Airman receives support -- lots of it -- through letters

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Carlos Diaz
  • 386th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) --  Servicemembers with the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing at a forward-deployed location here are not strangers to receiving letters, mementos and care packages from families, friends and loved ones.

However, one sergeant assigned to the 386th Expeditionary Medical Group receives enough mail to keep a fully staffed post office gainfully employed.

Tech. Sgt. Michelle Smith’s bioenvironmental engineering office has been inundated with more than 400 letters.

“In June, we received a large box containing more than 200 support letters and care packages from various campaigns and supporters,” said Sergeant Smith, the noncommissioned officer in charge of the bioenvironmental engineering office.

Sergeant Smith said the abundance of support mail began when she signed up a few of her co-workers to receive care packages from the Operation Gratitude Campaign, a nonprofit all-volunteer corporation funded by private donations.

However, more mail began pouring in.

“An unknown person must have signed our unit up on (a) Web site,” Sergeant Smith said.

She believes that one of the 32 supporters who has adopted her since her arrival here might also have signed up the unit.

On another support Web site, she said, a person adopts a servicemember and communicates with that individual while he or she is deployed.

“Well, I didn’t just have one person adopt me,” she said. “Instead, I had more than 32 families adopt and write me letters.”

Sergeant Smith has personally written all 32 families a response letter. She also communicates with at least five of them by e-mail daily. The 386th EMDG staff also began writing response letters, Sergeant Smith said.

“I’ve never met these individuals before this deployment, but I’ve come to know them and their families quite well because of the various programs,” Sergeant Smith said.

Her mailbox has included a bounty of snacks, toiletries, music CDs, DVDs, magazines, flags, children’s drawings and letters, sunglasses, sunscreen, books, stickers, photos of the supporters and many other items.

“I receive on average about 15 letters and three to seven care packages per week,” she said.

Sergeant Smith said her previous deployment in 1998 was not showered with this much support.

“I think after Sept. 11 the general public has made a concentrated effort to support the troops by writing letters of appreciation and sending care packages,” she said.

Sergeant Smith said she is appreciative of the support the American public has given the troops.

“It’s very uplifting,” she said. “I think it’s great that there are so many people out there (who) want to express their gratitude and actually take the time to do it.

“It takes determination to go out shopping and put care packages together,” she said. “I respect their efforts, and I certainly feel it warrants at least a letter in return.”

Sergeant Smith especially enjoys and is most impressed by the thoughtful expressions of appreciation from children. The hand-drawn cards and the other items children have sent Sergeant Smith and her co-workers have decorated their faces with smiles.

Sergeant Smith has already taken the proactive measures of having her replacement adopted by two families.

“I believe it’s our duty to sign them up for some of this support,” she said. “He’ll probably have care packages waiting for him when he arrives -- just like I did.”