U.S. Refuses ‘Any Wounded Soldier’ Mail
December 11th, 2007 . by TexasFredThis story breaks my heart, I can understand the DoD and USPS having concerns but what about the troops that are wounded?? We have no way of obtaining real names, so, what are the folks supposed to do that send cards like that??
I don’t give a damn what the Amy’s of the world say, you CAN support the troops and not support the war OR the CiC…
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) – Hundreds of thousands of holiday cards and letters thanking wounded American troops for their sacrifice and wishing them well never reach their destination. They are returned to sender or thrown away unopened.
Since the Sept. 11 attacks and the anthrax scare, the Pentagon and the Postal Service have refused to deliver mail addressed simply to “Any Wounded Soldier” for fear terrorists or opponents of the war might send toxic substances or demoralizing messages.
Mail must be addressed to a specific member of the armed forces – a rule that pains some well-meaning Americans this Christmas season.
“Are we going to forget our soldiers because we are running in fear?” Fena D’Ottavio asked. The suburban Chicago woman was using her blog to encourage friends to send mail to unspecified soldiers until she learned of the ban, which she called a sad commentary on society.
Last season, despite the rule, officials say as many as 450,000 pieces of mail not addressed to anyone in particular managed to reach Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. But they were returned or, if they had no return address, were thrown out altogether, because the hospital lacked the manpower to open and screen all the mail, spokesman Terry Goodman said.
“A lot of this is because of security concerns because it’s unsolicited mail that someone is going to have to go through,” Goodman said. “Also, being a democratic society, there could be inappropriate mail from someone who, say, doesn’t support the war, and then you’ve got a wounded soldier getting it.”
Lt. Col. Kevin Arata, a spokesman with the Army Human Resources Command, said no one tracks the amount of unnamed-soldier mail being returned, so it is impossible to judge the size of the problem.
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U.S. Refuses ‘Any Wounded Soldier’ Mail
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I can certainly understand these concerns, especially the example given about some mail from a moonbat criticizing the troops, maybe something along the lines of calling him or her a murderer or baby killer. That’s not what they need to be reading, in particular around Christmas time.
Very sad but a catch 22 situation.
My next point is what you said about the Amy’s of the world…
As a former Marine and one of combat experience, and one that was married at the time while serving, my wife was in this little social club with other wives to support us and get any information they could to help keep the tears dried up while we were deployed, but when I got home and after talking to her that information was not exactly accurate that they received from some REMF’s who’s job it was to keep those wives informed…
It weighs heavily on the politically correct side big time, and these wives are no different. They receive the information that the higher ups want them to know or believe, not what’s actually being said in the fox holes.
The Amy’s of the world can pretend they know it all. After all she has the luxury of not worrying about getting her ass shot off on a daily basis. The luxury of not doing 3-4-5 tours and feeling dang lucky you made it through the first tour let alone 2345 more of them.
Those Bush bots talk like they’ve seen and done it all and leading by example, they have no clue the mentality of a grunt. Yes I do, I was one and damn proud of it too. But to blog like you’re echoing the words of the ordinary infantryman is horse shit.
We bleed from our feet, we bleed from nose diving to take cover into something that wasn’t as soft as the bed she lays in at night while you’re getting drenched and damn near ready to fall out from hypothermia.
We bleed in battle, we get others blood on us, we see the enemy bleed. She bleeds what? Once a month?
We sweat, we go hungry, without baths. We looked like prisoners of war just freed from a Nazi prisoner of war camp after Desert Storm. We finally got showered after several months, not bird baths, a hard core shower as we all got naked and stood on pallets while we were hosed off in the middle of the Desert after the war. We looked like skeletons, I lost a lot of weight. I couldn’t believe what we all looked like.
That was Desert Storm the 100 hour war, not this 5 year debacle in Iraq.
As a former grunt I’ve always been sickened after reading how pretty some folks can paint combat and try to force feed it to others then take offense when you call them on it.
