times.  There's eighteen guys in my unit and when we got a box from this ladies shipment we all sat around and it was like our own little Christmas, I never thought I'd see one guy be so excited to see a package of Skittles before in my life but we sure do appreciate the littlest things over here.

Please pass along my message to all your group members and with some of our guys coming home from IRAQ this past week I hope people don't forget that we are still over here and your website and Facebook page certainly help with that.

P.S. We miss your Tim Hortons if you know anyone who could send us some, we would love that!

From the bottom of our hearts - Thank You
PFC T. Joyce  - US ARMY