Red, White and Blue Fridays #4 - Bringing our troops a little bit of home.

Welcome to the 4th Edition of Red, White and Blue Fridays.

Basically, our mission is to recognize and acknowledge members of the U.S. armed forces and their families and, hopefully, bring awareness to the ways in which bloggers can show their support.

How?

To me, "support our troops" is more than just a sound bite on a t-shirt of bumper sticker (my minivan sports a magnet, actually) it means that I understand the sacrifice, dedication and difficult decisions members of our military make, every day, and honoring that commitment, by making one of my own.

What?

I've pledged to celebrate Red, White and Blue Fridays and showing my support by spreading the word on ways we (bloggers, like you and me) can say, "Thank you!"

Today, I'd like to tell you about a couple of simple ways we can bring our troops a little bit of home.

To begin with, I am proud to announce our newest feature here on Red, White and Blue Fridays - RWBF is on Flickr! Now, we're putting a face to our campaign. Show your support and let our soldiers know that they are NOT forgotten.

Consider this my personal invitation to become a member and join us for RWBF on Flickr!

During my brother's deployment, he told me that one of the things that he and his buddies looked forward to - besides, coming home - was mail call. Apparently, receiving pictures, letters, care packages, cards or ANY word from home is STILL a very precious commodity.

What should you send?

When Thing Two's girl scout troop organized a collection of items to send their newly-adopted group of soldiers, I was surprised to learn that batteries, disposable cameras, hand-made items and Skin-So-Soft were on top of the list.

Operation Military Pride has a pretty comprehensive list of suggested care package items, ranging from the "practical" (baby wipes, chap stick, sunblock and feminine hygiene products) to stuff to send "just for fun" (phone cards, puzzles and cd's) and what NOT to send (spray cans explode and chocolate melts!) along with mailing instructions.

If you do plan to send a care package to a U.S. military service member serving abroad, send it after March 3 to take advantage of a new flat-rate box from the U.S. Postal Service that is 50 percent larger and delivered for $10.95 to an APO/FPO address — $2 less than for domestic destinations:

“This is the first time the Postal Service has offered a special price for our armed forces serving overseas,” said Postmaster General John Potter. “We’re proud that family and friends will be able to use this new larger-sized box to send much appreciated packages from home to our dedicated troops overseas.”

[Source: USPS Postal News]

It may NOT sound much to some folks (personally, I don't know of anyone who would say so) but, it's nice to know that even the smallest effort can truly make someone's day!

Is there anyone you'd like to pay tribute to?

Not a problem. Enter their name into Mr. Linky (like I did in the example above) or feel free to link to a blog post of your own, with one simple line:

"Thank you!"

Don't forget to leave a comment (so, I can thank YOU!) and be sure to grab a badge:

The Code:

It will link back to Red, White and Blue Fridays, enabling other bloggers to join in paying tribute to our soldiers and their families.

Regardless of the fact that you are a democrat, republican, liberal, independent, conservative, left wing, right wing, or a giant purple people-eater - WHATEVER - wouldn't it be nice if we could ALL just...you know...come together and NOT be afraid to flaunt our red, white and blue....yeah...I mean, that's what the blogosphere is for...YES?

Thank you for taking the time to stop by - support our troops, bring them home, treat them right - HOOAH!

[Please, clean off a chair and stay a while - subscribe to email updates or the RSS feed or - if you really, really like me - then Digg This, I'll love you forever!]

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Tags: red white and blue fridays, rwbf