Team,
I hope this note finds you well. Thanks to all of you, we’ve gotten off to a great start in 2021! As a result, we’ve got a lot of great things to report.
Thanks to everyone who helped us last week with a donation or signed up to either sponsor or shoot at our upcoming “America Shoots For Her Troops” Fundraiser in March. For those of you who received our event e-mail, the event is on March 20th and not in 2 weeks. As has been pointed out to me repeatedly, I should always check everything before hitting the send button. The truth is, I shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near a computer before my second cup of coffee………
We shipped out our last pairs of socks this week to units in Afghanistan and Iraq and are now waiting for our next shipment. We are hoping that they will show up next week once they clear customs.
The big news this week has been that the Department of Defense is putting a pause on further Troop withdrawals pending “review.” For those of you who haven’t been following it as close as we have, the agreement had four key components: 1) The Taliban would have to reduce the level of violence, 2) Engage in negotiations with the Afghan Government to determine a path forward and 3) guarantee that Afghanistan would not become a refuge for Terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda and ISIS, and 4) the reduction of foreign troops.
Following the signing of the agreement, while the US has honored its portions of the agreement, the Taliban has not. They have in fact ramped up their attacks on Afghan National Forces and have strengthened their ties with Al Qaeda. Their thought process is that there would be no way that the US would remain, that our Nation was too “war-weary”, and we would simply go home.
The current troop levels in Afghanistan and Iraq are at 2,500 per country. However, what is not being counted are the number of contractors being employed by the government in combat facing situations. In Afghanistan that number is 16,000. So, there is still a major presence.
The forces that remain behind, and the ones that we support perform critical missions. They are the Airforce units that perform airstrikes in support of the anti-terror missions, the Army Field Artillery units that using the monster CWIS Gatling guns provide protection from missiles and mortar shells, the Special Operations units that go out and hunt bad guys and the Medical units.
These groups are working around the clock and have really demonstrated their appreciation for our help. We recently started supporting a group of Air Force units who are supporting combat operations in theater. We never really thought about it until we got a note from one of their 1st Sergeants telling us about the conditions that their teams were operating in. Our nephew was a Marine Osprey pilot, and once they started describing them, we knew we had been making a mistake. We’ve tried to make up for it.
Most of the socks that go out to these units go out to the unsung men and women who maintain the aircraft and fabricate and mount the weapons. They work long hours due to the intensity of the tempo of missions. They’ve sent us a bunch of photos and we’re grateful for our ability to help.
Thanks for making this possible.
We’re waiting for socks, but when they get here, they’ll be going right back out again. We can use your help.
Please take a moment to make a donation at http://socks4heroes.com or if you live in the greater Southern California Area, please go to http://socks4heroes.com/events and take a sponsorship or register to shoot in our upcoming “America Shoots For Her Troops” fundraiser.
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.