Marine Corps News Room

http://www.marines.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/0/273BBBDE6E5465F5852573BD0031B982?opendocument

Submitted by: 11th MEU
Story by: Computed Name: Staff Sgt. Sergio Jimenez
Story Identification #: 20071226437

“We were overwhelmed, but in a positive way,” said Cpl. Ryan J. Burrell, postal clerk, 11th MEU (SOC), of the thousands of greeting cards and care packages that began arriving since the end of November for members of the MEU who are embarked aboard the Tarawa. The tons of good cheer came from family, private citizens and volunteer from corporations and nonprofit groups all across the U.S.

Burrell said the MEU got more than twice the mail they normally receive.

“There’s nothing like working six straight hours of your day just sorting mail,” said Burrell. “It’s hard work, but It’s all worth it. We get to play Santa Claus.”

But the postal Marines were not the only Santas on the job.

On ship, Postal clerks got help from dozens of Marines and sailors who worked together on several delivery days to carry the mail from the pier to the ship and up and down narrow ladder-wells to deliver letters and boxes to eager servicemembers.

Back home, they got help from volunteers from “Operation Santa,” a support-the-troops organization from Seattle, Washington and the General Mills Corporation in Minneapolis, Minn., through their Operation: Soldier Phone Home initiative and the Marine Corps’ Key Volunteer Network. All three organizations sent handwritten holiday greeting cards and care packages stuffed with treats by children and citizens of all ages. Operation Santa even sent several Christmas trees complete with lights.

The Marines also received a special shipment of care packages, greeting cards and letters from Cub Scout Pack 872 and elementary school boys and girls from St. Anne School in Laguna Niguel, Calif. The scout pack adopted the Marines and Sailors of the MEU during their "Salute to Service" ceremony at St. Anne in October.

In another part of the country, boy and girl scout troops, churches and private citizens teamed up with General Mills company employees nation-wide to thank servicemembers for their service, dedication and sacrifice.

According to Rhonda Affield, a General Mills employee and mother of Cpl. David W. Affield, command element, 11th MEU (SOC), together, they sent the MEU and other units 10,000 hand-written greeting cards and thousands of dollars in calling cards.

Those thousands of cards turned into many special individual moments for Marines and sailors on the ship.

“It was very moving,” said Cpl. Shevis D. Iloncai, a calibration technician from Charleston, S.C., after reading a card from an elementary school boy who wrote about his hobbies, that he likes to play soldier and to describe how cold it is Minnesota. Iloncai, who is a member of Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 16, Camp Pendleton, Calif., said his card was very nice and that he plans to write the boy back to thank him for putting a smile on his face.

MALS-16 is attached to Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 166 (Reinforced), Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Can Diego, Calif., the MEU’s aviation combat element. The 11th MEU (SOC), Camp Pendleton, Calif., is embarked aboard the Tarawa and other ships of the Tarawa Expeditionary Strike Group. They have been at sea since leaving San Diego Nov. 4 on a scheduled six-month deployment through the Western Pacific Ocean and Arabian Gulf regions.

On Christmas Night here, Lance Cpl. Jordan S. Kellem, motor transport operator from Pismo Beach, Calif., is standing guard duty while the ship steams across the Arabian Sea. Kellem, who is with G Battery, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, Camp Pendleton, Calif., takes a moment to read a card he received from a 5th-grade girl named Leanna from Orono Intermediate School, in Orono, Minnesota.

“She said she likes to snowboard,” Kellem tells a combat correspondent. “She is learning multiplication and division and she thinks it’s ‘awesome,’” he said. “I can picture her sitting at her desk, writing this to me because I used to like to do stuff like that.”

Kellem said he remembers picturing a servicemember in green camouflage standing guard in the rain or in the field somewhere overseas. “I always wondered how he felt to be getting my card,” What he was thinking and if his card made him feel closer to home?

Many years later, and thousands of miles away from his loved-ones, Kellem smiles and says he finally knows.

***For more information about the 11th MEU (SOC) visit their website at http://www.usmc.mil/11thmeu.