A recent diary posted a request from Lt. Col. Lori Noyes of the Civil Air Patrol for assistance for our wounded service members at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. Lt. Col. Noyes reported that wounded troops arrived there without clothing aside from medical gowns and were unable to get to the Rammstein base exchange to buy any. She had requested that folks send clothing and had an entire laundry list in her email.
I emailed Lt. Col. Noyes to find out what the situation was and whether any additional assistance is still required. I received her response today (below the fold).
Dear Douglas,
Thanks for your inquiry. We've received over 90 packages to date and over $2000 in donations, with more arriving daily. I collect boxes from the post office and give them to another member of our squadron, Lt Col Debi Gage, who logs in the package, and sends a post card notice to the sender. Our cadets inventory and sort the contents, which are then delivered to the chaplain's office at LRMC. Both we and the Chaplain's office have indeed been swamped and are inundated with goods. The best thing to send would be money that can be used to pay for haircuts for the wounded, phone cards, and such things as movie passes.
I receive over 20 e-mails daily with requests to assist. I even received e-mails from Taiwan and Fox News, and I was interviewed on the local NBC affiliate in Richland, WA, over the holidays!
We've been having problems with the post office at Ramstein AB being upset that so many packages are coming into my personal PO box. Please send any shipments or checks to our official unit address:
Ramstein Cadet Squadron NHQ-OS-119
Civil Air Patrol
Unit 3395
APO AE 09094
Thanks again for your support.
Lori Noyes
If anyone still has any money to give, after giving to the USO, tsunami relief and Christmas, I hope you'll join me in sending a check to the Ramstein Cadet Squadron. And if you do, slip in a note mentioning the Daily Kos community.