Corporate America suppoting the troops - Crown Royal Steps Up

Iconic Crown Royal Bags Being Shipped to Troops Overseas

It’s still purple! The iconic Crown Royal purple bag is heading to Afghanistan, but in camouflage

ATLANTA (Sept. 16, 2010) – On their most important mission to date, camouflage-designed Crown Royal purple bags will be packed with gift items for America’s bravest, just in time for the holidays. Crown Royal, teaming up with non-profit Operation Troop Aid, is dispatching 10,000 of the specially designed bags to legal-drinking age troops on overseas deployment, including Afghanistan and Iraq. Volunteers in select events across the country will stuff the bags with personal care items, snacks and phone cards. “I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for troops to be away from their family and friends, especially during the holidays,” said Yvonne Briese, Crown Royal Brand Director. “We hope they like the CAMObags
and that this small gesture shows we are thinking about them back home and wishing them a safe return.”

Included in the bag, service members will receive well-wishes in the form of a hand-written message from each member of the Crown Royal team, including NASCAR driver Matt Kenseth, legendary football coach Jimmy Johnson, along with thousands of Diageo employees and partners.

To kickoff the program, a special event was held earlier today in Atlanta at Piedmont Park. During the event, hosted by legendary football coach and Crown Royal spokesperson Jimmy Johnson, the first Operation CAMO Care Packages were filled, and the parties unveiled a special mural that represents the program’s mission to ensure that soldiers serving abroad are reminded that those at home truly admire
and acknowledge their on-going commitment to protecting this country.

“After traveling to Afghanistan last year, I witnessed first-hand the daily struggles experienced by our troops to keep this great country of ours safe, and it had a profound affect on me,” Johnson said. “When one of the troops opens a Crown Royal CAMO bag, I hope they crack a smile and are reassured that home is not that far away.”

Operation CAMO Care Package kits include personal care items such as a toothbrush, toothpaste,comb, soap, shampoo, body wash, shaving cream, disposable razor and sunscreen. Soldiers will also find snacks such as trail mix, peanuts, cookies and candies. Select units will also receive 120-minute international phone cards to call their loved ones.

For more information on Operation CAMO Care Package and Crown Royal’s commitment to supporting the military, visit www.crownroyal.com/military. Crown Royal reminds adult consumers to always please drink responsibly.

Off To Afghanistan !

Sept 28, 2009, Dulles Airport.

It’s actually quite simple; if you want to write accurately about what’s happening in Afghanistan, you need to go there, spend some time, ask a lot of questions, and get out in the field with our Marines and soldiers as they’re working all three blocks of the 3-Block War. Will that make me an expert? No, but it’ll enable me to understand more of the shifting dynamics of a war where friends, enemies, and even our NATO have different perceptions and vastly different goals as to what “we” all want to accomplish.

And through the magic of the internet, I’ll be able to share it with you.

I’ll be spending the next five week in Afghanistan. I’ll be two week with the Army in the east, split between 10th MTN and the Nevada National Guard, and then I’ll roll south to Camp Leatherneck, and the Marines. It’s my forth trip, last summer I was in far-south Helmand Province with the Marines in Garmsir and I’ve spent four months in the east with various Marine Embedded Training Teams up-country. But it’s a far different war today from those under-resourced days of the last Administration; the Taliban has resurfaced this year with a vengeance, and only a few days ago General Stanley McChrystal said that without an additional 40,000 troops we were in danger of losing the war – and that he’d resign if he didn’t get them. If there is a ‘best’ time to embed in Afghanistan – this is surely it.

So as I sit here at Dulles with my Kevlar hanging off my shoulder bag, I’m getting some strange looks from those pompous lawyers and triple-chinned bureaucrats waddling past – Hey Fatso - Fuck You; I’m off to embed with our Marines and soldiers and you can kiss my ass; you have no clue as to what you’re missing in life, and you’re the lesser man for it.

Next Stop: Bagram AFB.

Op Khanjar Update

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 3, 4 p.m. local time

PRESS RELEASE 09-04


CAMP LEATHERNECK, Helmand Province, Islamic Republic of Afghanistan –


U.S. Marines and Afghan soldiers and police are continuing clearing operations in key population centers along the Helmand River valley in an effort to secure the local population from the threat of Taliban and other insurgent intimidation and violence.


Almost 4,000 Marines and sailors from Marine Expeditionary Brigade-Afghanistan, along with more than 600 Afghan national security forces, are currently operating in the districts of Nawa and Garmsir in central Helmand province. MEB forces are operating as far south as the vicinity of Khan Neshin, the capital of Rig district in the region of the Helmand River valley known as “The Fishhook.”


The Marines and Afghan forces are continuing to patrol and have begun engaging with key leaders in the districts in order to better understand the concerns and needs of Afghans in the area. Once security is established, civil affairs personnel and other non-governmental organizations and agencies will begin establishing programs aimed at building long-term governance and development throughout the Helmand River valley.


One Marine has been killed in action, and several others have been injured or wounded since the operation began. Yesterday, south of Garmsir, one Afghan man began to approach a group of Marines and was warned to stop. He did not stop, despite a series of warning indicators being employed. The man continued to walk toward the Marines at a rapid pace without saying anything to them. A warning shot was fired, and when he still did not stop, a Marine fired a single shot, wounding the man. U.S. Navy corpsmen immediately treated the man, and he was evacuated by MEB forces to Bost hospital in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, where he is in stable condition.

MEB-Afghanistan is a subordinate unit of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force. The combined U.S. and Afghan mission is to provide security for population centers along the Helmand River valley and connect local citizens with their legitimate government while establishing stable and secure conditions for national elections scheduled for August as well as enhanced security for the future.

2008 Military Blog Contest

I usually avoid blogs and bloggers; they're a bunch of opinionated wankers who don't like to go outside..as opposed to me and my friends; we're not 'bloggers', we're studs who do "News and Informed Analysis..."

That said, I'm comfortable promoting a friend who is a finalist for the "Best Military Blog" category in the 2008 Weblog Awards -- "The War on Big Tobacco."

http://2008.weblogawards.org/polls/best-military-blog/

While some of Big Tobacco's blog posts are R-rated, so what - he lives and fights in an X-rated world - so WTF, right?

Voting starts today, 5 Jan and ends 13 January. And you can vote again every 24 hours. This means you can vote early and often for "The War on Big Tobacco."

So vote for him - or he'll blow smoke in a bloggers face, and make him cry.