Weekly Newsletter 1/27/08

Greetings!

--On Saturday, January 26th, a group of HHAFFA volunteers sorted and mailed 39 Priority Mail envelopes stuffed with Valentines from the folks back home! Many greetings of love and support were sent to our young men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan from community members and schoolchildren throughout Lawrence County. Thanks to those who donated Valentines and to those who showed up to stuff the envelopes!!! Also on Saturday, approximately a dozen boxes were packed by family members to be sent to their loved ones. So we will have about 50 young men and women throughout the world who will receive boxes, letters and greetings from the people of Lawrence County! Let's keep up the good works!

--A special Valentine's Day Dinner (sponsored by Dunn Hospital) is being planned for the spouses and fiancee's of those whose loved ones are serving away from home this Valentine's Day. If you are a husband, wife or fiancee of any active duty service member serving away from home, please contact Betsy Henley at 279-8880, 278-1311, bhenley@hhredcross.org or H00sierhillsaffa@hotmail.com The Valentine's Day dinner is scheduled for February 14th--Valentine's Day! Please contact Betsy to make your reservation by February 7th, and contact her if you have any questions!

--It's Girl Scout Cookie Time!! Be on the look out for Girl Scouts selling cookies at WalMart, KMart, etc. Many Girl Scout troops are seeking donations for our troops at that time! All cookies donated will be shipped by HHAFFA to troops serving in war zones.

--We keep receiving returned letters that were sent at Christmas and at other times to our troops stationed throughout the world! PLEASE keep us updated on current addresses for your service member!

--GOOD NEWS! Cody Umphress's deployment is over!! His plane landed in Germany on Thursday afternoon!

Hope to see you soon!
Please continue to keep all our troops and their families in your thoughts and prayers!
God Bless Our Troops!
Nancy Peabody

Weekly Newsletter 1/20/2008

Greetings!

--REMINDER:HHAFFA is again sponsoring "Valentines for Troops", where will be sending Valentines from our community members to our troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan (36 names now!) If you, your coworkers, your civic or church organizations or your family would like to participate, just buy and sign Valentines or make Valentines, and get them to us by January 25th. (You may drop them off at the Red Cross Office, the HHAFFA office, or call me to arrange place and time for pick up!) We will pack these in Priority Mail envelopes, so just make sure homemade Valentines will fit! We will be packing these Valentines on Saturday, January 26th at the HHAFFA office at 9 am, so please plan to attend!

--Also on January 26th from 10 am to noon, we will have the HHAFFA office open for anyone who would like to come pack a box for their service member. Come on down, pack a box with donations stored at the office, and HHAFFA will pay the postage. We have quite a variety of items available from which to choose, as well as all the materials needed for packing!

--The next MOMS (Mothers of Military Servicemembers) meeting will be held on Thursday, January 24th at 4 pm at Wendy's in Bedford. Please plan to attend!!!

--Don't forget to save your old cell phones to donate to "Cell Phones for Soldiers". More information is available at www.cellphonesforsoldiers.com.Drop off points in Bedford are:AT&T 2607 W 16th St and Liberty Tax Service 1121 16th St

--It's Girl Scout Cookie Time!!! Be on the look out for Girl Scouts selling cookies at Walmart, KMart, etc. Many Girl Scout troops are seeking donations for cookies for our Armed Forces troops at that time! All cookies donated will be shipped by HHAFFA to troops serving in war zones. Last year, we received MANY "Thank Yous" from troops in Iraq and Afghanistan who received that tasty treat from home!

--Good News!!! Garrett Neumann is back in the USA!!! His plane landed in Texas yesterday, and he should be home soon for his after-deployment 30 day block leave!!!

--Remember to keep us updated on address changes!! Also, if you have any good news to share--send it my way, and I'll get it in the next newsletter!

Hope to see you soon!
Please continue to keep all our troops and their families in your thoughts and prayers!
God Bless Our Troops!
Nancy Peabody

Weekly Newsletter 1/13/08

Greetings!

--HHAFFA is again sponsoring "Valentines for Troops" where we will be sending Valentines from our community members to our troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan. You may help in a few different ways. If you, your coworkers, your civic or church organizations or your family would like to participate, just buy and sign Valentines or make Valentines, and get them to us by January 25th. We will pack these in Priority Mail envelopes, so just make sure homemade Valentines will fit! We will be packing these Valentines on Saturday, January 26th at the HHAFFA office at 9 am, so please plan to attend!

--On January 26th from 10 am to noon, we will have the HHAFFA office open for anyone who would like to come pack a box for their service member. Come on down, pack a box with donations stored at the office, and HHAFFA will pay the postage. We have quite a few items from which to choose, including shampoo, creme rinse, deodorant, soap, candy, peanuts, jerky, Pringles, candy, fruit bars, drink mix, books, magazines, catalogs, paper, pens, playing cards, greeting cards, and much, much more! If you cannot make it during these hours, just let us know, and we will make the office available to you when you have the time.

--The next MOMS (Mothers of Military Servicemembers) meeting will be held on Thursday, January 24th at 4 pm at Wendy's. I would like to discuss possible projects for the new year, plan another weekly group walk, and discuss what we can do to be of assistance to those in need. Please bring your ideas, questions and concerns. If you have thought about joining us in the past, but are a little hesitant, please know that we are just a bunch of moms who love and worry about our kids just as you do! It is comforting to know there are others out there just like me--with the same questions and concerns. So please come!

