HMH-463, Reunion 2007 Laughlin, Nevada - Phone Card update.
To All Hands from the Reunion,
(scroll down for more & pics)
As you know there was the money from the Color
Guard expenses that was not spent. Of the choices available it appeared
unanimous that money be used to buy phone cards for Marines overseas. Seemed
pretty simple at the time, but turned out to be a bit of a problem. I finally
contacted a Capt. Woodruf, at Miramar, who put me
in contact with Capt Grabowski, the S-1 officer, of HMH-361. Capt. Grabowski
said that the troops could use a line to State Side free, but then would need
the card from there to call a State Side number. That meant that any domestic
card would work. With that I purchased 60 minute phone cards (450 of them).
The last of the 450 cards went out yesterday and should be in the troops hands
by 10 Dec. at the latest. He is going to distribute them starting with the
lowest rank up thru the squadron and to the grunts that have to go out into the
ville and who guard the base. By the way HMH-361 is in Iraq at this time.
I hope that meets our goal for the money.
There is one slight problem that has to be taken
care of. I still have approximately $150.00 left in the Color Guard kitty. My
thought was to buy more phone cards with that money for the troops at Bethesda
Hospital. The $150.00 is enough to by 75 more cards. I talked to Col. John
Cipparone USMC Ret., who lives about a hour away. John said he would be honored
to deliver and hand out the cards to troops that will not be able to go home for
Christmas. If you tell me to spend the leftover money this way, I can have the
cards shipped directly to him to save time getting them to their final
destination.
I need to have your decisions no later than the end of the week.
That will be pressing it a bit, but we should be able to meet the Christmas dead
line.
The above was done. Everyone gave the "go-ahead".
God Bless and Merry Christmas.
Dale (Hoot) Gibson
Mike,
Got a short e-mail from Capt. Grabowski and he is
going to take a few photos of the troops so they can be posted on the web page.
Just his way of saying thanks.
When I get them I will send them on to you. The
first batch of phone cards should be getting there in the next couple of days.
Post Office said 5 to 10 days and that is what the Capt. also said. The first
ones went out Thursday and the last Saturday. All should be there by the 10th.
Hoot
(pics will be linked below, when they come.)
