A Great American.

Carolyn Blashek runs Operation Gratitude. An organization that sends care packages to our brave fighting men and women stationed overseas. These care packages include, toiletries, snacks, games, movies and personal letters of support addressed to those very same men and women. Carolyn runs Operation Gratitude out of her own home.

This is more than a mere morale boost and feel good project for Carolyn, her experiences are a little more personal. She got married in June last year, and by September her husband had been called up and sent overseas. She volunteered to work at the USO and one day an Army officer walked in looking for a chaplain. One wasn't around, so he asked if he could talk to Carolyn. He'd come home on emergency leave for his mother's funeral and was on his way back to his post in Korea.

Things were heating up in North Korea with the nuclear threat, he said, and he didn't know if he'd make it back this way again. It wouldn't matter anyway, though, he said.

"His mother had just died, and his wife had left him years ago," Carolyn said. "He said he didn't have any other relatives. Then he just broke down and started crying for a few minutes. It was so sad.

"After he left, I thought how many other servicemen and women have nobody.

In other words Carolyn's Operation Gratitude targets those brave men and women who need the morale boost the most, for they have no one at home to provide it for them. When I served I was always fortunate to have a family back home who sent me those things, but I always wondered if there was a program that had been started for those men and women who were not so lucky, now I know there is.

Carolyn Blashek is what defines a Great American. Click on the link above to learn more about her mission in life. Also if you cannot afford to donate any money to Operation Gratitude (even though it is tax-deductible) you can help out by writing a letter or two that will be included in a care package. You do not think even writing a letter would help? Maybe this letter from a grateful recipient will change your mind.

Dear Carolyn Blashek,
I received your care package today and it caught me by surprise because I was not expecting it. As I opened it tears almost came to my eyes because we are here in a strange country with a need of alot of morale support and here you are sending me this package full of good things. I can't thank you enough. It meant alot to me and you can bet that I will spread the word throughout the soldiers in Kuwait and Iraq. It makes me proud to be a soldier and fight for the freedom of people like you. May God Bless you always.

I'm here with my unit of transportation from Puerto Rico. "Muchas Gracias";

SGT P. R., USA, Personnel Sergeant

God Bless her, indeed.

via (AlphaPatriot)