The Amy’s of the world cannot handle the truth and all the grunt ever wanted was the truth, and for a war to end. With victory of course, but can this war be won? Hell no it can’t and when do you finally declare it? We’ll be over there until Hell freezes over if that’s the case because these sand niggers will always be who they are and must be ruled with an iron fist.
We need to focus on Afghanistan and Pakistan.
I’ll always support these troops because I have the mind of a grunt, and I also know his mind and body can get tired. The Dems offer nothing but a clear cut defeat and a pullout that will hang their heads in shame, Bush is living some fantasy, that democracy will prevail in a place it cannot work.
Two BS ideologies dooming this war effort. We cannot allow our troops to feel like it was all for nothing, so I stand behind them, but the next president better find a place to say enough is enough we’re leaving and we’ve done our job, now do yours and it’s all yours.
Leaving with the victory sign and heads up high.
What chaps my hide is when you send cards to specific people, and they STILL won’t deliver ‘em.
Well said Gunz, well said.
I can understand the reasons, but they are still disheartening.
BZ
That “baby-killer” rhetoric is a leftover Vietnam-era myth. Are we ever going to get past the simplistic divisiveness of support-the-war-or-hate-the-troops? Guess not. This sounds much more like they’re simply too lazy to sort through the volume of mail, and the handy scapegoat of Raging Liberals is just too good to pass up. For the record, many of us who oppose the war have family and friends in combat right now, and we want them HOME, SAFE. It is possible to respect the men and women who are doing their jobs while not being so thrilled with their commander-in-chief. Right now more people oppose the war than support it….so the list of suspects is 2/3 of the country??
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to finish my fan letter to Jane Fonda before I head to the mall to tell all the little kids waiting in line to see Santa that he isn’t real.
Sometimes, I just don’t understand what they were thinking.
I sent ten cards last year and they were all returned as “un-deliverable”
ummmm
BDG
Unfortunately they have to do this to protect the troops, not only from terrorists sending stuff in the letters but also from American Citizens of the ultra left liberal persuasion. When a left wing liberal sees a GI, they don’t see a person who’s protecting and defending their rights. What they see is someone who’s draining the money that can be used on social programs, someone they believe needs to go away.
You also don’t want to give out the names of the troops, especially those in hospital because you can make their families targets. We’ve got to remember that were fighting against an enemy that has no honor and regard for innocent life, anyone’s life.
Seeing that the antiwar movement is grooming a new generation of hippie oxygen thieves with their “baby killer” rhetoric, I can understand the government’s actions in this case.
I admit it .. I am ignorant. I have been a reader of Texas Fred for a few weeks and I need a glossary of terms. What is
a “‘Bush Bot” and a “Moon Bat”.. and WHO is Amy? I get the gist of the comments but would like to know exactly what the terms mean. Thanks … keep on keeping on … I love the discussions.
- Sue
P.S. I have been participting in an online project that supposedly sends “thank you” cards to the troops. I wonder if that is a waste of time too.
http://www.letssaythanks.com/Home1024.html
Bush Bot: Anyone that blindly follows and believes EVERTHING that Bush says, regardless of how stupid it may be…
Moon Bat: A derogatory term used to describe those that howl, or bark at the moon, Batty, crazy people that don’t realize they are… Usually the left and libbers but not limited to those groups exclusively…
Amy: Amy Proctor, the Queen of the Bush Bots, an insufferable BITCH that will attack ANY blogger that isn’t as madly in love with Bush as she is, and anyone that doesn’t fully support the action in Iraq, even if those persons happen to be retired military personnel, some of Officer rank, some of Flag rank, if you don’t dig Iraq and Bush, she is going to attack you and call you names and tell everyone that YOU are the reason the insurgents still attack, THAT is an Amy, and the reason we say ‘The Amy’s of the world’ is because it’s not nice to call her and those like her, miserable BITCHS on the front page of a blog…
I hope that answers your questions…
I gotcha ! Thanks.