BLACKFIVE: Operation AC Needs Your Help!

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Operation AC Needs Your Help!

Posted By Blackfive

All, if you recall a great soldier by the name of LTC Crissman from Mike Yon's dispatches, Frankie Mayo of Operation AC is trying to send air conditioners to his task force in Hit, Iraq. And, BTW, if anyone wants to sponsor (to send) a pallet of MREs to the Brits in Basra, Frankie is the woman who can make that happen. Below is her message to all of you (I donated today):

Operation Air Conditioner – a rebel with a cause.
Frankie Mayo

I am not a writer. I’m just a soldier’s mom who decided that when good people band together, anything is possible. In 2003, my son Chris served in Iraq with the 300^th Military Police Company out of Ft. Riley. Along with him was his girl and future wife Kim, an M249 gunner, who served for 369 days in Iraq. They’re home now and their story is out there for you to Google.

My life was changed when an email from Chris arrived in 2003: “Mom can you organize and raise money to send us some air conditioners? It’s 143 degrees in my HMMWV…” Long story short, I did send some air conditioners—9,400 air conditioners to be exact. But that was before the people who are running this war stopped cooperating and made it nearly impossible to get air conditioners to Iraq. Until now. For over a month, we have secretly been sending air conditioners to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. We did this to test whether what we were being told was actually true, that the air conditioners wouldn’t and couldn’t get there. What we found, instead, was that they got to their destinations. That tells us that the decision to block air conditioner shipment, because that’s what they’re doing, blocking the shipments, is being made by someone at the Pentagon. No doubt this someone is making decisions like this from the comfort of an air conditioned office.

Let me quote some emails I’ve received about this:

“…I will look into it. I do know several folks at dod are cautious about sending air conditioners.. it competes with other types of shipments...or so they say.”

” The competition is filling up the mail distribution with things as big as air conditioners. The folks here at dod often talk about the air conditioners and how difficult that was for the mail delivery system in country."

I would like to add that the boxes we ship the air conditioners in are within the size and approximate weight to meet the military shipping requirements. Despite this, we were told that we could not ship them via the US Postal System because of the “hazardous materials” contained in the air conditioners. After a bit of work, we found an alternative shipper in DHL who were happy to fly in our shipments.

I also took the extra step of asking if the Baghdad mail center would be able to accept them, and that is when I was told a very loud “NO!” I was told that the Baghdad mail center will not accept the air conditioners, period. Given what was said in those emails so plainly only proves that “they” think they know best for our guys on the ground in all things. Meanwhile, our troops are being bound in red tape with outsourced vendors who have to comply with contractual obligations whether it be processing the mail (KBR does that) or getting air conditioners to our troops.

With this said, I have spent the last month creating a delivery and logistics path right to the units themselves via private carrier. It takes money to do this and lots of it. While I can buy one air conditioner for $85, it costs me an additional $100 to send it. Yes, it may sound insane, but we have done it thousands of times over and here is why: Our government is getting air conditioners to our troops on the ground by “authorizing” the local people to sell them to them.

Why? Because KBR is only contracted to replace air conditioning units in the living spaces (trailers) and common spaces which they are contracted and nothing more. This means that there is a huge supply and demand issue. Our troops have great difficulty getting them, and when they do, the price is huge. As well, once they do buy them, they are left waiting and waiting for them to be delivered. This is going on while it is 114 degrees in the shade and our guys are in their full battle rattle sweating their behinds off. Literally.

Listen, I know there are some 250 organizations who send care packages and all sorts of stuff to our troops. I also know from being on the inside of this “America Supports You” effort that there are other organizations whose only interest is raising money, paying themselves fat salaries, and getting on TV and radio so they can tell everyone how much “good” they do for our troops. To me that is nothing more than getting fat at the expense of our troops.

We don’t do that. What we do is get the supplies that our troops need to them. Let’s talk about combat boots and medical supplies. We’ve sent over 7,500 pairs of combat boots costing over $465,000 and over $57,000 in medical supplies. No wonder the big wheels at the Pentagon don’t want to talk about us or give us a big corporate sponsor. If they do, it will expose them for who they are because we do things they are supposed to do.

