Our first shipment was a major success! Over 52 lbs. of supplies were sent to Afghanistan! Thanks for your help and let's keep up the great work so we can send out many more shipments to our troops!
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Call For Help!
Our brothers and sisters, our sons and daughters, our mothers and fathers, our relatives, and our friends-- Our Troops need your help. Together with soldiers recently returned from Iraq and Afghanistan, their friends still fighting, their families and Albany Broadcasting we are going to give our troops as much help as we can to show them just how much the Capital Region appreciates and cares about them.
What do they need the most?
Tablet and powdered drink mixes that
REPLACE ELECTROLYTES!!
Temperatures in the Middle East can reach up to 140 F during the day. Combine that with the 60+ lbs of gear each soldier is wearing and you can imagine how much they sweat. When your body sweats you are losing electrolytes which are not replenished by drinking water alone. Every day at least one soldier needs an IV of nutrients to avoid passing out.
Want to learn more about electrolytes?
Just pick up any number of packets of electrolyte replacing drink mixes (EMS in Stuyvesant Plaza is a great place to find these!) , anything off the wishlist, or a donation and drop it/them off at Albany Broadcasting in Latham. We are going to compile donations and send out big shipments every few weeks. 100% of all cash donations will be used to buy drink mixes for the troops.
Our Address:
6 Johnson Road Latham, NY 12110
Want Google Map Directions? Click Here
- DVDs of recent movies, for their little DVD players;
- Light-weight cotton socks (brown is preferred)
- Trail Mix
- hard candies
- Kites (Kite flying used to be BIG in Afghanistan until the Taliban. Kids here stick two sticks together, tie on a piece of paper, and fly the kites ... I can only imagine a nice kite ... not too nice ... flying in Afghanistan)
- Pens for the Afghan kids. They need them in school, and don't have them
- Medium sized writing tablets to give to the Afghan kids
- Digital picture frames, so the guys can look at LOTS of pictures from home
- Some folks have access to the internet, and like to download iTunes ... gift cards are nice
- Dried fruit (Mangos, Pineapple, Apples, Bananas, etc) are easy to carry and snack on
- Letters of support, with photos of the sender <-- always a morale boost
Major Tom Benton
To Send Tom a letter address it to:
Major Thomas Benton
ARSIC-S
RPAC/ FB Maholic
APO AE 09355
My name is Tom Benton and I am an active-duty Major in the New York Army National Guard who is currently deployed to Southern Afghanistan. My position with the Guard is that of Plans and Operations Officer for Domestic Operations, which is where I have been for the last two years. I have been in the military for a total of over twenty-one years with eighteen of them being on active-duty and have been a volunteer firefighter for twenty-two years. I have been married for eighteen years and have two children, a daughter that is fourteen and a son that is ten. The wife, kids and I ski during the winter, enjoy the beach during the summer and I coach them in soccer all year long. We live in the town of Northumberland just outside of Schuylerville, NY.
My work experience essentially began with an eight and one-half year tour of duty in the United States Navy Nuclear Power Program. The first two years of this tour were spent in an intense training program where I was trained as a mechanical operator and as an engineering laboratory technician. After the two years of training I served aboard a fast attack submarine that went into a refueling overhaul at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery Maine. While assigned to the submarine I was fortunate enough to be sent to the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center for training and certification as a Navy Diver. The last three and one-half years of my time in the Navy were spent as an instructor at the Naval Nuclear Power Training Unit in West Milton, NY.
After my tour in the Navy I worked for roughly two years as a radiological controls/health physics technician at a nuclear research and development facility run by Lockheed-Martin for the Navy and the Department of Energy.
