1) Here's the deal….I do annual book drives to collect reading material to send to our troops overseas. I'm asking you to PLEASE send me stuff and then I'll box it all up and send it to the troops. The value of this sort of effort can be best summed up by a post made last June on MuskieFirst…

2) Nathan Alexander

Posted 6/30/2010 8:38 AM (#448022)
Subject: Many, many, many thanks!

A few days ago I received 9 big boxes here in Baghdad, Iraq.
People saw me bring the boxes out of the mail room, and many gathered round to watch as I opened them up.

The magazines were received with great excitement.

There was a scramble for the American Rifleman magazines. There was another small scramble for the handful of guitar magazines…they are pretty hard to find around here.

Interestingly, the base I'm at in Iraq actually has several small lakes/ponds around, but filled with carp rather than muskie. Still, there are plenty of people who enjoy fishing for the carp…and clearly, there were people interested in fishing after they get back home, because over the last few days since I put all the magazines out, about 2/3 of the Muskie magazines have been claimed. About the same number of Field&Stream and Bow Hunter have been taken at the same time. Since there seemed to be as many Muskie magazines as all the other magazines combined, that's really impressive.

I was extremely impressed with the books, too: there were some modern classics and older classics, too. I never expected to see "Alice in Wonderland" or "Catcher in the Rye"!

I grabbed the Dilbert book…someone else took the Doonesbury and Bloom County books within minutes.

And the puzzle books and Redbook magazines were also gone pretty quickly.

All in all, your warm gift was very appreciated by all around here. You brightened our day and made our lives here a little more interesting.

Thanks so much for your generosity!

And thanks to Ranger/Rick (not sure what he's called here) for organizing this and sending the boxes out to us!

We truly appreciate the support of all patriots back home!

Capt Nathan Alexander, USAF

3) Some details…

a) This year's goal is to send at least 150 pounds of reading material.
b) protocol for sumbission requires that I send nothing that might be considered erotic
c) i usually cover the cost of the international shipping myself but times are a bit more difficult these days. If you could throw in a couple bucks to help me cover the big shipping cost it would be very helpful
d) Both Bass Pro Shops and Cabbella's are sending me HUNDREDS of new catalogs. This year Bass Pro is going to put notes of support for the troops in each book they send to me, is that not ever-so-cool?

I'm hopeful for lots of participation

please send yer stuff to me at

Rick Fox
93892 Streeter Drive
Lawton, MI 49065

Please make an effort to post support for this effort in this thread.

Thank you everyone!