AEDC workers fill up holiday care packages for personnel deployed overseas

  • Published
  • By Patrick Ary
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  On Nov. 8, Master Sgt. Andre McDowell and Staff Sgt. James Key set out a box for donations in the Logistics office at AEDC's A&E Building.

They were hoping to get enough items to fill a printer paper box, which they would use to put together care packages for Air Force personnel who are currently deployed overseas.

But it wasn't long before they realized they were going to need a bigger box.

And a week later when they started organizing everything, they weren't using a box at all.

In fact, donations had taken over a whole desk in an office cubicle and overflowed onto the windowsill and overhead desk cabinets.

"The mountain continues to grow," Sergeant McDowell laughed as he unloaded two cases of Girl Scout cookies, Frisbees and mugs that were dropped off that morning.

Sergeant McDowell has been deployed several times during his career, including a couple of times to Kuwait. And at those times when he's been away from his family and friends, he knows how it feels to get a gift that serves as a reminder that people are thinking of him.

That's why he decided to put out a box for people to drop off items to send to AEDC personnel who are deployed overseas.

"It's always nice to get a package, especially from your unit, because you know they're thinking about you while you're gone," Sergeant McDowell said. "We understand the mission goes on. You don't want to forget the ones that are there."

Currently, four people from AEDC are deployed: one to Africa, two to Afghanistan and one in training to go to Afghanistan.

"I don't know those individuals personally," Sergeant McDowell said, "but they wear the uniform like we do."

Sergeant McDowell set the box out on Nov. 7. By the next morning, it already was holding toy cars, travel versions of board games and travel soap and shampoo.

By week's end the box was still sitting out in the same spot, but it was only serving as a way station for the board games, food and books that had flowed into the office. Everything else was piled up in a cubicle.

Sergeant McDowell and a couple of others boxed the items up and shipped them out earlier this week with the goal of getting the packages to their destinations by Thanksgiving - giving their recipients an early holiday present.

"It's something small, but on the other end it's a good thing," he said. "You get a box like this with goodies and games and stuff, and you go through and pick all the goodies and stuff you want out. Then you set it out on a table and watch the troops have at it. It's like Christmas."

After Christmas, more people from AEDC will be leaving the country, Sergeant McDowell said. He believes they will have a lot of items left over from this drive to send to those personnel, but he's still planning to ask for another round of donations.

And he will keep a cubicle handy, just in case the response is anything like what he received this time.

"I think everyone on base has done a very good job supporting our people," he said.