After leaving the Navy in 1995 I went into the National Guard as a field medic, went through Officer’s Candidate School and become an Infantry Officer in the Army National Guard. In response to Presidential Decision Directives 39 and 62, the Department of Defense decided in 1998 to develop ten Weapons of Mass Destruction response teams within the National Guard, these teams were initially known as Rapid Assessment and Initial Detection (RAID) Teams and after several name changes have come to be known as Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Teams (CST’s). In November of 1998 I was hired as the Survey Team Leader of the then 2nd RAID Team of the New York Army National Guard.
As the Survey Team Leader in one of the first ten CST’s, I was able to play a large part in the development of the training and doctrine currently in place for the now 55 CST’s. During my three years as Survey Team Leader I led my team through two external evaluations, many large scale training events, live agent training at two Department of Defense sites, in our response on September 11, 2001 to the World Trade Center and in many other responses to Anthrax hoaxes. The last year I spent with the CST was as the Operations Officer where I was responsible for coordinating responses to and stand-bys at National Security Special Events, numerous New York State and City Special Events.
I left the Civil Support Team in 2002 to work in the newly formed Homeland Defense Directorate of the New York Army National Guard as the Plans and Operations Officer for Homeland Defense. In this position I was responsible for issues relating to the New York National Guard’s response to Homeland Defense issues. In addition, I served as a member of the New York State Office of Homeland Security’s WMD Task Force which is responsible for managing the Department of Justice/Department of Homeland Security Grant Programs at the state level and also developing the State’s Homeland Defense Strategy. I also had the pleasure of being assigned temporarily on a full-time basis to the Office of Homeland Security where my duties focused on strategic planning and assisting with the Program and Capabilities Review required as part of the 2006 Homeland Security Grant Program. I also served as a member of the Governor’s CBRNE Working Group whose purpose is to advise the Governor on all issues related to preventing, preparing for, responding to and recovering from chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or explosive (CBRNE) incidents in the State of New York.
I’ve also been a member of several volunteer fire departments as I’ve moved around and have been one in Schuylerville since 1993. Since joining the Schuylerville Fire Department, www.schuylerhose.org, I have served as a Firefighter, Lieutenant, Captain and now Assistant Chief-Operations. In addition to serving in the fire department, I am also 1st Assistant Chief of the Saratoga County Hazardous Materials Response Team.
Over the weekend of June 21st, 2008 LTC Jim Walton was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.
Jim Walton was a beacon of hope and good in a world that needs heroes. Jim was an amazing human being. He was a compassionate man that truly cared about each and every one of his soldiers. He loved his family and he loved his country. America is fortunate to have people so full of courage and honor proudly wearing the stars and stripes. This is a tragic loss and all of our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.
A Washington, DC television station near his hometown of Arlington, VA paid tribute to Lt Col Walton. See Video
Ltc.Jim Walton
5-27-08 Dear Fly 92.3
I want to thank you for what you put on your web site, and I even heard a 30-second clip of a request for help.
I have only stopped by Albany/Troy New York, a few times, eight years ago, while earning my multi-engine airplane pilot’s license, in Schenectady. However, when I return from Afghanistan, I was planning to ride my bicycle from Burlington, VT (my sister’s home) to either Norfolk, VA (another sister’s home) or to Orlando (Mickey Mouse’s home). Perhaps I can make a special trip to see the city of Troy that seems so kind to strangers.
I know I mentioned that a number of my Soldiers are New York natives, but something tells me you would help out anyone who asked for it. That is a city-trait that is very appealing.
We are now back into fighting season, and the enemy is acting up. You may know that things tend to slow down in the winter (a few feet of snow, with freezing temperatures make most hard-core fighters stay indoors … they are not stupid). And, the poppy-harvesting season just ended in our area, so the bad guys no longer have to work the farms, and now have more time to kill the infidels (us).
Yes, apparently I am an infidel, as are all of my guys. We didn’t ever plan on being infidels while growing, but things just happened that way. We never played “Martyrs and Infidels” as kids. There were no courses in High School like “Infidel-education” that rivaled Industrial Arts, Shop or Home-Ec, so perhaps the school system is to blame.
