Launching Operation Supply Drop
Machuga knows a guy, his Stryker driver in Iraq, who didn’t make the transition. He got out of the military in 2005, then spent the next five years trying to reintegrate and failing. He reenlisted, got sent to Afghanistan.
“Anybody who’s been out of the military has that point in their life where they’re kind of floating,” Machiga says. “They’re just like, they’re not happy with civilian life, because there’s nothing like the military out there. You find yourself driving past enlistment stations and thinking, ‘I should just stop by. I’m not actually going to do it. I’m just going to go inside and see what’s going on.’ And he fell into that trap.”
Machuga wanted to send his buddy something to help him pass the time, so he put together a care package of video games. With help from Activision’s Dan Amrich, he scraped together a set of Guitar Hero and DJ Hero games and shipped them out as a standard 20x20x20, under 70-pound care package, plenty to keep a soldier occupied. His driver loved it. And it got the other soldiers talking.
“Suddenly a dozen guys from his unit start going, ‘Hey, this is great, we could use some love too!’ I was like, ‘Oh shit, what have I started?’” says Machuga. “So I started packing up what was left and sent that as well. That’s what snowballed the whole thing.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dGDycidDlw
What helps soldiers? Food? Toiletries? Video Games?