--A program called "Cell Phones For Soldiers" was recently brought to our attention, so we thought we would share the information with you. Cell Phones For Soldiers hopes to turn old cell phones into more than 12 million minutes of prepaid calling cards for US troops stationed overseas. To do so, Cell Phones For Soldiers needs to collect 15,000 cell phones each month. To find out more about the program, please go to www.cellphonesforsoldiers.com There are 2 drop off points in Bedford:AT&T Bedford Store 2607 W 16th St and Liberty Tax Service 1121 16th St

--Remember to keep us updated on address changes. We've received quite a few returned letters from Christmas due to incorrect addresses.

Hope to see you soon!
God Bless Our Troops and their families!
Nancy Peabody

Weekly Newsletter 1/6/08

Greetings!

--Thanks to Joyce Daugherty for taking over the HHAFFA blog! Please visit the blog at http://www.hhaffa.blogspot.com/ for information and updates. Please contact Joyce at NIKKISGAMMA@aol.com if you would like her to include information that you would like to share with others.

--Thanks to Kimberly Johnson for keeping up the HHAFFA MySpace page. Please visit our MySpace page--Hoosiers Support Our Troops at http://www.myspace.com/ password: hoosiershelp@hotmail.com

--MOMS meeting this Thursday, January 10th at 4 pm at Wendys in Bedford. Please come and plan to share pictures, information, stories, laughter and tears!!!! Hope you can attend!

--We are constantly updating our "Deployed List", and we need to know when to start (and stop!) sending mail to our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan! So PLEASE keep us updated on your service member's address (ANY active duty military too)! It is sad when a box or letter is returned!!! We want to make sure all mail gets to the intended recipient!

--We not only need names of deployed service members, but we also need contact information. We do not have any contact information for Travis Wade. Does anyone know to whom he belongs?? Please refresh my memory!

Hope to see you soon!
God Bless our Troops and their families!
Nancy Peabody

Origin of "TAPS"

We in the United States have all heard the haunting song "TAPS".
It's the song that gives us a lump in the throat and usually tears in our eyes.
But do you know the story behind the the song?
If not, I think you will be interested to find out it's origins.


Taps came out of the Civil War. Union Gen. Daniel Butterfield, camped with his brigade at Harrison's Landing, Va., in the summer of 1862, asked his bugler to try a new tune. The bugler, Oliver Wilcox Norton, did not know so at the time but the simple call Butterfield scratched on an envelope and asked him to sound came from an early version of "Tattoo," a bugle call used to alert troops to prepare for bedtime roll call. This particular "Tattoo" had gone out of use by the time of the Civil War.

"Butterfield knew the tune, however, from his days before the war as a colonel in the New York militia," . "It's the `Tattoo' by Winfield Scott, composed in 1835, also known as the `Scott Tattoo.' The last five-and-a-half measures are distinctly taps."
Norton worked out the call with Butterfield, then sounded it in camp. "The music was beautiful on that still summer night, and was heard far beyond the limits of our brigade," Norton later wrote. "The next day I was visited by several buglers from neighboring brigades, asking for copies of the music, which I gladly furnished. I think no general order was issued from army headquarters authorizing the substitution of this for the regulation call, but as each brigade commander exercised his own discretion in such minor matters, the call was gradually taken up through the Army of the Potomac."
Of the call, Norton wrote: "Its strains are melancholy, yet full of rest and peace. Its echoes linger in the heart long after its tones have ceased to vibrate in the air."



Though its use at military funerals became mandatory with the publication of the U.S. Army Infantry Drill Regulations for 1891, taps might have been heard graveside for the first time shortly after the Butterfield-Norton collaboration.
The first use of Taps at a funeral during the Peninsular Campaign in Virginia. Captain John C. Tidball of Battery A, 2nd Artillery ordered it played for the burial of a cannoneer killed in action. Since the enemy was close, he worried that the traditional 3 volleys would renew fighting.
During the Peninsular Campaign in 1862, a soldier of Tidball's Battery - A of the 2nd Artillery - was buried at a time when the battery occupied an advanced position, concealed in the woods. It was unsafe to fire the customary three volleys over the grave on account of the proximity of the enemy, and it occurred to Captain Tidball that the sounding of Taps would be the most ceremony that would be substituted. The custom, thus originated, was taken up throughout the Army of the Potomac, and finally confirmed by orders. Colonel James A. Moss Officer's Manual Pub. George Banta Publishing Co. Menasha Wisconsin 1913 Elbridge Coby in Army Talk (Princeton, 1942), p.208 states that it was B Battery of the Third Artillery that first used Taps at a military funeral.


"A popular myth is that of a Northern boy who was killed fighting for the South," writes Villanueva, in notes for the exhibit. "His father, Robert Ellicombe, a captain in the Union Army, came upon his son's body on the battlefield and found the notes to taps in a pocket of the dead boy's Confederate uniform. When Union General Daniel Sickles heard the story, he had the notes sounded at the boy's funeral. But there is no evidence to back up the story or the existence of a Capt. Ellicombe."
Butterfield gets the credit for taps. A few years after the Civil War, he resigned from the Army and spent his retirement at a country home in Cold Spring, N.Y., overlooking the Hudson River, within earshot of West Point. He could hear a bugler at the military academy sound taps each evening.

While there are no official lyrics for Taps, the following unofficial verse (author unknown) is often used:

Fading light dims the sight, And a star gems the sky, gleaming bright.
From afar drawing nigh -- Falls the night.
Day is done, gone the sun, From the lake, from the hills, from the sky;
All is well, safely rest, God is nigh.
Then good night, peaceful night, Till the light of the dawn shineth bright;
God is near, do not fear -- Friend, good night.