Personally, I think this is a bit of Infidel-profiling on their part, but there is nothing that legally prevents it here. Darn double-standards.
I attached some photos of us on a dismounted patrol. We had reports of Taliban in an area, but we had to dismount (get out of our vehicles) to get to them. You can see the wonderful bridge we had to cross (I have seen similar photos from Vietnam). But, Iraq and Afghanistan are not like Vietnam. Just look at the map and you can see that they are nowhere near each other. Other than that … no comment.
We chased the bad guys for an hour, but since they do not have to wear body armor, they were faster than we (my being out of shape had NOTHING to do with it).
Anyway, at least the bad guys know they can’t operate in that area without us knowing about it.
There is a photo of LT Ortt trying to get the radio to accept the secure COMSEC (Communications Security) fill in the new MRAP, before going on a reconnaissance mission.
There is a photo of two guys of Team WARRIOR fooling around between missions.
Another photo of “Una,” an illegal member of one of the teams … but I overlook such infractions, because we’re here to help Afghans … no one said “humans, not animals,” so
I kinda turn a blind eye when I can (I miss my dog back home – Hannibal … he was abandoned, too, until we found him at a rescue … you can see the photo – he was depressed when I was packing to deploy).
Just wanted you to know your Soldiers are doing well, and we all appreciate every effort people are making on our behalf.
Respectfully,
Jim Walton
LTC, USA
5-14-08
I want to thank you for all you have/are doing. I hope that by writing a few snippets about the Soldiers and Sailors on my team, you may be able to somehow "thank" the people who are helping so much ... or at least show them how special these men and women are who had to leave their families to come thousands of miles to some of the most severe conditions, to help some people who really need our help:
Your Soldiers are special.
To the kind people of New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and all of the states whose Soldiers are working as mentors for the Afghan Police (and Army), I want to tell you more of how special your Soldiers are.
Not everyone can be a mentor. It takes a special kind of person to be a mentor, be it as a father/mother, Boys/Girls Club, big brother/sister, or teacher. But it takes someone more special to be a mentor in a foreign country, and under combat conditions. That is what your Soldiers are doing every day.
Patience is the most important attribute a mentor must have – patience to guide and watch as your “pupil” tries to figure out solutions to their problems; giving gentle hints so your pupil feels the idea is still his/hers (though in our area there are no “hers” around). Knowing that there is a combat plan out there, needing your pupil to do certain things so as to prevent needless loss of lives. What would take you 10 minutes to work through with a literate, English-speaking, Western thinking counterpart, may take a few hours, or a repeat visit the next day. The pressure can be overwhelming for some.
Restraint is a second attribute your Soldiers possess – restraint from launching over the table at your pupil (I joke, I joke), who may have made an “Afghan decision” that is 180 degrees from that which we would have made in a similar circumstances … knowing that the decision may take resources out of the hands of those who need them.
Also restraint from excessive use of force, being so careful to not hit an innocent, when the enemy kills one of your policemen with a roadside bomb, or by firing a rocket-propelled grenade from a village. In insurgent warfare, the enemy can kill innocents with little retribution, but if we kill an innocent, the enemy is able to use it as a propaganda tool to gather more supporters to their cause. We say, “If we kill an innocent, we create 20 more enemies.” It’s not fair … it is just reality.
Ingenuity – When the vast majority of students you deal with are illiterate, your Soldiers must come up with unique ways of teaching. Place a teacher in a classroom without a blackboard, dry erase board, or props and have them teach students the students geometry so they can learn it. Oh … the students can’t take notes (because they can’t write). THEN, a month later, test them on the subject and see if they remember.
There are many more attributes your Soldiers possess, but I won’t bore you with more.
I just hope you realize how special your Soldiers are. I get to see it every day, and consider myself fortunate to serve with them.
