Camo Santa

Chaplain Bill Wolfe

Llano County Sheriff’s Department

Hi and welcome to the Chaplain’s Corner. Good to see you again.

Camo Santa? The Deer Hunter’s best friend? No. heehee.good guess, though. I complain about the stores putting out Christmas items before they put out the Halloween candy, and here I go bringing up Santa already. Hmmm.lessee. how many shopping days left? J

Seriously, you know I don’t get political very often, but this recent treatment of General Petraeus just really got to me. If it had been me, after those opening comments by certain senators, I would have just gotten up and walked out. We are at war. Our troops (many of whom are peace officers when not over there) deserve better treatment than they are getting from the Washington politicians. For the most part, the troops over there are far more in harm’s way than we are over here on the streets.

In the interest of supporting our troops and boosting their morale, I’d like to ask you to consider helping in a "tangible" way. Many departments have a "Blue Santa" or a "Brown Santa" at Christmastime, so I wondered if we couldn’t have a "Camo Santa."

I have been involved with a non-profit organization for about the last year whose sole mission is to support the troops and the Chaplains that minister to them. The organization is Adopt-a-Chaplain (AAC). To oversimplify what they do, they send "care packages" to military chaplains who are deployed overseas who, in turn, share the contents of the packages with the troops. These care packages are great morale boosters.

Let me share a couple of things from the website, emails, and a couple of reports from the field:

It took Adopt-a-Chaplain 18 months to send its 1,000th box. Now it seems that we hit a 1,000 box milestone every 6 weeks! On April 1, 2007 box number 4,000 was delivered to Chaplain McLaughlin and the 2nd Marine Logistics Group.

(The week ending September 22, 2007 saw the 9,000^th box sent out!)

(email 9/15/07) I'm noticing in correspondence with chaplains a concern they don't have home support due to the political climate in Washington. They're beginning to feel isolated and forgotten.

Notes from the field:

Please tell everyone thank you for the packages!!! They have been a big encouragement to me and the soldiers. .. Thank you Thank you Thank you for all of your support. Ch MH

I returned here to find box 8023 waiting for me. Folks, this came at the right time. Not because of the contents of the box (though that is always great!), but because it told me all that is right, good, and honorable about our country. Your box is a reminder of why I am over here. Your box tells me there are folks that care. Your box gives me the strength to go on when I wanted so bad to just chuck it all. Most of all, your box lets me know we are not forgotten. And to that, I salute you and the men and women packing these boxes. You are our heroes! Thanks again, and please know that we all over here do appreciate this kindness all so very much. Ch DH
"Thank You!" The goodies inside were perfect! They will love this stuff. I plan to take all of these items out to our 2 patrol bases. Most of our soldiers stay at the patrol bases for extended periods of time without coming back to the main base. During their time out there, they have very little except a cot to sleep on and pre-packaged military MREs. The items you sent will be a small taste of home for them, something to take their minds off the fight at least for a little while. I have taken other items out there before, and let me assure you that they absolutely love the snacks and items like the ones you sent. You will probably never meet these warriors, but you are giving them a lift by your generous care package. Thanks. Ch. D.T.

Well.I said all that to ask you to consider helping AAC to get Christmas out to our heroes "over there." But, I literally just received this email from AAC:

We are getting a lot of inquiries about "one time" Christmas projects which will always help.

We figure, and experience has borne this out, that lots of people and groups will do a big Christmas push which is great. But then following Christmas they receive nothing - except from us. As a result the time right after Christmas is really a tough time for the troops and chaplains.

So. <sigh> Talk it over with some of your friends and see if maybe we could conspire with AAC to have "Camo Santa" arrive in January.or something.

(♫ On the twelfth day of Christmas, the Chaplain gave to me..♪)

For more information on AAC’s services to the Chaplains or to help, please contact them at adoptachaplain@yahoo.com. For information about providing support to the Chaplains’ families back home, please contact Ellen@adopt-a-chaplain.org. Or visit them at www.adopt-a-chaplain.org. When you contact them, tell them you heard about AAC from a goofy ol’ police chaplain that thinks Santa wears camo. J

Think about it and I’ll talk with you next "shift."

Blessings to you and yours.

Chaplain Bill

llanochaps@moment.net