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Welcome to Operation Military Support. We are a grass roots, non-profit, community based organization. It is our goal to be sure that every man and woman in the military service of our country is reminded that their sacrifice and work is appreciated "back home".

Operation Military Support supports all the men and women in our military overseas. We receive names of men and women who do not receive regular mail from home and connect them with volunteers who want to boost the spirits of military personnel. This will ensure that they can do their best with confidence that we in the United States are appreciative of them for keeping peace throughout the world. They are doing the job they are asked to do and we support them for serving.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated. It is important that every American Citizen support the men and women who would give their life to defend our country and all that we stand for.

Now into our sixth year of operation, we once again extend our sincere appreciation to all of our volunteers. To every single one of you who has adopted a soldier or provided a name for adoption, held a group collection drive, sent us care package items, checks, letters and cards from your group, and on-line donations by credit card: Everyone of our volunteers are an important part of Operation Military Support. Every volunteer who has joined in our efforts has made a tremendous difference in the lives of the military men and women serving the United States around the world. We will be here as long as needed, and we know that you will continue to be here along with us. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Operation Military Support thanks all our donors for the past 6 years.  It just amazes us on how we can be worried about not having items or money to ship things out every Monday and then bam some wonderful company or persons sends us a shipment of goodies to mail out on the following Monday. We count our blessings for all the Americans intrusting us to help them express their appreciation for the men and women serving Our Country.  We are all in this together and with your help we can continue until all our troops are home.

Thank you all so much!!!
The Board at Operation Military Support

 100% of all donated dollars go directly to benefit our military. Click logo below to donate on-line

Send your cash donations to help us pay for shipping packages to the troops! Send to:
Operation Military Support
P.O. Box 901
San Andreas, CA 95249

June 2008

The International Rotary Clubs of Calaveras County put together a fundraiser on June 13, 2008 for Operation Military Support. A very successful evening was a tribute to our Viet Nam veterans in Recognition of Flag Day. The guest speaker was Major Brian Shul, USAF  (Retired) he honored the Brian Shulwonderful invention of the United States airplane the SR 71 the blackbird, and its pilots. This presentation filled all the audience with pride of the United States to have built such a marvelous spy plane. The SR 71 spy plane was built in the 50s and has not been surpassed by any other aircraft. 

If Major Shul is in your area, please do not miss the opportunity to learn about this miracle of the sky. You do not have to be an aircraft buff to enjoy the history of the United States one of the greatest achievement of the 1950s to the present. Major Brian Shul retired in 1990 and was the first Blackbird pilot ever to write a book about flying that plane, illustrated with his own photography. Brians most recent book represents the definitive photo essay on the SR-71 and was hailed as Aviation Book of the Year by Smithsonian Magazine. 

Major Shul signed copies of his book for those who attended.


Pictured Major Brian Shul and June Downum, Operation Military Support Coordinator.

Everyone at Operation Military Support wishes everyone a great Holiday Season.

With that in mind we have set up a Web Mall where every store that you order from donates a percentage to Operation military Support. 

Please think of this when you do your shopping for the Holiday Season and throughout the year. Visit www.operationmilitarysupportmalll.com, we probably have the store listed that you usually order from; put us in your favorites for each Internet shopping experience.

www.operationmilitarysupportmall.com is adding new stores every day so please visit often to donate to our organization and do your Internet shopping.

It works this way.  You go to www.operationmilitarysupportmall.com where you will find over 600 web Stores, including the likes of Kohls, BassPro, Fashion Bug, Best Buy plus many more nationally recognized retailers. You click on the store of your choice and if you make a purchase from that store, approximately 7% of your purchase price will go to us.

All purchase transaction tracking for commissions is done through web technology.  All transactions made on this site are handled directly by the merchants, not www.operationmilitarysupportmall.com.  Each merchant is responsible for the delivery of the goods and services purchased or ordered through their web store. No personal information of the shopper is shared by any of the merchants with us.

Please consider visiting www.operationmilitarysupportmall.com when making your holiday purchases.  Isnt it great to be able to financially support a good cause by simply shopping on the web!  Your support, as always, will be greatly appreciated.

Please pass this e-mail to everyone you know, friends, relatives; everyone can use this mall to support our programs.

Welcome OperationMilitarySupportMall.com  our new On-line shopping outlet
An Online Mall where your purchases from the over 600 Web stores
support the troops and the OMS organization.
Now your shopping will count!

