Chris Smith, Press Democrat January 18, 2014
THANKS TO HEALDSBURG: A package arrived at Mary St. Clair's place from the Army's 4th Infantry
Division headquarters in Afghanistan.
Inside was a thank-you gift from the 500 or so soldiers who just prior to Christmas received the huge shipment of care packages that were filled last Dec. 4 at a school gym in Healdsburg. St. Clair and a small army of volunteers packed them with hand-knit caps, Alexander Valley granola and other exceptional things.
As thanks, Lt. Col. Brad Wambeke and his grateful troops sent the community an American flag that they'd flown over the base in the Kandahar region on Christmas Day.
An accompanying letter says the flag was “flown in the face of the enemy and bears witness to the strength of the American people in rebuilding Afghanistan and denying a safe harbor for terrorism.”
St. Clair, the hairdresser and mother of an Iraq war veteran who can't make herself forget the young troops who remain in discomfort and peril in Afghanistan, will share the flag with local veterans groups and government agencies interested in flying it.
Already, she plots the gift-packing party for Christmas 2014.
THANKS TO HEALDSBURG: A package arrived at Mary St. Clair's place from the Army's 4th Infantry
Division headquarters in Afghanistan.
Inside was a thank-you gift from the 500 or so soldiers who just prior to Christmas received the huge shipment of care packages that were filled last Dec. 4 at a school gym in Healdsburg. St. Clair and a small army of volunteers packed them with hand-knit caps, Alexander Valley granola and other exceptional things.
As thanks, Lt. Col. Brad Wambeke and his grateful troops sent the community an American flag that they'd flown over the base in the Kandahar region on Christmas Day.
An accompanying letter says the flag was “flown in the face of the enemy and bears witness to the strength of the American people in rebuilding Afghanistan and denying a safe harbor for terrorism.”
St. Clair, the hairdresser and mother of an Iraq war veteran who can't make herself forget the young troops who remain in discomfort and peril in Afghanistan, will share the flag with local veterans groups and government agencies interested in flying it.
Already, she plots the gift-packing party for Christmas 2014.