Now, I don’t get into the politics of why there isn’t this or that and why the money that was supposed to go for it isn’t there. Other people are taking care of that. In fact, I have cooperated with and sent actual evidence to the DoD Inspector General’s office against KBR for what I found to be mischarging back in September 2005. I have the DCIS Form 14 here to prove it signed by the Special Agent. The evidence was mailed to me from Iraq on 19 September 2005 because those who did so trusted me to make sure it got into the correct hands. I will go into it in more detail at another time if my gracious mil-blogger hosts allow it.

My concern is our troops and to help them, we need to band together to get this done. The only and best way to do it is for us to buy them here in the USA and ship them by air freight via DHL Danzas Air & Ocean to Iraq and to Afghanistan. In other words, Operation AC is back where we started: getting sorely needed air conditioners to our troops.

On Friday, June 22^nd we will begin taking sign-ups from S4s (unit supply personnel) and entire deployed units who are in need of the air conditioners. We already have many units on the ground asking, and our inbox is stuffed with several hundred emails. I asked the people who run this war to help me and they flat out told me, “NO!”(They’re very good at that.)

The question is will you help us do this again? We got those 9,400 air conditioners to our troops in the past by the Grace of God and supporters who believed in us. We know it will once again happen that way this time around.

So we are asking for your financial support. You can go to www.operationac.com and donate by clicking the PayPal button. Or you can send us a check—we are a 501(c)3 non-profit company and our federal tax ID is 02-0699201.

We’ve been here since 2003 sending supplies to our troops and we don’t intend to let bureaucrats in comfy, air conditioned offices at the Pentagon stop us now. If you can’t send a soldier on the ground something they can use, it is useless. Useless items like candy are “turning good Iraqi kids into brats” says my dear friend Mike Yon. Operation AC sends useful items.

Nothing is impossible because through God all things are possible. I pray that my fellow Americans answer this call and help Operation AC help our troops by doing what we do best—sending air conditioners, new combat boots, medical supplies, ACUs, ACH chin-strap systems, tourniquet systems, quick-clot, new socks, t-shirts, personal care items, Petzl headlamps, hand-held GPS systems and anything else they need or ask for because we find what they want and need and get it there. Period. That is our solemn duty to the troops.

Thanks for listening, I will get off the soapbox for now.

Mrs. Frankie Mayo,
Still a soldier’s mom and a rebel with a cause…

Mission: To protect and promote the reputation and dignity of America's Warriors.
Join us!

June 19, 2007 • Permalink
Categories and Tags: Caring For The Defenders • Technorati Links
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Comments

Operation Air Conditioner – a rebel with a cause.
Frankie Mayo

I am not a writer. I’m just a soldier’s mom who decided that when good people band together, anything is possible. In 2003, my son Chris served in Iraq with the 300^th Military Police Company out of Ft. Riley. Along with him was his girl and future wife Kim, an M249 gunner, who served for 369 days in Iraq. They’re home now and their story is out there for you to Google.

My life was changed when an email from Chris arrived in 2003: “Mom can you organize and raise money to send us some air conditioners? It’s 143 degrees in my HMMWV…” Long story short, I did send some air conditioners—9,400 air conditioners to be exact. But that was before the people who are running this war stopped cooperating and made it nearly impossible to get air conditioners to Iraq. Until now. For over a month, we have secretly been sending air conditioners to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. We did this to test whether what we were being told was actually true, that the air conditioners wouldn’t and couldn’t get there. What we found, instead, was that they got to their destinations. That tells us that the decision to block air conditioner shipment, because that’s what they’re doing, blocking the shipments, is being made by someone at the Pentagon. No doubt this someone is making decisions like this from the comfort of an air conditioned office.

Let me quote some emails I’ve received about this:

“…I will look into it. I do know several folks at dod are cautious about sending air conditioners.. it competes with other types of shipments...or so they say.”

” The competition is filling up the mail distribution with things as big as air conditioners. The folks here at dod often talk about the air conditioners and how difficult that was for the mail delivery system in country."

I would like to add that the boxes we ship the air conditioners in are within the size and approximate weight to meet the military shipping requirements. Despite this, we were told that we could not ship them via the US Postal System because of the “hazardous materials” contained in the air conditioners. After a bit of work, we found an alternative shipper in DHL who were happy to fly in our shipments.