Military Bear Project

Our Military Bear project has been very successful during the past year, so we are bringing the project front and center once again. These adorable bears are dressed in military uniforms, one for each branch of the service, and each contains a recording device on which a soldier, sailor, airman or Marine can record a message for his children or other loved ones.

You can help bring happiness to military families by sponsoring a bear. Send us $20.00 per bear, specify a service branch if you desire, and write a personal note for each bear you sponsor. If you include your return address you might receive a response from the recipient. We will pack up the bear and your note and ship it out. The recipient can record a message to whoever he chooses and mail the "talking bear" back home, to be received in time for the holidays.

Mail your checks and notes to us at P.O. Box 901, San Andreas, CA 95249.

June,

I hope you are doing well, I am hanging in there. I wanted to send you the pictures of Baylee getting her AF Teddy Bear yesterday. She loves it as you can tell. I can't thank you enough for all that you do!

Thank you so much again!
Ginger ___________


 This is the reward for all who participate in the Teddy Bear program. 
We love to see the pictures of the children of the soldiers who receive a teddy bear from their hero. Thank you to all who have donated to this program.
 

Special Request for Items

FIRST RESPONDER GEAR

We received an email the other day from a soldier in Iraq requesting First Responder tee-shirts from all different departments. The military men and women love to receive Police, Fire and EMT tee-shirts. If anyone out there would like to donate tee-shirts from your first-responder units, please send them to us and we will forward them to our men and women in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait.

 Please send them to:
Operation Military Support
P.O. Box 901
San Andreas, CA  95249-0901

Hello,
Just wanted to say from reading your site that it seems that you are doing wonderful things and we all do appreciate it I have a few people here that do not receive regular mail and we have about five to six months left here, was wondering if we could get their names in there, as to I am one of them my name will be on the list as well.  Not sure what information you guys need but one thing I want to do is kinda follow a request along the same lines as the first responder shirts request, As to the fact I am a certified firefighter it would be outstanding to receive first responder and fire dept gear from anyone at any time.  If you guys need anything to get those names on the list please let me know and i will make sure to accomplish the task.

Thank you again

SGT ----------- Brandon R.
478th PSD

Could not believe how many people just came up and grabbed one of these bumper stickers. Two long-known slogans will motivate people walking by a table, I guess. 

 
Operation Military Support just had the privilege to join many other Military support organizations at the America Supports You third annual Summit at the Pentagon.  The Summit included a variety of break out sessions to assist all organizations in finding a way to help them with each challenge.

Operation Military Support is proud that we were one of five that started with the Pentagons program, America Supports You, many visits to the Pentagon and question were asked on how the Pentagon could assist us with our non-profit organizations that support our military.  The first visit to the Pentagon for Operation Military Support was in 2003 where a flag flown of the site of impact was presented to us.  We are very proud to be able to display this memento.

The agenda for the summit was very tight; starting at 6:00 AM with breakfast in the Hotel then bussed to the Pentagon for our first session with a welcome by Ms. Julia Burgess, Community Group Liaison, and Ms. Allison Barber, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, (please click for Bio) We had a War briefing from Lieutenant General Carter F. Ham, Director for Operations, J-3, Joint Staff,  (please click for Bio) Each year we are informed of the activities in Iraq and Afghanistan. Lt. General Ham included a summary of our militarys activities and purpose throughout the world.   Lt.Gen Ham answered questions that were on the minds of participants.  

Operation Military Support introduced a new program Canine Support Teams, Inc www.caninesupportteams.org to the military organizations that handle the support of our injured and handicapped veterans.  This is a wonderful program that will provide service dogs to assist in the veterans every day life.  Being able to introduce this new program was the highlight of our visit this year.

We started our break out sessions with important information and guest speakers:

We had study sessions on subjects that pertained to our organizations health so we can continue to bring the country together behind our military.   Then the big ending was a visit from Secretary of Defense, Robert M. Gates.  (Click for Bio)  We were thanked for our persistences in support throughout the past five years. And encouraged to continue with the Support and morale boosting of our United States Military. 

www.whitehouse.gov/government/abarber-bio.html     Allison Barbers bio

www.whitehouse.gov/government/gates-bio.html  Secretary Gates Bio

www.jcs.mil/bios/bio_ham.html 
Lieutenant General Carter F. Ham

Letters from our Troops and Friends
Click here to read the Current News from Iraq

Dear Donors:  We receive these letters on your behalf,  they are not to Operation Military Support,  they are to you, we just have the honor of receiving them.  Together we accomplish so much,  Thank you from OMS and the men and women who benefit from your generosity. OMS Board of Directors    

