Kelby
Thank You for being over there. Hope the rest of the tour goes well for your unit.
From an old Vet to a young soldier.

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Steven K. Crawford
RKS 4109

Kelby,
THANK YOU for your service and keep up the great job!
God Bless,
Tony

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Tony LaPetri
RKS#1885

Here is a photo of our first Special Fighter, Garrick Bowles back in Iraq enjoying his Thanksgiving meal with his bud's.

SSG Matthys, Douglas W. in Iraq.

Insurgents, be afraid, be very afraid.

Sgt. Doug gave permission to post this:

Elections went very smooth. Had some vehicles carrying ballots roll thru the
ECP. A curfew was in place in Baghdad, so it was meant to be smooth. The next
few days while ballots are counted and results posted is what we are braced for.
Just got back from the chow hall. They gave us two beers per an for the
SuperBowl. nobody watched the game, slammed two beers and left. I must
confess, they were damn good. Sorry for not writing more than a few lines
lately, just busy as hell lately and time gets away from you. Boom count up to
around 40. Hard to believe. Will be at Caddo in no time. Send the pic of your
knife to Wilk, I told him abouit it tonight, we sat together and consumed. I
look forward to the two of you meeting, he's a good man.

SSG Doug Matthys
B TRP 1-124 CAV
BUBBAFEST FOUNDER
CADDO LAKE ENTHUSIAST
RANDALL KNIFE OWNER

In case the acronym eludes anyone, ECP = Entry Control Point.

Thanks Wally.

Talked to Sgt. Doug for an hour Saturday (via Skype) before the Guy Clark concert.

The Boom Count is 60+.

I should probably pm this but I'm just too lazy to figure out how, everyone forgive me... TTB I have the block of Cherry Micarta and plan on hand delivering it to the shop in May, tenatively for a #2-4... (Reduced hilt)

I've got two knives coming up in May and I'm going to go down to Orlando to pick them up and then to Odessa, to have the sheathes fitted. Visiting the shop is always a good excuse to order another knife! One of the ones I'm supposed to pick up is a #2-8, Silver by Doug Cream and Ivory courtesy of the good Captain... life is good...

I know this is the Special Fighter area, and I apoligize for taking up the space here when it's supposed to be about the American heroes getting the job done as we speak. God knows I love the military and my heart always goes out to those who stand on the wall every night. It truly is a helluva country!

I received the following email from one of my colleagues at the Department of Defense in connection with some of the work I do for them. To my mind it is a reaffirmation of how really special our Special Fighters' project is since we know that 100% of all the things and money we donate go to the troops with the only adminsitration expense being the actual cost of the shipping, and I am willing to bet that TTB frequently eats that expense.

One more huge WELL DONE!! goes out to Rhett, TTB and all the folks who contribute time, money and stuff.

You may want to note which "charities" received failing grades before you write a check to any organization besides our Special Fighters:

Quote:

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AMERICAN VETERAN'S CHARITIES - A SHAM!!

Americans gave millions of dollars in the past year to veterans charities
designed to help troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, but several of the
groups spent relatively little money on the wounded, according to a leading
watchdog organization and federal tax filings.

Eight veterans charities, including some of the nation's largest, gave less than
a third of the money raised to the causes they champion, far below the
recommended standard, the American Institute of Philanthropy says in a report.
One group passed along 1 cent for every dollar raised, the report says. Another
paid its founder and his wife a combined $540,000 in compensation and benefits
last year, a Washington Post analysis of tax filings showed.

Richard H. Esau Jr., executive director of the Military Order of the Purple
Heart Service Foundation, based in Annandale, said the cost of fundraising
limits how much his group can spend on charitable causes. 'Do you have any idea
how much money it costs to advertise? It's unbelievable the amount of money it
takes to advertise in the print and electronic media,' he said. 'I'm very proud
of what we do, and we certainly do look after everybody. The point is we do the
right thing by veterans.'

Borochoff said many Veterans charities are 'woefully inefficient, ' spending
large sums on costly direct-mail advertising. 'They over-solicit. They love to
send out a lot of trinkets and stickers and greeting cards and flags and things
that waste a lot of money that they get little return on,' said Borochoff, who
plans to testify before Congress today.

The philanthropy institute gave F's to 12 of the 29 military charities reviewed
and D's to eight. Five were awarded A-pluses, including the Fisher House
Foundation in Rockville, which the institute says directs more than 90 percent
of its income to charitable causes.

One group received an A, and one received an A-minus. Jim Weiskopf, spokesman
for Fisher House, said the charity does not use direct-mail advertising. 'As
soon as you do direct mail, your fund-raising expenses go up astronomically, '
he said.

One egregious example, Borochoff said, is Help Hospitalized Veterans, which was
founded in 1971 by Roger Chapin, a veteran of the Army Finance Corps and a San
Diego real estate developer. The charity, which provides therapeutic arts and
crafts kits to hospitalized veterans, reported income of $71.3 million last year
and spent about one-third of that money on charitable work, the philanthropy
institute said.

In its tax filings, Help Hospitalized Veterans reported paying more than $4
million to direct-mail fundraising consultants. The group also has run
television advertisements featuring actor Sam Waterston, game show host Pat
Sajak and other celebrities.

Bennett Weiner, chief operating officer of the Better Business Bureau, said the
agency has 20 standards for reviewing charities, including that a charity's
fundraising and overhead costs not exceed 35 percent of total contributions.

The American Institute of Philanthropy, a leading charity watchdog, issued a
report card this month for 29 veterans and military charities. Letter grades
were based largely on the charities' fundraising costs and the percentage of
money raised that was spent on charitable activities. The charities that
received failing grades are in bold type.

Air Force Aid Society (A+)

American Ex-Prisoners of War Service Foundation (F)

American Veterans Coalition (F)

American Veterans Relief Foundation (F)

AMVETS National Service Foundation (F)

Armed Services YMCA of the USA (A-)

Army Emergency Relief (A+)

Blinded Veterans Association (D)

Disabled American Veterans (D)

Disabled Veterans Association (F)

Fisher House Foundation (A+)

Freedom Alliance (F)

Help Hospitalized Veterans/Coalition to Salute America's Heroes (F)

Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund (A+)

Military Order of the Purple Heart Service Foundation (F)

National Military Family Association (A)

National Veterans Services Fund (F)

National Vietnam Veterans Committee (D)

Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society (A+)

NCOA National Defense Foundation (F)

Paralyzed Veterans of America (F)

Soldiers' Angels (D)

United Spinal Association' s Wounded Warrior Project (D)

USO (United Service Organization) (C+)

Veterans of Foreign Wars and Foundation (C-)

Veterans of the Vietnam War & the Veterans Coalition (D)

Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (D)

VietNow National Headquarters (F)

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Regards,
Doug

THANKS DOUG!
Very Helpful info.
Tony