July 4, 2007 Dear Operation Shoebox, Thank you so much for your packages and letters of support. My fellow Marines and I greatly appreciate everything your members have done for us. You have eased the strain of deployment and sent us a little bit of home. America needs more patriots like you! It's common among Marines to worry more about everyone back home than their own welfare and the guys in my unit whom I serve with are examples of that sentiment. Most of us are right out of high school and very much the product of the times. Whichever state we call home, we were all moved to enlist in the wake of 9/11, and hopefully, prevent such a tragedy from being visited upon our homeland again. That event truly changed the world and changed us. Northerner, southerner, east, west, every faith, race, creed and political ideology; we joined up and were bound as brothers, as Americans. Most of us can't even drink, but we are more than aware that those of us who do not make it back did not give their lives in vain; that they died for love of country, and for love of you. America is still the land of the free, still the hope of the free world - because of noble citizens such as you. Never change. Sincerely, Lance Corporal Daniel Ward 3/6 Lima Co. USMC