- Joined
- Jan 2, 2010
- Messages
- 929
Awesome project and great looking knife!
Knives going to Afghanistan
- Thread starter roxtar
- Start date
james terrio
Sharpest Knife in the Light Socket
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2010
- Messages
- 22,618
Cool project, I admire you all for taking part in it. :thumbup:
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2010
- Messages
- 85
Good on ya for both the sharpening and the coffee.they will be packed up good with 3 bags of green coffee beans (that i'm using as packing) for you to roast.
Nothing comes close to true fresh roasted coffee.
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2007
- Messages
- 1,424
As a service member stuck in Iraq right now, (The Memo doesn't seem to apply to us...) I just wanted to say THANKS to you guys!!!!! It was cool the other day to be walking by the post office, stuck in Baghdad, living out of a rucksack, waiting four days for the next leg of flight to be able to grab one of the "Any Soldier" boxes, even though I'm a sailor, and have a little touch of Christmas in the transient tent. I've got a great job and get to travel in the region and I can tell you from Afghanistan to Iraq and everywhere in between, things like this are much appreciated. Very much appreciated. Thanks! Thanks! Thanks!!!!
Blaine
Blaine
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2010
- Messages
- 85
Trail Edge
BANNED
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2011
- Messages
- 936
Neat project, great thread
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2010
- Messages
- 85
I received this from my brother in law:
My dear fellow Americans and patriots.
I cannot tell you what your efforts on the behalf of myself and my team means to us. I apologize for the long pause before thanking you but have finally delivered the last of the knives to the respective Raptors and wanted to include their sentiments in this note of thanks. I'm unsure how much room I get on your blog so I will try to be brief.
First let me tell you that for me it was the perfect thank you to a great group of soldiers that served our country with courage, determination, and distinction. There were six of us at the core of the team and we lived in various combat outpost, six miles from the border of Pakistan. We operated in three districts of Khost Province called Sabari, Bak, and Terezayi. We are Civil Affairs soldiers of the 415th Civil Affairs Battalion, under Special Operations Forces, Fort Bragg, NC. The mission for this tour was made difficult by the lack of a national plan to end the war or find some small victory we can use to justify our exit from it. I gave them a simple mission we could accomplish and I feel they did it very well. Our mission, to get as many soldiers home on the plane, than under it. In other words do what you must to get our men to the fight and home again, alive and well. Sabari district is fractionalized and impossible to reunite, it seems, while Bak was unsettled when we moved in and built our encampment. Terezayi served as the back door to Pakistan which we had to close as entry and exit points if we were to isolate and settle Sabari and Bak.
We took numerous casualties the first week on the ground in Bak but by the end of the tour were winning the fight through negotiations and patience. Our efforts were support by three other individuals your knives went to. LTC Harmon, CPT Tapalman, and CPT Eccleston, all of the First Infantry Division, The Big Red One. LTC Harmon is the Battalion Commander who owns the battle space and who, on the first day, turned the operational efforts of controlling it over to my team. Eccleston and Tapalman are the Infantry Commanders of the troops who took us out, day in and day out. We conducted daily foot patrols to visit the villages and areas Taliban live which ultimately lead to the kinds of conversations we needed to have to broker cease fires. During my own three tours we lost 36 soldiers and suffered 154 wounded. However, because of my soldiers efforts in negotiating meaningful ceasefires with Afghan Taliban, we only lost 5 soldiers, 4 Afghan Soldiers, and had roughly 20 wounded in over 200 attacks on our three outposts.
I presented your knives to my team at our official welcome home ceremony for the 415th Civil Affairs Battalion in Kalamazoo, Michigan. I described for them the effort that was undertaken by you, American craftsmen, to provide them a meaningful and significant token of appreciation as a thank you for what their service. The men were beside themselves to say the least that Americans they do not know would do such a deed. Speechless in fact to hear what each of you contributed to this project on their behalf. LTC Harmon and the commanders were also as appreciative and send their thanks as well. I myself dont have enough words to express my gratitude and am in your debt and will forever cherish such a work of art and will display it with much pride.
My men served their country very well and were proud to do it and for you to represent their efforts in such a generous and selfless way is beyond words. You are true patriots and we were proud to have fought for Americans like you. Thank you one and all.
Semper Fi
Captain Steve Baunach, Raptor 5.
Once again, I'd like to echo his sentiments and thank all those who donated to this project.
My dear fellow Americans and patriots.
I cannot tell you what your efforts on the behalf of myself and my team means to us. I apologize for the long pause before thanking you but have finally delivered the last of the knives to the respective Raptors and wanted to include their sentiments in this note of thanks. I'm unsure how much room I get on your blog so I will try to be brief.
First let me tell you that for me it was the perfect thank you to a great group of soldiers that served our country with courage, determination, and distinction. There were six of us at the core of the team and we lived in various combat outpost, six miles from the border of Pakistan. We operated in three districts of Khost Province called Sabari, Bak, and Terezayi. We are Civil Affairs soldiers of the 415th Civil Affairs Battalion, under Special Operations Forces, Fort Bragg, NC. The mission for this tour was made difficult by the lack of a national plan to end the war or find some small victory we can use to justify our exit from it. I gave them a simple mission we could accomplish and I feel they did it very well. Our mission, to get as many soldiers home on the plane, than under it. In other words do what you must to get our men to the fight and home again, alive and well. Sabari district is fractionalized and impossible to reunite, it seems, while Bak was unsettled when we moved in and built our encampment. Terezayi served as the back door to Pakistan which we had to close as entry and exit points if we were to isolate and settle Sabari and Bak.
We took numerous casualties the first week on the ground in Bak but by the end of the tour were winning the fight through negotiations and patience. Our efforts were support by three other individuals your knives went to. LTC Harmon, CPT Tapalman, and CPT Eccleston, all of the First Infantry Division, The Big Red One. LTC Harmon is the Battalion Commander who owns the battle space and who, on the first day, turned the operational efforts of controlling it over to my team. Eccleston and Tapalman are the Infantry Commanders of the troops who took us out, day in and day out. We conducted daily foot patrols to visit the villages and areas Taliban live which ultimately lead to the kinds of conversations we needed to have to broker cease fires. During my own three tours we lost 36 soldiers and suffered 154 wounded. However, because of my soldiers efforts in negotiating meaningful ceasefires with Afghan Taliban, we only lost 5 soldiers, 4 Afghan Soldiers, and had roughly 20 wounded in over 200 attacks on our three outposts.
I presented your knives to my team at our official welcome home ceremony for the 415th Civil Affairs Battalion in Kalamazoo, Michigan. I described for them the effort that was undertaken by you, American craftsmen, to provide them a meaningful and significant token of appreciation as a thank you for what their service. The men were beside themselves to say the least that Americans they do not know would do such a deed. Speechless in fact to hear what each of you contributed to this project on their behalf. LTC Harmon and the commanders were also as appreciative and send their thanks as well. I myself dont have enough words to express my gratitude and am in your debt and will forever cherish such a work of art and will display it with much pride.
My men served their country very well and were proud to do it and for you to represent their efforts in such a generous and selfless way is beyond words. You are true patriots and we were proud to have fought for Americans like you. Thank you one and all.
Semper Fi
Captain Steve Baunach, Raptor 5.
Once again, I'd like to echo his sentiments and thank all those who donated to this project.