Kyle-Anne Shiver, one of the leading writers at American Thinker, has a profile of Carolyn Blashek and Operation Gratitude (prior JCI coverage of Operation Gratitude is here, here, and here). Here is one part of the amazing story:
Carolyn Blashek, founder of Operation Gratitude, has become for all intents and purposes,
In late December last year, when Operation Gratitude’s holiday drive was in full gear . . . the soldier picked by the computer to receive the 300,000th package was a member of the brigade under the charge of Major General Hertling, commanding general of Multi-National Division North in Iraq. Carolyn Blashek and Major General Hertling go all the way back to OpGrat’s founding in 2003.
In the beginning, when Carolyn was merely bold, she had no mighty forces. But she had enough boldness to be mighty in her own right, and she got a hold of the General’s name through channels, and sent him an email asking for the individual names and addresses of all the soldiers under his command, so that she could send them each a care package from home.
The general now says he thought she was a bit out of it at the time, and wrote back simply: "Ma’am, I don’t think you know who I am or how many soldiers I have under my command. I currently have a force of 39,000 soldiers," thinking that would be the end of it.
But our Troop Mom wrote back to the general, quite boldly indeed:
"General, I don’t think you know who I am.
Just send me the names and addresses and I will make sure every one of them receives a care package from us at home."
Last month, Carolyn Blashek traveled to
Packages to date: 319,852, and counting.
Watch here.