Members of Girls Scout Troop 18 (from left: Erica Sanchez, Catherine Jamshidi, Christen Carpenter and Jackie and Chantal Prez) cover a collection box for the Wounded Warrior program. The Girl Scouts are collecting basic civilian necessities for the next two weeks in order to make wounded troops arriving at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center more comfortable. (Allison Batdorff / S&S)
YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — When troops wounded downrange are transported to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, they aren’t carrying suitcases.
They don’t have basic civilian comforts with them such as clean underwear, shoes and clothes, said 12-year old Christen Carpenter, a Girl Scout in Yokosuka’s Troop 18.
“They don’t have time to pack — they just have their uniform and boots,” Carpenter said. “We thought it’d be nice to give them some of things that we are able to have.”
The Girl Scouts are asking Yokosuka to donate basics — three-packs of men’s and women’s underwear, black duffle bags, sweat tops and bottoms, athletic shoes, telephone cards, DVDs, DVD players and toiletries — to the troops between Friday and March 19. Collection boxes are set up at the Chapel of Hope, Navy Exchange and Commissary, said troop leader Mary Carpenter.
Items will be distributed to servicemembers through the Wounded Warrior Ministry Center, which gives the packages to all soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, the leader said.
Donations can be dropped off in boxes at the Navy Exchange, Commissary and the Chapel of Hope.
