During the weekend of 12-13 April, 2003, the NCBC Sea Cadets went public with their efforts to collect items and assemble "care packages" to support US Navy medical personnel of Fleet Hospital Three (FH-3), a mobile land-based field hospital that was engaged in Operation Iraqi Freedom. FH-3 was the U.S. Navy's first Expeditionary Medical Facility (EMF) that was forward deployed in a war zone. The Sea Cadets of NCBC Division "adopted" FH-3, in a coordinated effort with the command staff of Naval Hospital Pensacola, FL and Naval Hospital Beaufort, SC. Items requested by the doctors, nurses, and corpsmen at FH-3 were baked goods (packaged for shipment), beef jerky, gum, blow pops, corn chips, cashews, pistachios, wet naps (baby wipes), and lots of letter writing materials (blank holiday cards, birthday cards, anniversary cards, blank paper and envelopes). The web site for FH-3 is http://psaweb.med.navy.mil/fleethospital/Default.htm.
The weather did not cooperate - Saturday dawned with a bone-chilling wind and driving rain, which continued through most of the day. Most of the activities took place inside the North Kingstown Community Center that day. The Cadets again turned out in force on Sunday, a beautiful day, and a total of ten containers of goods were collected for shipment to Iraq. After a day of packing and filling out forms, all the packages were shipped on Tuesday (tax day), 15 April. Ten more containers were shipped at the end of April.
The Sea Cadets of NCBC Division will continue to support the men and women of Fleet Hospital Three for the duration of their deployment in Iraq. Those wishing to donate items on the list above should contact the Cadets at their earliest convenience. Contact information can be found here. A Press Release describing the operation can be downloaded here (Adobe Acrobat format).
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With Major General Reginald Centracchio. |
The NCBC display and drop zone, on the bay. |
Packages are prepped for shipping. |
US Customs Labels: "Toiletries and Snacks." |
A Sea Cadet fills out shipping labels. |
Sea Cadet assists Postal Service employee. |
Every package gets checked again. |
Sea Cadet assists Postal Service employee. |
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