September - October 2008

Dear June and OMS Volunteers,
Thank you for the bottom of my heart for helping to support my soldiers and me.  I must apologize as I have not had as such time to hand write letters and I prefer when corresponding.  I truly appreciate your letters, care packages, post cards, and snippets from normal life back home.  I do miss that very much as we slowly, methodically continue through our 14 months on ground.  On 11 Aug. we officially enter our sixth month here in Iraq.  So even though it seemed like forever at the beginning we have  successfully made it through one-third of our deployment.  My soldiers continue to make our mission a true success as we are managing each mission, outside the wire, and the day to day none to the grind.  I could not be prouder of the “Big Dawgs” here on ground.

As I mentioned before, being a commander on ground here is really an amazing position to hold while all the movement, smoke, distractions, and other numerous events are happening, it all stops with you and unlike the enemy we have to be 100% all the time, even though the bad guy does get a vote at the end of the day.  One mission that has really made much progress is our interaction with the lo9cal communities, Iraqi Police, Sons of Iraq, Tikrit City Orphanage, and 4th Iraqi Army, as we continue to assist them to take over our mission here by putting their face on our humanitarian missions.  I placed some pictures on the following page that gives you an idea of all of our daily interactions and a snapshot of life downrange.  I know I am derelict in my duty to write, but daily missions, duties, emergency leaves, and VIP visits tend to eat away the hours much faster than I can always manage, but I know that is really no excuse.  I sincerely appreciate you taking a moment out of your busy schedule on that side of the pond to let my soldiers and I know that we are not forgotten.

 

 

Just to list some of our accomplishments to date:

  • 28 new Modern Army Combatives certified Soldiers (if you watch Mixed Martial Arts competitions then you can imagine the system that we training on now.
  • 10 Soldiers receive different promotions from Private First Class to Sergeant First Class
  • 5000,000 miles to date on random Iraqi road delivering necessary supplies to the Soldiers with no accidents or incidents
  • Numerous missions to recovery vehicles or assist Soldiers outside the wire at a moment’s notice, sort of like AAA on call to fix or recover anything on the road.

I know there are many more that I could mention, but I just wanted to highlight the daily activities that the “Big Dawgs” continue to provide to Northern Iraq on a daily basis.  I could not be nor proud of each and every one of my Soldiers. I thank you for both supporting them and supporting me as we continue down our path and add more history to the company guidon.

Sincerest Appreciation for your support and acknowledgement of our sacrifice, 
 James J.__________________
CPT, LG Commanding

My name is Robb_______ and I am the Morale Representative for my unit. I would like to have our unit considered for your program. Our address is below...

COIN CFE
UNIT 6041
APO AE _______

We are mostly trying to improve our make-shift entertainment room with a collection of all genres of movies and books, as a place to relax. We have both genders in our unit, and just need that special time to relax. Of course your basic care package items will be highly appreciated as well.

Our unit is small but essential to the fight here in Iraq. We request what you can spare to the men and women serving this nation as well as our own. Thank you in advance, and bless you for your patronage. If this is feasible, please email me back with what I have to do for this...Since there is someone always here at the unit, there does not need to be a stop point for adopting one Soldier.

HOOAH!
Respectively, Robb S. ________SSG, USA (MI)
COIN CFE (Counterinsurgency Center For Excellence)

 My name is SSgt ___________I am a Plt Sgt with 3rd Bn 8th Marines out of Camp Lejeune, NC we are about to deploy to Afgan from Nov 2008 till June of 2009 I would like to see if anyone would be interested in sponsoring my Plt I have guys who don't have much family support on these deployments and its sad seeing there faces after each mail drop. If anyone would be interested we will gladly respond back via mail with updates on our status and pictures etc. If the mail or packages could be addressed to (SSgt _________and the Marines of 2nd plt) I will see that the Marines who need it the most will receive the mail, package. Thanks for your time and support our address is attached below.


Greeting from Camp Bucca Chapel, 

I am writing to thank you for your continuing generous support of the Service Members and civilian contractors stationed her on Camp Bucca.  The items generously donated by you and other like –minded individuals bring smiles to the recipients here.  The items sent on 9 Sept 08 arrived safely on 17 Sept 08 at the Chapel.

Even something as simple as a pack of gum or piece of their favorite candy can remind a person of what life is like Stateside and who they are over here serving.  The various food and hygiene items included in packages help supplement what the Service Members were able to bring with them and sometimes can’t buy at the Post Store due to the lengthy supply lines and requisition times.

