Combat Team Delta

Rusti Kozicki and family says "Hi!"

Rusti's been sending packages for a while and is always thrilled when a reply arrives.

Thanks from Rusti!

from Rusti's Comment on this thread.

Rusti, if you get a thrill out a note saying thankyou (some have had phonecalls, others emails), imagine what a thrill it is to receive a package of goodies from home?

ANZAC Day, 25th April, 2010.

It's 95 years since Gallipoli.

PRAYER FOR DEPLOYED MILITARY PERSONNEL

The Psalmist says: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

Gracious Lord,

You have reconciled to yourself all those who trust in your Son for the forgiveness of their sins. We pray this day for our deployed military personnel serving around this world.

Watch over our men and women, especially in places like Afghanistan where conflict and strife seem at their worst. Give them courage in adversity, safety in service and protection from harm.

We pray for those who may be sick and injured. Strengthen all who will care for them. Provide ample resources and energy to doctors, nurses and chaplains coping with prolonged work hours and deeply distressing circumstances.

We pray again for the families and loved ones of those deployed. Protect them during their periods of separation and reunite them in joy.

And, heavenly Father, we especially pray this morning for those who are now grieving the loss of loved ones killed on active service. Help them to cast their anxieties upon you, the God of all comfort. Enable others to minister to their needs with sensitivity and respect. And may they know the prayers and support of their fellow Australians.

We ask all these things in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Amen.

A message from the pointy end

Some feedback for parcel posters -

If you would like a reply from the person who received your parcel please enclose a self-addressed envelope. Spare envelopes would be good, too.

That way it is easy for the member to write a thank you and a hello, pop it into the envelope and post it to you.

Don't worry about a stamp.

Security

We are anonymous on this blog, the reason is that we don't want to risk anyone's security or the security of personnel serving overseas, or their loved ones here at home.

OSK is delighted to receive feedback from recipients of care packages, and you can give us feedback in the comments section, it emails us to let us know that you've made a comment. We can also be contacted privately if you click on our blogs, I have a clickable email address on my blogger bio. We don't publish this information because it is easy for bots* to automatically search the internet for email addresses and send spam. I hate spam. Spam in a can, spam on my computer - yuk to both!

About the feedback, if you do receive feedback and want to share it on the blog that's fine to put it in the comments, however, please don't use any identifying names, numbers or suchlike, and if you reproduce a thankyou or link to one, please remove the identifying information. Not everyone is as security aware as we'd like!

So, please keep in mind that we must be careful about using names and other identifying features on the blog.

*bots - people write programs to search for @ and other indicators of email addresses and can get massive lists harvested from the net using these programs or "bots".

E is for Easter.

I know it all seems a bit early to be thinking about Easter, but if we look at the time frame to get things to our Diggers, then now's a good time.

So is there anything particular we can send?

I know that chocolate is frowned upon due to it's inability to withstand high temperatures, but I did once send a small chunk of gianduja chocolate to a mate in Iraq. I put it in the freezer for a while, then wrapped it in a layer of newspaper for insulation before posting it.

It did survive the trip, and was greatly appreciated.

One thing about that, though, is that this wasn't a thin piece of chocolate a la most easter eggs, so I'm thinking that bags of small solid choc eggs would be the way to go on that front.

Also, there are things other than chocolate out there that could be considered.



I'm getting up a collection of these eggs. They're only around $2.50 ea, so adding one to the shopping bag each week isn't breaking my bank.

If you have any other suggestions of things to add that would be specific to Easter, please feel free to tell us.

OSK Mission Accomplished! Keep up the good work!

Anonymous in the comments on the post for November 30th sent us a link to this information at the DOD site....

12 January 2010
Care packages for ‘an Australian soldier’
Australian soldiers serving in Afghanistan have been inundated with care packages from thoughtful people back home.
Hundreds of packages were addressed to ‘an Australian soldier’ and included lollies, toiletries and cards.
The smiles on the faces of the soldiers based at Camp Holland, clearly proved the care packages boosted morale.

I really can't express how pleased I am to see that the efforts of people sending care packages to Aussie defence personnel deployed overseas have been reported by the DOD. This shows that the parcels addressed to "An Australian Soldier" are getting through.

It is nice to think that our little blog has had an effect on the morale of our Defence members serving overseas, and that there are people out there who have visited our blog and decided to support our soldiers/sailors/airmen/K9s.

Thank you is such a small thing to say, but please know that your support for our troops is truly appreciated, respected and goes a long way to show that people at home care about our Defence personnel.

Here is the link to the item, there are more photographs. Note the number of packages packed in the large transport boxes.

http://www.defence.gov.au/opEx/global/opslipper/images/gallery/2010/0112a/index.htm

Keep up the good work!

Is the DOD stopping parcels?

Nilk, Boy and I have been sending out feelers to our contacts in the services or close to the military and trying to find out if there was any truth in the information we saw on another blog that the Department of Defence was telling people that the parcels could not be sent.

We need to get to the bottom of who is telling people not to send parcels because we KNOW that recipients appreciate them very much.

