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thedrifter
05-18-07, 06:52 AM
Soldier's last request _ for bedding _ inspires mom's charity

By ALISON LAPP
The Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA - Lance Cpl. Adam C. Conboy didn't realize it, but five days before he was killed in Iraq, he inspired his own memorial fund.

During a Sunday morning phone call from the Anbar province, he described being quartered with 20 men per room in an old schoolhouse, packed into bunk beds in the scorching heat. The stench, he said, was overwhelming.

He asked his mother if she could send clean sheets , 40 sets of them, one for each member of his platoon.

"C'mon Mom, get Operation Bedding going," he joked.

He was killed the next Friday, May 12, 2006, by nonhostile fire. He had been in Iraq eight weeks.

Friends told his mother, Mary Conboy, to expect flowers to start pouring in.

"I told people I didn't need flowers," Conboy said. "In lieu of that, I took donations to get the bedding Adam asked for out to the guys."

Now, Operation Bedding has grown from a son's spontaneous quip to a mother's tribute to her fallen soldier. Conboy runs a homespun charity effort from her backyard, sending troops in Iraq packages that contain everything from bedding to sweat socks to canned tuna.

Adam's platoon got their packages by July, and the company that replaced those troops received the next shipment. Schools from around the region began sending donations, and Conboy started getting requests from different military units interested in the care packages.

But shipping the bedding, toiletries, snacks and books is costly. Conboy estimates it takes $1,000 to get the average shipment to Iraq, and most of that price is covered by fundraising.

To help with shipping, Donna Palmer, a neighbor and longtime friend of the family, decided to turn a regular house-cleaning flea market into a fundraising event.

"I benefit because then I get rid of all the junk in my house," she said, "but really I'm helping a dear friend fulfill her son's last request."

Slated for Armed Forces Day, which is Saturday, the event will feature about 50 vendors, a motorcycle parade, a color guard salute and live music.

It will be in Gorgas Park, in the city's Roxborough section, right around the corner from Adam Conboy's childhood home. The goal for the day is to raise $10,000.

Charles Conboy, Adam's father, said the funds that keep Operation Bedding afloat buy him a distraction from the pain of losing his son, and buy the troops "a distraction from what's over there, at least for a couple hours while they rip through the packages."


In a DVD sent to the family, Adam Conboy's corps members describe using baby wipes from the packages when they had no running water for bathing and receiving shaving cream just as superiors were demanding they dry shave beards thick from days of growth.

"There was mad fighting over those pillows," one Marine said, "fighting for them, fighting with them, everything."

Pillows and pepperoni sticks are the soldiers' favorites, Mary Conboy said, and sometimes the goodies serve a very practical purpose.

One Marine told her about meeting an Iraqi child while he had candy from an Operation Bedding package in his pockets.

"You show me where an IED is, and I'll give you the candy," he told the child, who led him right to one of the explosives.

"It was on the route where they would have gone that week," Conboy said. "When I talk to people who've made donations, I tell them, 'You might have saved six Marines' lives.'"

Adam Conboy knew he wanted to fight for his country after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He was 17.

His mother told him he was too young. When he signed himself up at age 20, he headed upstairs and sent his younger brother down to give her the news.

"I said, 'There's something wrong here,'" Conboy said, smiling. "'You joined the Marines, and you're afraid to tell your mother? You might want to toughen up.'"

According to his fellow Marines on the DVD, he did. They nicknamed him "Daddy" because, at 21, he was the oldest among them and handled tense situations with humor.

Mary Conboy said she plans to continue Operation Bedding until the troops come home. Her husband, Gary Warner, had to build a shed in the backyard to hold donations that were crowding them out of their dining room.

Adam's father helps pack boxes and takes them to a bulk mailing center. Mary Conboy's six other children, ages 2 to 20, also have rallied around the cause inspired by their brother's caring ways.

When Adam originally asked his mother to send 40 sets of bedding, Conboy laughed, but wasn't surprised.

"It was very typical Adam," Conboy said. "Just like when he was little. He was always the one to have all the neighborhood kids over for popsicles."
On the Net:

www.adamconboymemorialfund.org/

May 18, 2007 4:24 AM

Ellie