We love these pictures of MSG Michael Christ and his
men and women because they show them actually opening
the items from Pack It Up.
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SSG Amy Litman - our 4th contact who returned home on Christmas Eve 2005 after one year in Iraq |
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Amy, displaying some of the items sent by Pack It Up. All items were placed in their 'store' and soldiers were allowed to take whatever they needed. |
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Another view of Amy and goods sent over by Pack It Up. |
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A shot of some of the DVDs we've sent over. |
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Alpha Company Change of Command Ceremony |
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COL Callahan and MG Centracchio just before the General left the country |
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Aircraft with the General taking off |
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Laurie and CSM Bob Fortin during refuel |
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The two crews who flew the mission on August 3rd. Some are from NC National Guard. |
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SSG McGee, COL Callahan, CSM Fortin and Laurie |
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COL Callahan and COL Thornal (Brigade Commander) |
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The crew and PAX from a mission Laurie was on (they were in the other aircraft). |
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Senator Reed with Delta Company |
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Laurie and LTC Medeiros (from RI) with Wolf Blitzer |
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COL Callahan talking to MG Centracchio |
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COL Callahan & MG Centracchio |
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MG Centracchio pinning COL Callahan |
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Some of the enlisted soldiers getting promoted |
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Some of the enlisted soldiers getting promoted |
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A soldier getting a safety award (Dugan) |
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MG Centracchip with LTC Rooney (from another RI unit) |
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COL Callahan on a good mail day! |
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Mr Carpenter (oldest guy there, he got an extension to stay past 60 years to come with them) |
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Play on their favorite Starbucks! |
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COL Callahan and MG Centracchio |
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Laurie and SGT Barco chilling during some down time |
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The Staff (LT Martin, CPT Barlow, Laurie, MAJ Chevalier, MAJ Trapani) |
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One of the maintenance hangars with HHC in formation |
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LTC Medeiros, Senator Reed and Laurie |
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Laurie and CPT Hartley in Kuwait |
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Wolf Blitzer with some of the guys |
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Laurie at the Turkish border |
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Captain Laurie Ludovici |
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Laurie wants the disclaimer out there that this picture was taken after a long day of flying, but we think she is still looking good! |
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Colonel Larry Gallogly |
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Larry has on his RI Jr Rams hat (he's the coach) which all the kids signed before he left. He wears it as his good luck charm on every flight. |
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Major Art Floru |
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If you look closely, you can see Art's daughter Sasha is along for the ride with her dad. |
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Christmas Time |
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The guys are enjoying a little Christmas dinner in December 2004. The kids of Laurel Hill Elementary School in Providence sent over homemade Christmas cards to these soldiers which were given out during this dinner. |
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Sleep! |
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Soldiers returning from a mission, getting some much needed rest. |
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Rhode Warriors |
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Check out the Rhode Warriors on the side of the plane. |
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Rhode Warriors |
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These are some of the first group of soldiers to whom we sent packages. |
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Great view |
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Great view of Baghdad International Airport when Colonel Gallogly is coming in for a landing |
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Great shot inside the plane |
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We were really thankful the soldiers took the time to send us these great pictures. |
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Lou, Art and Mike |
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From Art: "Left-to right. Lou White from Amherst, New Hampshire, me, and Mike McCarron from Plymouth, MA. Mike is the nephew of the great horse jockey, Chris McCarron, 1987 Winner of the Kentucky Derby. The place is one of Saddam's old hangouts. We don't see much of him anymore." |
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Girl Scout thank you! |
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Our cousin Amelia O'Rourke and her girl scout troop sent over some cases of cookies to Art and the guys. This was their thank you card. They are staning at the Baghdad Airport and reported that it was 110 degrees. They wanted to girls to know they had received the cookies so they sent this picture to them. |
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Art and Jack Arute |
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Once Art returned home, he was lucky enough to be part of an Indy 500 Racing crew in 2005. (Jacques Lazier's team) He was interviewed on ABC because of his service in Iraq. |
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Art and Sergei |
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Art met Sergei Federov at the race and they are now buddies! Sergei gave Art's wife, Olga, a call to say hello from the Indy 500. |
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Air Show 2005 |
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We were happy to finally meet Art at the RI Air Show in June 2005. We were treated to a behind the scenes tour! |
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Taking flight |
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Kristin was treated to a ride in the Klein Tools stunt plane. |
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4 planes |
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We went up simultaneously (and very close to) three other planes. One of the planes was a photographer's plane that does not have a door. This picture was taken from that plane by Mimi Struck. |
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Upside down! |
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Kristin and her pilot, Mike Mancuso, flying upside down... |
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Kristin and Mimi (her mom) |
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Back on the ground, we feel safe! |
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Larry with Mimi and Bob |
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A great part of the weekend was meeting Larry and Art. Here are Mimi and Bob Struck wtih Colonel Gallogly. Bob and Larry have been friends for a few years and Larry was our initial contact with this project. |
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