Late last Saturday night in the "What to send/What not to send" post we received the following comment:

Kae,

A copy of an email sent from the ADF Public Affairs and the reply form the President of the 4 RAR Association - have excluded email addresses and phone numbers but if you would like them for verification let me know.

With regard to the e-mails circulating, asking people to send care packages to Afghanistan I can provide you with the following information:
******************************************************************************
• Thank you for your consideration and support for ADF members serving overseas over the Christmas period, but for a number of logistic management and security reasons, we would prefer that you do not encourage your readers to send “care packages” to deployment service men and women.
• Mail that is sent via Defence postal arrangements is restricted to official military and personal mail only, and must not be used for any other material.
• Defence postal services utilise the same air transport resources used for the movement of vital stores and equipment in support of ADF operations. The movement of large volumes of mail have the potential to affect the transportation of important stores and equipment needed for the safety, security and continued operational success of our people.
• Humanitarian Aid, which attracts normal international rates of postage, is not authorised to be sent through the Defence Postal Service. There is no entitlement, or requirement for Humanitarian Aid to be sent to Australian Service personnel

kind regards,
Ben
Ben Wickham
Public Affairs Officer
Public Affairs Operations Centre
Department of Defence

The reply:

Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 3:28 PM
Subject: Care packages

Dear Mr Wickham,
Reference: Your email shown below my reply. (In this case email number 2)

With the greatest respect, your preferences or the preferences of the Department of Defence, Public Affairs Operations Office really do not matter in this instance. What matters is the welfare and morale of our Aussie Diggers serving overseas in conditions that you or I can only imagine. Have you ever served overseas during Christmas, New Year, Australia day, April Fools Day, your own birthday, your family birthdays and anniversaries and not being able to share them with your families. Have you ever seen the looks on the faces of the Diggers when they receive a parcel from home? Have you ever experienced the joy of opening a parcel from someone not known to you but who has taken the time and effort to show that they care about you and respect you for the terrific task that you are doing on behalf of the Australian people and the Australian Government?

I can only assume from the cold heartedness of your reply that you have not!

Defence postal arrangements are not merely for official mail but have the nominated job and the responsibilty of ensuring that all mail addressed to all soldiers either by name or not, is delivered.

The first essence of mail is to receive news from home so that what you are doing on operations makes sense. The second essence of mail is to ensure that the famllies of soldiers are doing OK under extreme circumstances. The third essence of mail is maintain the morale of soldiers by the receiving and sending of mail. The fourth essence of mail is to ensure that soldiers who do not normally receive mail, do.

Have you forgotten the lessons of Vietnam and the punch a postie campaign and the soldiers who perhaps did not perform as well as expected simply because they did not receive mail and they felt as if they did not belong. Have you considered the experience of the platoon sergeant and section 2ICs whose duty it is to hand out the mail and by their observance of who and who was not receiving mail, were able to identify those that might develop morale problems. Your argument is scary at the least.

The movement of large volumes of mail must be included in the planning, movement and delivery of logistic support. Mail must be considered as logistical stores vital to the war effort and should be the first priority in serving the soldier and just as important as beans and bullets. The normal priority resupply system in the field includes in one package, beans, bullets and mail. If it doesn't then the ADF is in big trouble. If it is considered that mail will adversly affect the stores, security and continued success of our people (I am sure that you meant to say"warriors" here) then consider this. Consider the warrior that does not get mail, that is forgotten at Christmas when all around him are opening up parcels from family and he has to read the letters received from the families of other soldiers to make him feel wanted and appreciated. He will not look after his stores, he will not attend to security and he will not care about success, why should he? He has been deserted by those who swore to look after him, his superiors!

Mail is not humanitarian aid, this is called respecting, thanking and appreciating the warrior, male or female, in whatever service or corps, in whatever rank and in whatever job, for his service to his country and to the people of Australia by ensuring that he is able to receive mail and to send mail and to ensure that he can, by receiving and sending mail ensure that he can gain a sense of normality about his life so far away from home.

My request on behalf of all our members and families is that you stand up, walk over to mirror, forgive yourself for this most inappropriate decision and email and then kick down the door of your immediate superior, any General will do, and demand a different reply; one that applies logic, compassion, respect and adulation for our warriors serving overseas and then ensure through your department that if necessay, more aircraft, ships or carrier pigeons are allocated to delivering of the mail and the intended care packages to our warriors with the utmost speed and consideration.

Yours sincerley but disappointedly,

Alan Price

(Alan Price)
President
4RAR Assoc, Qld
(Tas, NT, Intl)

There have been no orders promulgated regarding this cessation of care packages. We will keep you informed, and we ask if you hear anything like this you let us know and also let us know where you have heard this information so that we can follow it up and check whether it is true or not.

If the DOD has decided that the activities of Australian Citizens sending packages, showing their support of our military personnel who have been sent far from home to carry out their duties in foreign lands, should cease, we will find another way to get the parcels to our diggers. It is my very strong hope that it will not come to that.