SixSeeds partners reunite with the "Send-a-Box" army unit

SixSeeds partner Capt. David French will reunite with the Sabre Squadron, 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment at Fort Hood, Texas this weekend to celebrate the unit’s return from Iraq.

Members of the regiment received care packages from the amazingly successful SixSeeds project “Operation Send-a-Box,” which originally attempted to rally enough families to send a couple of hundred care packages to the loneliest soldiers in Sabre Squadron.

However, the initial response stunned the organizers of the project, John and Jean Kingston along with Capt. French’s wife Nancy back home in Tennessee.

In places ranging from Boston to Tennessee to California, children joined with their parents to purchase and package DVDs, reading materials, snacks, and bedding.  The diversity of the response was remarkable, ranging from an entire church in Tennessee to neighborhood kids in Massachusetts to a 93 year-old woman in Utah.  

The impact on the troops’ morale was profound.  “When you’re alone out there in the desert,” said Capt. French, “any sign of appreciation from back home makes a huge difference.”  Capt. French reported that when the boxes started stacking up, it was a main topic of conversation and wonder: “Our squadron command group was amazed by the outpouring of support, noting they’d never seen anything like it, and even General David Petraeus, commander of all the troops in Iraq, took an interest in this project.”

Based on the initial response, the project decided to aim for the ambitious goal of a care package for every soldier in the 1,000 member squadron -- a testament to the multiplicative power of family based service and giving.

Cpt. French last saw members of Sabre Squadron when he left the Diyala Province in Iraq in September 2008, and is looking forward to the reunion.

“Even though I came home, I left a part of myself in Iraq until the rest of the squadron returned,” said Capt. French.