It was a call for assistance that Maj. Robert Pankiw could not turn down. 

Chuck Armbruster from the American Legion left a message for Pankiw over the December drill, inquiring if the Counterdrug Task Force (CDTF) could help with the delivery of holiday care packages to deployed troops. 

The following Tuesday Pankiw briefed the members of the CDTF. Before you could say “Feliz Navidad,” an eager crew of CDTF elves went to North Wilmington to load 340 apple-crate-sized boxes onto a truck borrowed from USPFO. 

Each box contained Christmas stockings with a deployed trooper’s name embossed upon it.  The 1,640 stockings were created and stuffed with goodies through the project “Christmas Stockings for Soldiers.” 

On Wednesday, December 6, CDTF members drove the box truck to the Hare’s Corner post office before it opened at 7 a.m. and offloaded the boxes in preparation for their shipment overseas.  The boxes were being shipped to 50 different APO addresses overseas and each box required a customs form.

Judy Travis, Delaware project coordinator for Operation Support Our Troops, was the driving force behind this initiative in Delaware.  It started for Judy three years ago when her son, a West Point graduate, was deployed to Iraq. It has grown in scope each year. 

Judy and members of the West Point Parents Club of Delaware contact West Point graduates who are deployed and ask them to supply names of Soldiers and Airmen who they feel could really use a morale boost: then the stocking production gets started. 

Each stocking is hand-made and hand-lettered with an individual’s name to personalize it.  Many of the area’s Rotary Clubs supplied donated goods and money for this operation and the various Girl Scout Troops assisted with the creation of the stockings. 

The entire month of November is spent gathering and packing these stockings. Within each box is a letter explaining where these stockings came from and asking that each stocking be distributed to the specific individual. 

In addition, MSgt Randy Fisher added some letters from the fourth graders at Richey Elementary School.  The fourth graders wanted to write to deployed Soldiers and Airmen to send holiday cheer, and these students are eagerly awaiting replies to their holiday missives! 

The Delaware National Guard Counterdrug Task Force and Operation Support Our Troops look forward to continuing this worthy relationship in the future.