Active Duty Stories
We received an email from Bill Dolphin, our quartermaster about some interesting purchases. Bill researched it and thought it would be of interest.
I receive orders for about 3 Zippo Lighters a year. These have the Polar Bear crest attached to the lighter. In the past two weeks I have shipped thirty three (33) Lighters to our troops in Iraq. All of the orders appear to come from women. I tracked down the individuals and this is what I found out.
There is a SFC KirK Kuebbing, of the 2BCT / 10 MTM, HHC / 4/31, UNIT 43064, APO AE 09322 in Iraq who has a site on the web site " anysoldier.com " On this site he shows cartoons and tells of what is happening with our troops in Iraq. Very Interesting.
To find this SFC do the following.
1) open up anysoldier.com
2) on the left of the screen you will see the names of the people signed up by newest contacts--you can search by last name and find his or you can search by # of times requested--if you go to last page of # of times requested. You will find his near the bottom.
I went into the web site anysoldier.com, hit "where to send" found a listing of the alphabet and pressed ( K ) and went to Kirt Kuebbing.
SFC KIRK KUEBBING
2 BCT / 10 MTN
HHC / 4-31
UNIT 43064
APO AE 09322
SFC Kuebbing runs a blog and here is a recent post of his regarding the lighters
30 Mar 2007:
Hello again.
I'll start with thanks to everyone who continues to support us. We continue to receive letters and packages from you whenever the mail makes it out to us. We appreciate it now more than ever after recently learning that we will either be extended for up to 4 months, or returning to Iraq just 7 months after our return to begin our 3rd Iraq tour. I'm rather unhappy with this news but we are coping. I want to thank the following folks who sponsored us and purchased Polar Bear zippos, I've received 25 thus far. dawnpoker, masch33, membanas, The Cordes Family, Lisa Hinson, DF94949, and finally Bill Dolphin who shipped them out to us. I hope to get one for every guy in the BN, that about 800 soldiers. If you'd like to help, the Polar Bear zippo can be found here: www.31stinfantry.org If you have no idea what the heck I'm talking about, welcome to my updates, I'm Kirk, feel free to read through my earlier deployment updates; I've been told many folks back home are amused by them. While I'm thanking folks, I am pretty far behind in my letters to you so I'll thank you here for your letter Miss Gina Henry and for the package Regina Stiehr. These nice folks have been writing to me for many months and my guys and I appreciate it. Current news, lets see, I've just finished reading a book, Steven King's Cell; I loved it. I also recently watched a DVD called The Last Sign or maybe it was The Final Sign. It's not really important except that my next letter will be to Andie MacDowell, Tim Roth & Samuel Le Bihan begging them to never make another movie again. It's terrible when you've paid for a movie and as you watch you know it's bad and that you should just walk away, but you can't. You think it's possible that the movie might finally reveal some good acting, or a good plot, or even an unexpected twist that will validate your having sat there for an hour and a half staring at a tiny screen. My Chain of Command (the bosses) have asked me to remind everyone that the weather has changed for good and that friends and family should stop sending perishables that melt. By this of course they mean chocolate. Very soon, anything like that will arrive as chocolate soup since our mail isn't transported in air conditioned containers. I've received no new requests from my soldiers outside of what was asked for in my previous couple of updates, for those of you who read them, the Mexican food craze continues, so I'll part with well wishes until I'm able to update again. Hopefully soon I'll be able to share some good news.
Sincerely
Kirk
SFC Kuebbing recently posted this update on his blog regarding the lighters
08 Jun 2007:
Our spirits are slowly returning to normal though there is a certain guilt felt for it. The strangest thing has happened here recently, enemy activity has decreased. Very recently, Iraqi locals in our sector chased off a couple of IED emplacers. This is what we've been working for all along, locals taking care of themselves. Additionally, a lot of battle space is being taken over by Iraqi Army Forces, allowing US troops to focus in other areas to try and weed out the enemy. This is the first sure sign of our success in an area that is still referred to by the media as the triangle of death.
My personal side mission received an enormous boost today with the arrival of the mail. A new friend has emerged from these web pages. A couple from Washington purchased 140 Polar Bear Zippos from the 31st Infantry Quartermaster, Bill Dolphin. They arrived in 3 boxes today and I've already distributed them. I believe nearly every soldier in my Company has one now. It is my goal to get one for every Polar Bear and I think I'm 20% of the way there. The soldiers who died in the May 12th attack have received a lighter as well, it will be delivered to the surviving family members along with other personal gifts from fellow soldiers. The care packages continue to arrive weekly as well and there is always excitement when those are opened as well. There have been so many contributors that I am a bit awestruck. I continue to owe a debt of gratitude to all of you.
