Phone cards, notes offered soldiers support
The Veterans Council of Monroe and Jamesburg thanks the residents of Monroe, Jamesburg and the surrounding area for the generous donations of phone cards, which we were able to bring to the soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C., on Oct. 31.

We also thank Mayor Richard Pucci and the Monroe Township Council for the bus that made it possible for us to deliver the cards to the soldiers personally.

Of at least equal importance were the notes of support for the soldiers from the students of Applegarth Middle School, Monroe. The phone cards were material support; the notes were emotional and spiritual support.

Soldiers who have volunteered to serve their country and are then transported far away from family to a strange country, where many are hostile to them, where they may be sleepdeprived, where they are subject to extremes of heat and cold and where they often have to sleep on the ground and must constantly be on the alert to threats on their lives, may feel isolated and alone. They may be disheartened when politicians say, "You have lost. Go home." What sustains them is the support of their buddies and the support of the American people.

Those notes from the students were very comforting to the soldiers, assuring them that the American people respected them and cared about them.

Dan Mann

President Veterans Council of Monroe

and Jamesburg