Be assured that your package did reach the Chapel in good condition and will be used to benefit all who work in Camp Bucca.  Every box delivered to the Chapel is opened, sorted and made available to any who come to the Chapel asking for items from home.

Often times Unit Chaplains will take boxes of these items down to distribute amongst the Service Members during their shifts as a quick pick-me-up from home.

Thank you for your willingness to support the troops while they serve the people of the United States in any region of the globe to which they are called.

CH ________ is currently on leave and CH ______ has stepped in to lead the team during this time.  This letter is sent as a thank you from the entire Chaplain’s section at Camp Bucca.

In Deepest Appreciation, Daniel M.  ____________   CH (MAJ) USAR   304th MP BN CHAPLAIN  

To Operation Military Support,
I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for recently sending care packages to our Soldiers here in Iraq.  I appreciate the time that was taken and the money that was used to show your support to our unit.

One of the joys of my job is to see the appreciation that the Soldiers have when they receive these packages and hear them voice their appreciation time after time.

Once again, thank you for these gifts.  We appreciate your heartfelt support for our Soldiers.

Sincerely,

Keith J____________ CH (CPT) US ARMY TF Ram, Battalion Chaplain

 
TO WHO IT MAY CONCERN
REQUEST FOR ASSISTANCE
If available request you send me as many car packets as possible during the upcoming Holiday season or prior. The packets will be shared among many, in the Iraq theater area.Thanks for all you are doing in service to your country.


Dear Operation Military Support:
 We are writing you to express our personal appreciation for the packages and letters sent to the soldiers of the 142nd CSSB.  You make it easier to continue our tradition of excellence and look forward to a bright future.

Your care packages and letters to the soldiers of the 142nd CSSB are gratefully appreciated.  It means a great deal after knowing that we still have a long way to go, before our tour has ended.  The soldiers feel like they are not forgotten, and will help them in their success as they accomplish their missions.

We are grateful for you generosity, your trust, and most importantly, your commitment to our mission.  On behalf of the Unit Ministry Team and all the soldiers of the 142nd CSSB, we thank you for your generous support.

May you have best wishes and a blessed year.

Sincerely yours,  Chaplain (CPT) Steven ______, SPC Thierry __________, and SPC Thomas________


Hello Everyone!
I just wanted to say thank you for the packages.  I have been able to share them with my co-workers because of the variety.  All items were useful.   I will not be able to receive any more packages as of 01 Oct. 08 because I am going home soon.  Yeah! Well hope to see you all soon land I did take lots of Pictures.  THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT.

Very Respectfully, HM2 Amanda______________ 

 Dear OMS,
Thank you so much for your continued support for my soldiers and me.  As we enter the incredibly hot month here in Iraq.  I find it odd that I actually do not mind the sand storms as they keep the temps down to something bearable.  My company continues to do an incredible mission day to day with little to no whining.  I am glad to be able to keep the men and women motivated and I thank you for also helping to improve morale.

Your soldier
Jim G________(this soldier also sends the companies news letters)

 

February 26 2007

The VFW Chapter 2600 in San Andreas, California donated $500.00 to Operation Military Support and challenges all VFWs in the United States to follow their example.

VFW Post 2600 goes far beyond just prayers, letters and thoughts for our military men and women. VFW Chapter 2600 Commander Russ Friday and Past Commander Dave Zahniser make regular bus trips bringing gifts to our wounded soldiers in the Palo Alto Military Hospital in California.  Jackson Ranchero in Jackson, California donates the bus and drivers for these trips.

Operation Military Support donated Personal DVD players, CDs players, CDs, military print fleece blankets, books, MP3 Players and other items for their last trip.  Operation Military Support will continue to assist in any way they can for all of our Military.
 

San Andreas, California VFW  Chapter 2600 donates $500.00
to Operation Military Support, pictured is
Dave Zahniser, past Commander and
June Downum, coordinator of Operation Military Support.

 
 

Click here to read the more letters from Iraq

If you do not wear a military uniform you should support those who do!!


Click to visit Dentistry United for WWII Vets
 

Photo Album

 100% of all donated dollars go directly to benefit our military. Click logo below to donate on-line
Send your cash donations to help us pay for shipping packages to the troops! Send to:
Operation Military Support
P.O. Box 901
San Andreas, CA 95249
Operation Military Support
P.O. Box 901
San Andreas, CA 95249

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