You wake up early in the morning looking forward to that nice hot shower
before you get ready to take off for work.  You turn the water on and
stand there waiting for it to heat up.  That nice warm spray feels so
good.  You wash your hair and body and then turn off the water and wrap
that nice fluffy towel around you.  What a great beginning to what you
hope will be a good day.

Now you’re a soldier in the 10th Mountain Division deployed to
Afghanistan.  You get up knowing you face another day of patrolling or
whatever else your job might be.   If you make it back to camp in one
piece it will be a good day.  Now for that shower before you put on your
uniform.  You head out to the faucet and turn on the garden hose and
shiver at the cold water.  Oh well, no use postponing it…it’s never going
to get any warmer.  You hold the hose over you and wash as best you can
and then use that thin little towel to dry.  It would be wonderful if it
was nice and fluffy to help warm you up a little.  But such is military
life.

This is probably the routine my nephew Matthew Wilson went through before
heading out on patrol June 1, 2009.  He didn’t make it back to camp.  His
humvee was destroyed by a roadside IED.  The last shower this 19 year old
man, who gave his life that day so we could have a nice warm shower, took
was probably colder than we can imagine.  He deserved better than that.
His fellow soldiers deserve better than that.

So here’s how you can help.  Go to the camping section and pick up a solar
shower.  I paid $6.98 for the four I picked up and they hold five gallons
of water that are held in a black rubber tank to heat up.  For that small
amount of money you can give a soldier a warm, not a hot, but a warm
shower.  Get a few friends together and buy a few.  Go to USPS.com and
order the special APO/FPO boxes.  Take the showers out of their original
boxes and stuff as many of them as you can in the APO/FPO box.  It will
cost you a mere $11.95 to ship them thanks to the generosity of the post
office.

There are six companies of the 10th Mountain Division deployed in
Afghanistan in a Taliban stronghold.  That is 600 men, minus those who
don’t make it back to camp.  The addresses are listed below.  Please take
a few minutes out of your day and a few dollars and help make a soldier’s
day just a little bit better.  While you’re at it, if you have any extra
room throw in some coffee (Aunt Trish we REALLY need coffee), or some body
wash, or a can of tuna or spam.  God knows they deserve a lot more than
that.

Thank you,
Trish