thedrifter
12-21-07, 05:46 AM
Vet's still serving Marines – even if he's thousands of miles away
By Anita Creamer - acreamer@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PST Friday, December 21, 2007
For Christmas last year, Chuck Brewer mailed an artificial Christmas tree, lights and pine-scented air freshener to a group of Marines stationed in Iraq.
"I have pictures of them decorating the tree," says Brewer, 59, who owns a small welding shop in Rancho Cordova.
This holiday season, even though business at Chuck's Welding is a bit slow, he spent more than $1,000 sending tools to the Marines in the two helicopter supply units – or shops – that he adopted through his Adopt-A-Shop program.
Adopt-A-Shop isn't just a Christmas thing.
Year-round, Marines stationed in Iraq need consumer goods, Brewer says, and they need to know they're remembered in Americans' hearts, no matter how polarized the country has become over the Iraq war.
Like thousands of other Vietnam veterans, he's determined that this generation of military members – serving their country by serving in another unpopular war – won't endure the kind of misdirected anger and hatred that still taint veterans' memories.
"I remember how we were treated," Brewer says. "We were under orders not to wear our uniforms when we came home, because of the feelings that stirred up here."
These days, lots of people think the best way to support the troops is to bring them home. Thankfully, however, most manage to focus their outrage on the politicians who sent the military to Iraq, not on service members sworn to follow orders.
It was October 2006 when Brewer, a former helicopter gunner, stumbled across a current Marine's request for supplies on the U.S. Marine Corps Combat Helicopter Association's Web site, www.popasmoke.com.
("If you were in the jungle and we needed to come get you, you needed to send up a smoke flare," says Brewer. "You had to pop a smoke, so we'd know where you were at.")
Standing in line at the post office, waiting to mail three big boxes of items to that Marine in Iraq, he told the woman behind him what he was doing.
"She kept saying, 'Can I help? Can I help?' " he says. "Other people in line wanted to help, too. Right there, they collected $100 between them for me to send the packages. So that's how the whole thing started."
He reported what happened to the folks behind popasmoke.com, who posted the news. And so Adopt-A-Shop was born. Soon, people from coast to coast were asking for shop addresses and sending boxes to deployed Marines.
"Once you're given the address of a shop, I'm no longer involved," Brewer says. "We do not solicit donations, and we make no money. Anything you purchase for your troops is sent by you directly to those troops. There is no middle man."
Through another program, his sister, who lives in Phoenix, has gathered items to send to the troops. You hear about these projects from time to time – the earnest schoolchildren with their class assignments, the church groups, the retirees – but Brewer says he gets to know today's Marines personally through Adopt-A-Shop.
In return for a few consumer goods, he receives e-mails and letters and pictures – and a sense of connection.
"He goes to Costco and loads up like crazy," says his daughter, Julie Cuddy, who works for the state. "These Marines are totally blown away by what he's doing."
A while back, Brewer sent a letter to the White House, because he wanted to tell the president how he and fellow Marine veterans are helping supply the troops. A few weeks later, here came a form letter from the White House, saying the administration can't endorse individual projects. (Halliburton, yes. Well-meaning Americans, no.)
But he framed the letter anyway, and it hangs on the wall of his welding shop, where he can see it every day.
"I'm a very, very, very proud Marine," Chuck Brewer says. "You never lose sight of the fact that you're a Marine."
Ellie
By Anita Creamer - acreamer@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PST Friday, December 21, 2007
For Christmas last year, Chuck Brewer mailed an artificial Christmas tree, lights and pine-scented air freshener to a group of Marines stationed in Iraq.
"I have pictures of them decorating the tree," says Brewer, 59, who owns a small welding shop in Rancho Cordova.
This holiday season, even though business at Chuck's Welding is a bit slow, he spent more than $1,000 sending tools to the Marines in the two helicopter supply units – or shops – that he adopted through his Adopt-A-Shop program.
Adopt-A-Shop isn't just a Christmas thing.
Year-round, Marines stationed in Iraq need consumer goods, Brewer says, and they need to know they're remembered in Americans' hearts, no matter how polarized the country has become over the Iraq war.
Like thousands of other Vietnam veterans, he's determined that this generation of military members – serving their country by serving in another unpopular war – won't endure the kind of misdirected anger and hatred that still taint veterans' memories.
"I remember how we were treated," Brewer says. "We were under orders not to wear our uniforms when we came home, because of the feelings that stirred up here."
These days, lots of people think the best way to support the troops is to bring them home. Thankfully, however, most manage to focus their outrage on the politicians who sent the military to Iraq, not on service members sworn to follow orders.
It was October 2006 when Brewer, a former helicopter gunner, stumbled across a current Marine's request for supplies on the U.S. Marine Corps Combat Helicopter Association's Web site, www.popasmoke.com.
("If you were in the jungle and we needed to come get you, you needed to send up a smoke flare," says Brewer. "You had to pop a smoke, so we'd know where you were at.")
Standing in line at the post office, waiting to mail three big boxes of items to that Marine in Iraq, he told the woman behind him what he was doing.
"She kept saying, 'Can I help? Can I help?' " he says. "Other people in line wanted to help, too. Right there, they collected $100 between them for me to send the packages. So that's how the whole thing started."
He reported what happened to the folks behind popasmoke.com, who posted the news. And so Adopt-A-Shop was born. Soon, people from coast to coast were asking for shop addresses and sending boxes to deployed Marines.
"Once you're given the address of a shop, I'm no longer involved," Brewer says. "We do not solicit donations, and we make no money. Anything you purchase for your troops is sent by you directly to those troops. There is no middle man."
Through another program, his sister, who lives in Phoenix, has gathered items to send to the troops. You hear about these projects from time to time – the earnest schoolchildren with their class assignments, the church groups, the retirees – but Brewer says he gets to know today's Marines personally through Adopt-A-Shop.
In return for a few consumer goods, he receives e-mails and letters and pictures – and a sense of connection.
"He goes to Costco and loads up like crazy," says his daughter, Julie Cuddy, who works for the state. "These Marines are totally blown away by what he's doing."
A while back, Brewer sent a letter to the White House, because he wanted to tell the president how he and fellow Marine veterans are helping supply the troops. A few weeks later, here came a form letter from the White House, saying the administration can't endorse individual projects. (Halliburton, yes. Well-meaning Americans, no.)
But he framed the letter anyway, and it hangs on the wall of his welding shop, where he can see it every day.
"I'm a very, very, very proud Marine," Chuck Brewer says. "You never lose sight of the fact that you're a Marine."
Ellie