I also took the extra step of asking if the Baghdad mail center would be able to accept them, and that is when I was told a very loud “NO!” I was told that the Baghdad mail center will not accept the air conditioners, period. Given what was said in those emails so plainly only proves that “they” think they know best for our guys on the ground in all things. Meanwhile, our troops are being bound in red tape with outsourced vendors who have to comply with contractual obligations whether it be processing the mail (KBR does that) or getting air conditioners to our troops.

With this said, I have spent the last month creating a delivery and logistics path right to the units themselves via private carrier. It takes money to do this and lots of it. While I can buy one air conditioner for $85, it costs me an additional $100 to send it. Yes, it may sound insane, but we have done it thousands of times over and here is why: Our government is getting air conditioners to our troops on the ground by “authorizing” the local people to sell them to them.

Why? Because KBR is only contracted to replace air conditioning units in the living spaces (trailers) and common spaces which they are contracted and nothing more. This means that there is a huge supply and demand issue. Our troops have great difficulty getting them, and when they do, the price is huge. As well, once they do buy them, they are left waiting and waiting for them to be delivered. This is going on while it is 114 degrees in the shade and our guys are in their full battle rattle sweating their behinds off. Literally.

Listen, I know there are some 250 organizations who send care packages and all sorts of stuff to our troops. I also know from being on the inside of this “America Supports You” effort that there are other organizations whose only interest is raising money, paying themselves fat salaries, and getting on TV and radio so they can tell everyone how much “good” they do for our troops. To me that is nothing more than getting fat at the expense of our troops.

We don’t do that. What we do is get the supplies that our troops need to them. Let’s talk about combat boots and medical supplies. We’ve sent over 7,500 pairs of combat boots costing over $465,000 and over $57,000 in medical supplies. No wonder the big wheels at the Pentagon don’t want to talk about us or give us a big corporate sponsor. If they do, it will expose them for who they are because we do things they are supposed to do.

Now, I don’t get into the politics of why there isn’t this or that and why the money that was supposed to go for it isn’t there. Other people are taking care of that. In fact, I have cooperated with and sent actual evidence to the DoD Inspector General’s office against KBR for what I found to be mischarging back in September 2005. I have the DCIS Form 14 here to prove it signed by the Special Agent. The evidence was mailed to me from Iraq on 19 September 2005 because those who did so trusted me to make sure it got into the correct hands. I will go into it in more detail at another time if my gracious mil-blogger hosts allow it.

My concern is our troops and to help them, we need to band together to get this done. The only and best way to do it is for us to buy them here in the USA and ship them by air freight via DHL Danzas Air & Ocean to Iraq and to Afghanistan. In other words, Operation AC is back where we started: getting sorely needed air conditioners to our troops.

On Friday, June 22^nd we will begin taking sign-ups from S4s (unit supply personnel) and entire deployed units who are in need of the air conditioners. We already have many units on the ground asking, and our inbox is stuffed with several hundred emails. I asked the people who run this war to help me and they flat out told me, “NO!”(They’re very good at that.)

The question is will you help us do this again? We got those 9,400 air conditioners to our troops in the past by the Grace of God and supporters who believed in us. We know it will once again happen that way this time around.

So we are asking for your financial support. You can go to www.operationac.com and donate by clicking the PayPal button. Or you can send us a check—we are a 501(c)3 non-profit company and our federal tax ID is 02-0699201.

We’ve been here since 2003 sending supplies to our troops and we don’t intend to let bureaucrats in comfy, air conditioned offices at the Pentagon stop us now. If you can’t send a soldier on the ground something they can use, it is useless. Useless items like candy are “turning good Iraqi kids into brats” says my dear friend Mike Yon. Operation AC sends useful items.

Nothing is impossible because through God all things are possible. I pray that my fellow Americans answer this call and help Operation AC help our troops by doing what we do best—sending air conditioners, new combat boots, medical supplies, ACUs, ACH chin-strap systems, tourniquet systems, quick-clot, new socks, t-shirts, personal care items, Petzl headlamps, hand-held GPS systems and anything else they need or ask for because we find what they want and need and get it there. Period. That is our solemn duty to the troops.

Thanks for listening, I will get off the soapbox for now.

Mrs. Frankie Mayo,
Still a soldier’s mom and a rebel with a cause…