Team,
I hope that this note finds you well. We’ve had a great week in that we received our new shipment, heard from the units that received our last shipment and got some high praise on our new sock models so we’ve got a lot of great things to report!
Before I start, I’d like to thank everyone who came forward last week and made a donation, took a sponsorship or signed up to shoot. We’re grateful for your help as you’ve enabled us to keep helping the men and women forward while many of our peers have gone under.
Thanks for helping us to keep moving forward.
So last week we mailed, and this week we began to hear from the teams at the other end of the pipe.
It started with a note from a Chaplain with one of the units who writes:
“I wanted to let you know that we have received your two boxes of socks and I have been handing them out to my Marines. They wanted to say thank you for your thoughtfulness. We appreciate you taking time to send this out to us, and we are putting them to good use. God bless you!”
Next, we got a note from the Sergeant Major of a Marine unit:
“I want to say thank you for what you do for our service members, we do appreciate it. The socks came in today, So I will get them distributed to the Marines. Socks are wonderful to have and there never to many in our line of work. You Sir, are a true American and from the bottom of our Heart, we appreciate it.”
A little while later we got a note from his Commander:
“I’ll pile on here – Who doesn’t love new sock day? We are not co-located with the ramp and we put on some miles in sweaty socks. Even if a guy or gal comes out here flush with socks…they are going to be consumed. Putting on a fresh pair after a maintenance job or a ground turn is the difference between thinking about your feet all day or moving on to the next task. I’m bald. I don’t get the joy out of a haircut every week or two. But new socks and toothbrushes…same great feeling. No lie.”
A little while later he sends us a photo which I have attached.
But that’s not all…….
We got a note from another unit asking if we could provide them support. As always, we answer in the affirmative. I then asked him how he heard about us. Here is his response:
“I ran into someone that’s deployed here and we were discussing how fast I was burning through my socks, and he brought up your service. He said his unit received socks from you on his last deployment. “
I’m glad to hear that people like us enough to tell their friends!
One of the things we always worry about is how our socks are viewed by the men and women who receive them. It always concerns us that they are just being nice and don’t want to hurt our feelings when we are trying to help. This has been especially concerning as we’ve been adding suppliers. While we think that the socks, we’re providing are a vast improvement, we’re not the ones wearing them under extreme conditions.
As many of you know, we have been helping Marines obtain beer for their events. One of our friends in 29 Palms asked for some help, and for the first time ever, I put a condition on it. I gave some socks from two our newest partners and asked him to give them to some Marines who were going to be operating under difficult conditions and ask them to give me some feedback. It made me a little nervous, but he said not to worry, they’d give them some other socks in the event ours didn’t live up to our expectations.
We got our feedback yesterday. Following a 7-day training exercise under extreme conditions, both of the Marines raved about our latest sock versions. They told us that they fit well and kept their feet dry and warm. When asked which one they liked better, they told us they couldn’t tell the difference.
To put icing on the cake, I spoke with another friend of mine in the “Stumps” who I refer to as the “Sock Hater”, in that, while he has thought that we’ve provided a good sock for the Marines, he wouldn’t wear them because they didn’t go over his calf. I spoke with him yesterday and he told me that he wore them on a 9-mile hike and that they worked fine. He also added that he now wears them every day.
It made for a great end to a great week, but tomorrow a new week starts again.
We hope that you will help us to continue caring for the men and women forward by making a donation by clicking here, taking a sponsorship or signing up to shoot in at our next “America Shoots for Her Troops” event next Saturday the 14th, by clicking here, and helping us to get the word out by forwarding this e-mail to anyone who support the men and women who serve our Country.
Thanks for joining us in our position in this fight!
Jim Hogan
In memory of our son, LCPL Donald Hogan
Posthumously awarded the Navy Cross
KIA 8/26/2009 Nawa, Afghanistan
We honor his memory by caring for Americans wherever they serve in harm’s way.