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My farthest post from the battalion FOB is 35 miles south immediately adjacent to the last vestiges of Taliban strength in our area.  The only means to access the position is by foot.  It is located on the top of giant remains of an ancient Afghan palace and provides perfect overwatch of the Helmand River and all of the southern approaches.  Since they’ve been there the few Marines up there have filled nearly 10,000 sandbags by hand, dug in fighting positions, hauled up a 5KW generator, HESCO barriers (and subsequently filled them by hand) and any other supplies, weapons, ammo, etc. that they need.  They’ve also paid a local farmer $40 to lease of a DONKEY (yes, a real donkey) to help them carry their supplies from the drop-zone to the base of the position.  From there they hand carry everything up the hill – it’s a big hill.  I have a Machine Gun team, Sniper Team, and infantry squad up there and they are often unsupplied for days and live off of MREs and filtrated water they get from the low ground.  They are either sleeping, on post, or patrolling in an endless cycle to keep the Taliban at bay.
Consequently I loaded up most of the packages you sent into a larger box.  Then I had that box readied for the next helo-drop of supplies to them.  They have since acknowledged receipt of the supplies and are extremely grateful.  They have no internet or phones, but are motivated and the stuff you guys sent definitely boosted their morale and went to good use!!  Thank you again for the tremendous support and help to the Marines on the front.

Thanks again for all your support and assistance for these deployed Marines.  They are living in some pretty dire conditions and everything we sent is really helping them out.  Please forward his thanks along to anyone who you think would enjoy reading how much the stuff we sent along helped out.

Tony Barrett
Major, USMC
Deputy Director, DMO