Charles Plemons' Blog

Received the following email:

Dear Charles,

Hi, I’m a PFC in the U.S. Army. I’ve been in for about a year now. I love serving and defending our freedom. Let me tell you a little bit about myself. I’m —– years old born in Seoul, Korea. My father was prior service and made the rank of 1SG. I’ve lived all over the world in places like Tennesse, New York, Indiana, Germany, Austria, and know I am stationed in —– with the —–. I love jumping out of airplanes and getting paid for it. Besides that I sit in an office most of my time until I get to go out on missions. Well I haven’t went out just yet, but my first time will be this week.

This FOB is pretty small, but we do have electricity. We also have a laundry service that the afghans run with a two day turn around. We do have a microwave in our office and a refridgerator. We also have a PS3. We had the afghans build us a satelite so we could receive a couple of channels. They are some crafty people. We’re pretty much good on hygiene but food products are always appreciated. We have a café with a tv but a limited selection of dvds and games.

I see you’re a fan of muscle cars. I used to drive a 72 Cutlass with a 350 rocket until I went to Italy, then I sold it. I would have loved to have owned a 99 Z-28. UFC is huge out here. We sometimes get it on our satelite. I saw that Ace Franklin and Okami fight. I didn’t like it. Okami should have been more aggressive. I guess I was just rooting for him to win.

Thanks for your endless support, letters, and packages. Its like Christmas morning when the bird gets here, we sort the mail, and I see my name on a package or letter. God Bless you, and thanks again.

—–
U.S. Army

Received the following email:

Mr. Plemons-
My name is —–; I’m a Technical Sergeant (TSgt) deployed to the same base as —–. I read the letter you were kind enough to draft and send over here. I, for one, very much appreciate efforts by folks like yourself to make sure we know we’re appreciated and not forgotten. While it’s certainly not as comfortable as home, our living conditions here are certainly far from bad. The worst part, for me, anyway, is being away from my wife and son. My wife and I are both —– years old, with me being 17 days older than her; it’s something I kid her about from time to time. Our son is a little over —– years old, and a constant source of pride and frustration, as I am quite sure you can relate to.

While I have no experience with a family member with Down’s Syndrome, I can only guess the amount of love and hard work that’s involved. Since you signed your letter “In Christian love,” I feel comfortable sharing with you that my wife and I believe that God graces such special children to the parents He feels will care for them best. So know that I consider you and your wife to be special people, and your family will be in my prayers tonight.

I don’t share the same degree of interest in the UFC as you, though I have watched a few matches since being deployed here. It is an interesting sport, and one I’d be much more inclined to watch regularly than the so-called professional wrestling (WWE and that sort). I know the wrestlers/actors for the WWE are atheletes, in the sense that they need to be in very good shape to do what they do, but I don’t consider their form of entertainment to be a sport.

As to one of the questions you posed in your letter, yes there are a few gamers over here that I’m aware of, and I suspect more than that. I, too, started playing DnD at an early age (around 10 to 11), and have enjoyed it, as well as quite a few other different systems. One of the Security Forces folks is actually running a campaign here, which I would love to get involved in. Unfortunately, his shift and mine are different enough to make that impractical.

Well, it’s 2:40 a.m. here, which is 6:40 p.m. on the East coast. It’s time I got to bed, since I have to be on the bus to head in to work by 11:45 a.m. If you have any questions, feel free to shoot them my way, and I’ll answer them as best I can. Thank you again for taking the time to express your support and letting some of us get to know you.

Take care and God bless!
—–
Air Force

Received the following email:

Dear Mr. Plemons,

I’d like to personally thank you for your package that you sent to us. The office supplies will be used swiftly by my medics. Also appreciate the toiletries and bowls. The Soldiers and I do not get to the dining facility very often, because it is about a 20 minute walk in the heat and we usually do not get off duty from work until about 1800 hours. Most will work out for at least an hour after that and then call their wives and children. So, having food around in our barracks is very helpful…and the bowls you provided will be used.

My unit and I are assigned in Baghdad with a very challenging and unique mission, which I cannot discuss, but know that we really appreciate all of the support from our brothers and sisters back in the U.S. We know that the press cannot override the reality of what we are doing. God is with us and will protect us from harm as we complete the mission he has assigned each of us, whether here or back home. Again, we’d like to thank you for your generosity and kindness shown to us.

Respectfully,

—–
U.S. Army

Received the following email:

Thanks for the letter, I received it from —–. There are two AF companies and he is in the other one, but we work together a lot. I really respect the people who take a little time out of their day to remind us over here that even when people don’t agree with a war, they still support the soldiers, sailors, airman, and marines. Thanks to you and anyone else in this program.

My niece just learned to crawl too, I here she is going everywhere. I commend you on the purchase of another Honda, I’m a Honda guy myself. You just can’t beat the quality and reliabilty of a Honda. My wife and I have a 2003 Civic EX coupe. Its the nicest thing I’ve ever owned so I baby it so much my wife complains.

