To my friends (and nieces) in the Waterford, Connecticut Young Women’s Program (and your leaders):

Yesterday was kind of a “blah” day in our clinic. It was stiflingly hot outside, the flow of patients was slower-than-usual (often happens when it is really hot out—even the sick people don’t want to leave the air-conditioning to get seen), and there was just not a whole lot going on.

At around 3:30 PM, we sent a medic out to pick up the mail. When he returned to clinic at 4:15, he looked pretty glum, as he brought in four priority mail boxes, and not much else. A few of the medics got up when he walked through the door, but he shooed them off, saying “don’t bother; it’s all for MAJ Rupard.” I looked at the return addresses, and knew right away that the boxes were from you, and were not just for me, but for everyone. When I explained this, everyone got pretty excited again, and we gathered around the boxes and opened them, one-by-one.

Some of the great things in the boxes included:

• drink mixes by crystal light (and other brands)
• lots of great books for our clinic library, including a couple of my all-time favorites (”Holes”!!)
• Quaker Granola Bars
• Peanut M&Ms
• Peanut Butter M&Ms (woo-hoo!)
• kudos bars
• gum
• Chips Ahoy cookies
• and a lot of other good stuff

In short, the boxes were packed with sugary (and sugar-free) goodness. By far, my favorite thing were the letters, though, which are so sweet and heartfelt.

So, to the young women of the Waterford Ward, and to your adult leaders, please accept a grateful “Thank You” from me, the medics, and the patients of the 581st Troop Medical Clinic in Al Asad, Iraq. Your generosity and kindness has touched many lives. There are a large number of soldiers and Marines out here who rarely or never receive packages from home, and the efforts of people like you go a long way toward making deployed life just a bit nicer for all of us.

Your brother,

MAJ Erik J. Rupard, MD
Medical Officer-In-Charge
Troop Medical Clinic
Al Asad, IQ