Thread: e-mails from my brother

My brother is a Lt. Com. on board the USS BONHOMME RICHARD (LHD 2)

They were on their way to the Gulf when the Tsimani hit in the Indian Ocean.

I thought you might enjoy these:

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Hey from Lil Bro
Since it's all over the news I can tell you we're on our way to Sri Lanka for
Disaster Relief. We were supposed to pull into Guam for a port visit, instead we just picked up relief supplies and got right back underway again. Watch for us in the news.

A.



Hey Sis,
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Of course because of where I am I beat you by a few hours. We're having a holiday routine onboard (holiday for some, routine for the rest of us) so not much regular work today. We had a small party onboard and had a movie night in the Flag Mess. We watched "Napoleon Dynamite," a very strange movie but funny.
Lots of planning still going on for the relief efforts. It'll be a
few more days before we arrive off Sri Lanka so watch for us in the news.
We're going to get some embedded media as well as the usual public affairs
folks for this sort of thing. We did manage to pick up some supplies from
FEMA during a half day stopover in Guam including shovels, lumber, tools and
chainsaws (in the hands of Marines...hmm). When we show up we'll show up
BIG, with more to follow. This is one of those things they actually want us
to E-mail home about. We've already got a few people over there
coordinating with the locals and we just wish we could get there sooner.
Anyway, enjoy the parade! I heard it might rain a little for the
1st time in the Rose Parade history but I keep reminding people here that we
don't hold it on Sunday and God doesn't let it rain on our parade. Tell
everyone I said hi.

A
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Needless to say, I am VERY proud of him! He has a masters in engineering and he will be able to do A LOT to help the people and the country in Sri Lanka.

(and as you all know, it didn't rain on the parade, but the skies sure opened up later!!!!)

that is SO wonderful ape.. loved hearing it... let us "peek" at any new emails you would like to share...
thank HIM for me.. will ya...
youbetcha you SHOULD be proud... ;-)

How PROUD you must be!! Heck I'm feeling proud of him and I don't even know him!! *LOL*

Please pass on to your brother how very thankful and appreciative I am to him and all the other wonderful service men and women.

That is SO COOL!!

Please tell him and his shipmates that I thank every one of them profusely for their service to our great Country and for helping others in their time of need.

Char

I enjoyed reading those. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for sharing! I've been hearing about your brother's ship and how it was coming with disaster relief!

Now I can say I "know" someone who's on it.

How proud you must be, as am I that we have such committed men and women in our military services. The one thing that has frosted my pipes this past week about the tsunami coverage is the constant whining about how the US isn't doing enough. As far as I know, we are the only nation that has deployed our military to help with relief efforts, not to mention the enormous amount of money that has been contributed by our government and our private citizens. No matter what world opinion says - I am proud to be an American - we tend to do the right thing.

Jestey -
The reason that we aren't 'doing' enough, is because whenever we use our military equipment (including the USS BONHOMME RICHARD) it is not considered in the UN's 'aid' program. The calculations used to determine the amount of 'good will' a nation performs discounts any time a country uses it's military power. So, in this case, we are sending what we have, and it's a few (6 I think) carriers at a tremendous cost - but in the scheme of the 'total' relief the United States provides the rest of the world - as for as the UN goes - it amounts to $0.


April Rose - let your brother and all of his ship mates know that we are praying for them, and thank them for all the sacrifices they make.

Dee

Chainsaws in the hands of marines!?! LOL...I love his perspective on things.

It's too bad we didn't know he was headed there. Maybe some our donation could have been hand-carried across sea.

I heard them mention this ship on whatever news show my DH had turned on this morning! I guess they're there now??

Char

THANK YOU ALL!!

I've passed on all your good wishes
!

YES, they arrived this morning.

This is a wonderful web site the Navy has to keep us family members up to date.

http://www.news.navy.mil/list_all.asp?id=16298

and yes, I am VERY proud!!!

AR, thank your brother for us. What a wonderful job our military people do to help. I know you are so very proud of him. I checked out the Navy news website!

Thank you for sharing your emails. It is great to know that our military is there to help!