There are actually a lot of UFC fans over here. Im a fan but I usually only watch the pay per views. They show them for free here on AFN (Armed Forces Network). I don’t know fighters or anything, I just watch for a good fight. I imagine it will surpass boxing in popularity pretty soon.

I am actually an avid gamer, mainly adult board games (Puerto Rico, Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan, etc.), Magic the Gathering limited tournaments, and video games. I never got into D&D no matter how hard my uncle tried. He goes to GenCon every year too. I have read some of the material for Vampire: The Masquerade, its a pretty neat setting for a role-playing game, more my style than Forgotten Realms style role-playing.

Thanks for all the news updates, especially about the shark, my wife loves anything interesting about animals. You will learn to love Macs just as much as you love PCs. The hardest part is finding programs to replace the usual stuff on your PC.

A little about myself:
I am happily married, she is actually deployed in the same unit as me. It is a blessing and a curse 🙂 We had both of our birthdays and our anniversary over here so far. We both drive convoys for the Air Force, it is a dangerous job but one that is very noble. My good friend was KIA a couple weeks ago. It was a really hard thing for us, The Air Force isn’t too used to people dying in action since most stay on base “behind the wire”. On lighter notes we only have double digits left until we get out of here. We will return to Fayetteville, NC and continue our happy young lives. We are origianally from Indianapolis, so probably not too far from you. I used to go to Kentucky Kingdom all the time when I was a kid. I heard someone died on the Superman, cable snapped or something and it her.

Well, I’ve got to go
Thanks again for your thoughts and prayers

“Any Airman”

note: Sorry I can’t give you my name but the internet isn’t too secure.

Received the following email:

Hello Charles,

Thanks for the care package. It was put to used by me, my Soldiers, and Soldiers we support.

—–

My section and I are getting settling into our job of supporting convoys everyday. It is very Hot here. I love hot weather but this is a little overboard.

Tell your family and Black Falcon that the Soldiers out of Baghdad said hello and thanks for supporting troops.

God bless you,

—–
U.S. Army

Received the following email:

I want to take this opportunity to thank you for the box which we
received today. It was very warming and heartfelt. Soldiers here are in
good spirits and appreciate the fact that you and others like you
support us here. I will be sending a group photo of the unit as soon as
one becomes readily available. Everything that was enclosed in the box
was greatly appriciated and will be used up right away. Again, thank you
for all your support. Be safe and God speed.

—–
U.S. Army

Received the following letter:

I wanted to write and thank you for the package. You will most likely not believe this, but last night I was sitting on my bed with some microwave Mac-N-Cheese. If only I had a bowl to cook it in. The very next day your box arrives! I know—how about that for timing!

We are a crew of 10, our main job is to track injured service members until they return to the US or duty. The job is not too hard and is a lot safer than most people out here.

Like you, I also am married and have 1 son. He will be 10 in June. He misses me like crazy, but he is getting used to me being gone. He knows I am safe and will be home soon. Well I better get going. Dinner time again.

—–
U.S. Navy

Received the following email:

Hello and greetings from the Middle East. I wanted to send you a quick email before we go out on a patrol to say thank you for the care package and support. My boys and I liked everything that you sent, the Pringles were great. It is really nice to know that there are people that still support us and what we are doing out here. I cannot listen to or watch the news because the reporting is so lop-sided.

I noticed that you are an MMA fan. When I get home in a couple of months I am going to go train for two months my first fight. I am way out of shape to step into a ring right now and fight… I would be gassed in a couple of minutes. I spar with my friends out here and recently took down the “BigBoy” out here with a heel hook. He Is 6’2″ about 235 and I am 5’5″ and 165 lbs. I have studied jiu-jitsu for about 3 years and I am okay at it, but I am a sneaky little scrapper. Snap, Tap, or Nap.

I think it is great that you are a father too. I miss my kids (1 Girl, 1 Boy) I know how you feel, my daughter has Hi-Functioning Autism and I love her to death. She just has quirky moments at times and people don’t understand. So I understand fully when it comes to hitting those milestones and appreciating them.

Have got to run and prepare my gear, and make sure the young-uns do as well.

Thank You and God Bless you and your family,

—–
Marine Corps

The following email arrived recently:

I would like to thank you on behalf of —– for your support. We received your package today and it is greatly appreciated. You won me with the macaroni and cheese as my call sign is “Cheese” and for good reason. Without the support that is given by individuals such as yourselves we wouldn’t be able to keep up the high level of morale that is required to get through day to day life. We are stationed is some of the harshest climate mother nature can throw at you and it takes everything you’ve got to get through day to day routines. The little things are what matter out here especially those that come from home. Keep up the good work and we will be thinking about you and your families as we continue the fight on Terrorism.

Thank You,

—–
Marine Corps