LIHU‘E — The weeks of collecting and collating paid off Saturday as Adam Britto led a handful of volunteers in packing about 55 cartons for the Operation Morale project. The cartons are a way to demonstrate to the Kaua‘i members
LIHU‘E — The weeks of collecting and collating paid off Saturday as Adam Britto led a handful of volunteers in packing about 55 cartons for the Operation Morale project.
The cartons are a way to demonstrate to the Kaua‘i members of the Hawai‘i Army National Guard being deployed to Iraq that they are not forgotten, and there are people here who care and pray for them while they are serving overseas, Britto said.
Kauai Veterans Council Cmdr. Frank Cruz explained that the goods will be trucked out to the Hawaii Air National Guard unit at the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility in Mana (Barking Sands), where they will be flown to Travis Air Force Base, Calif. From there, Cruz said the load will be shipped to either Texas or Florida for final dispatch to Iraq. “These boxes will be waiting for the boys when they get there,” he said.
The Hawai‘i contingent of the Army National Guard Company A, 2nd Battalion, 299th Infantry Regiment, is in the final stages of their combat-weapons training at Fort Polk, La., before being transported to Kuwait, and eventually, Iraq, next month.
Britto, whose wife Dorothy was busy filling out the shipping forms, said there was supposed to be a Boy Scout troop helping to pack the boxes, but after waiting for over two hours, said, “I guess we won’t have Boy Scouts.” But, the volunteers more than made up for the missing youth, as they segregated the collection of goods into cartons earmarked for males or females, with the cartons marked accordingly. Some of the supplies collected included a wide variety of toiletries in sample and travel sizes, reading material, stationary, local-style foodstuffs like cases of dried saimin, and even a bag of rice, one packer joking, “How they going cook rice in the desert?”
Up at Kaua‘i High School, a student-generated, similar effort, the Makana Project, is also working to amass a collection of items for soldiers, and one of the students whose parent is involved in the deployment noted, “Oh yeah, it’s about that time when everything needs to be shipped out.”
Britto, who has been at the forefront of the collection effort for Operation Morale, said, “This is only the first shipment. We’re going to do more, for as long as they’re over there.”
Lynn Bauer, who was volunteering from the Kalaheo Missionary Church, said they have been collecting things at their church, and bringing the items to the Kauai Veterans Center, the central collection point. “How can you not help them (the soldiers)?” she said. “They’re all relatives, family, or somebody you know.”
Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@pulitzer.net.
