Thursday, March 6, 2014

The Less-Than-One-Percenters

The Less-Than-One-Percenters –

That's what the military sometimes calls itself. It's hard to believe that our U.S. Military is composed of less than 1% of the population, but it's true. A few are doing so much to keep the rest of us safe.

My son (a Chaplain's Assistant in the Army) recently informed me that he and his Chaplain were setting up what they called Operation Free X for soldiers stopping off at the rather "austere" air base in Romania. He asked for athletic sox, candy, toilet articles, etc. Yes, there is a P X, but they also saw the need of a Free X.

Well, people have given so generously and my son called to tell me what a blessing it has been to the soldiers.

It's pretty plain – the chapel is a large, barely-heated metal building and when soldiers come in they see a long table spread with clean, dry, new sox, t-shirts and boxers, toilet articles, a few books, and lots of candy. Oh, yes, they do like the candy!

My son said, "picture a soldier coming in wearing desert fatigues, usually carrying an M4 carbine with a grenade launcher strapped to it. That's heavy, bulky, expensive equipment and the soldier is responsible for it. He or she never lays it down. It goes everywhere the soldier goes.

Now let's eaves-drop on a few of them.

"Free candy? – Thanks, man"

"I'm on my way home from my fifth deployment. We're fogged in here for three more days and all I've got with me is an overnight bag. This stuff is a big help."

"Do you have any books? There's not much to do around here. Thanks."

"Dry sox? Oh, wow! I can sure use some of those."

"I'm on my way to Afghanistan. I've been in three countries in the last three days and my debit card won't work any more. They don't think I am who I say I am. This stuff is really free? Wow – Thank you, thank you."

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