Have a great day,
Respectfully,
Jim Walton
P.S. The photos are of two of my Soldiers (in ANP Outpost 2; SPC Tiedeman)(in the other, SPC Rodriguez). I hesitate to send first names and specific locations, just for security reasons. Both of these Soldiers are with the NY Army National Guard and a great troops. THis was a mission where we flew a few hundred miles to the middle of a bad District, to meet with the village elders and the Police Chief. The meeting went well and we were not attacked during the meeting.
RSIC-S / RPAC
FOB NATHAN SMITH
APO, AE 09355
This soldier's name is Lieutenant Colonel James Walton; this is his second deployment in 3 years. He and I served together in Iraq for 13 months. He gave up a cushy job with the Joint Chiefs of Staff to go fight for his country. I have included a pic of Jim. I must tell you that even though Jim is an officer and I was a sergeant in the army he didn’t care about rank he always believed in taking care of his soldiers first and he put our morale and welfare before his own. He is a great leader and an even better friend and he normally would never ask for help but he has recently asked me to see what I can do about getting him some powdered drink mixes for his soldiers because the temp is getting to be around 125 degrees and his soldiers are dropping like flies having to get IV’s almost on a daily basis. Any help would be greatly appreciated
I am writing to inform everyone that my address has changed I appreciate all the packages and cards that everyone has sent thank you Please do not send anything else to my old address if you want to write me you can send mail to my new address at
640th SB
Unit =2342204
APO AE 09342
On November 26th I convoyed up from Camp Arifjan Kuwait to Camp Buehring Kuwait enroute to Baghdad Iraq We were delayed for 24hrs for an escalation in activity on MSR Tampa the Main Supply Route that runs throughout Kuwait into Northern Iraq After the delay on the 28th we left Camp Buehring and traveled to Khabari Crossing (1 hour drive) which is the border crossing for Kuwait / Iraq We crossed the border and got to Camp Scania after about 6 hours of travel from Khabari Crossing The following night we left for Victory Base Camp (VBC) located in Baghdad We traveled for two hours and then got held up for a PIED (Possible Improvised Explosive Device) that was spotted ahead of our convoy. A route security team spotted it and it was exploded on site. After sitting on the road for about three hours we continued into VBC and arrived at my current location at Camp Striker The convoy was amazing there are very poor sections and also some rich sections of farm land and in between a whole lot of nothing I was with an Infantry Gun Truck unit from Alabama They allowed me to do the test fires for their weapons the 50 Cal and M240 two big guns that are mounted on top of the uparmored Humvees that we rode in The convoys generally travel at night due to the curfew (11pm-5am) that has been implemented in order to lessen the traffic on the road which in turn lessens the threat level
The overall base that I am at is Victory Base Complex (VBC)=2C within the complex there are 4 camps Camp Victory, Striker, Slayer and Liberty These camps together make up the VBC In the center of the VBC is Baghdad International Airport (BIAP) I live and also work on Camp Striker which is located on the Southwest end of the VBC. My official title is Convoy Support Team (CST) Officer In Charge (OIC) The Convoy Support Team is about a 10 minute walk from my room The VBC is very big much of the area is made up of Saddams old palaces and vacation homes man made lakes and mosques Downtown Baghdad is just outside the VBC it is reassuring to know that the surge in troops has made the area more secure over the last several months.
I am getting used to my job here I am assuming responsibility of all the equipment vehicles and Soldiers right now so there is a lot of paperwork I am in the process of finishing up the paperwork and also going around to the different organizations that I will be working with for support I will be busy with this for the next week or so and then I should be up and running my own operation (which I am very anxious about) Everything else is great I am much happier being in charge of my own team and I am definitely looking forward to learning this job and completing the mission. But even more than this I am looking forward to in January and redeploying in the spring I hope all is well with everyone I am looking forward to hearing from everyone and seeing everybody within the next several months.
Love
Mike
CPT Michael R O'Hara
640th SB
Unit =2342204
APO AE 09342
