AFGHANISTAN –
It was days before Christmas and the trucks were all fueled, with gifts neatly organized in their containers, properly labeled and loaded on to a vehicle. The spirit of the holiday season was ready to make its way to the Soldiers deployed to various sites in Afghanistan.
The Soldiers of Task Force Resolute partnered with the United Service Organization to deliver holiday gift packages to troops stationed in the southern region of Afghanistan with Operation Christmas Convoy Dec. 20-26.
Coordination between the USO and TF-Resolute began in early December when Sgt. Maj. Marco Leslie, and Sgt. Mark Williams, the TF-Resolute operations sergeant major and daytime battle noncommissioned officer, respectively, began planning with the USO how to bring holiday gifts to the most remote outposts in southern Afghanistan.
"Williams coordinated with the 1297th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, and the TF-Resolute primary security detail to get the gifts on their convoys," said Leslie.
Leslie gathered a list of units that needed the gifts, and the timelines for them to pick up their holiday bundles.
"Our biggest challenge was getting the Soldiers from remote locations in our region to have adequate time and resources to pick up their holiday boxes," said Leslie. "It took us a few weeks, but we got it down by getting the gifts on convoys and even airlifting some of them by helicopter."
The mission's primary purpose was to supply Soldiers at remote patrol bases and operating bases with items to improve their quality of life, and spread a bit of holiday cheer throughout the Christmas season. The USO requested the help of TF-Resolute and its subordinate battalions in distributing containers filled with donated gifts. Each convoy traversed difficult terrain and ever present danger to ensure the care packages reached their destination.
"These Soldiers are doing a great thing to help out their fellow troops," said Priya Butler, the USO director of operations for Southwest Asia. "Because of their hard work and determination, we got out to 58 different bases and outposts, last year we only made it to 16."
"The units received two cardboard shipping containers filled with donated gifts. One box held a unit oriented holiday package including a Christmas tree, holiday decorations, a 32-inch flat screen television, a hard-drive full of movies, cell phones with minutes to call home on Christmas, an XBOX 360 video game console, and a copy of the popular first-person-shooter video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. The container held individual gift bags, donated and packaged by the New York Yankees baseball team," said Butler.
"It is so awesome that they brought all these things out to us especially since we do not have access to this kind of equipment," said Spc. Francisco Musa, a Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 1st Battalion, 10th Cavalry Regiment supply specialist. "These game systems and movies help us relax a little bit, and take our minds off our everyday mission."
The TF-Resolute team coordinated and delivered gift boxes supporting 3,846 Soldiers, over 2,000 more than the previous year. Every Soldier that received a gift from the USO left smiling, and was invited to sign the USO Christmas Convoy commemorative flag.
"This was a very well organized mission and the Soldiers here are really enjoying these gifts," said Command Sgt. Maj. Tony Escalona, command sergeant major, TF-Resolute. "I think these Soldiers are going to enjoy a great holiday season because of these donations."