June 2020 Newsletter

MAF Delivers Care Packages to Quarantined Troops at Travis AFB

Covid-19 has certainly changed many things over the past few months, however, one thing it has never impacted is our mission to serve our troops. That\’s why when our good friends at Travis Air Force Base asked us to support their quarantined troops, how could be refuse?

Move America Forward normally sends care packages to troops overseas, but we simply could not ignore the requests for help from troops in our own back yard.

Just down the road from MAF\’s operation center, is Travis Air Force base. We received a direct request to help lift the morale of hundreds of troops that are locked down in their barracks under quarantine after being deployed to perform repairs on aircraft carriers abroad as well as attending to civilian U.S. citizens that have returned from abroad that have been exposed to the COVID-19.

The wife of a soldier stationed at Travis and Family Readiness Coordinator, Jessica, reached out to us. Jessica has asked MAF and several other groups in the community to stand united with her unit and send some support to these quarantined troops who are alone, are suffering from low morale, and are running out of basic supplies.

She asked if we have any extra supplies for them, so we responded with a new campaign #unitedwestand to support these troops. Initially, we donated over 1,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies, but Travis was requesting other items to add to this mix like to help keep their isolated soldiers supplied with some goodies.

We put the word out to you and many generous donors on our support list came through with donations. Those important and caring donations enabled MAF to purchase lots of supplies, especially instant lunches, beef jerky and protein bars. The items went into supply bags along with other items donated by many local troop support groups who also stepped up to help.

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This support was made possible by several groups including Move America Forward, Operation Care & Comfort, the Travis Commissary, and Operation Homefront. We thank them all, but most especially we want to thank all of YOU who helped make this special support happen.

A Memorial Day Message from Melanie Morgan

Memorial Day has passed, and this year it was far different for much of the country than the traditional Memorial Day filled with parades, picnics and sun-soaked activities as we herald in another summer in America. We thought we would take a moment to share a message on the true meaning of Memorial Day from our chairman Melanie Morgan.

As Co-founder and Chairman of Move America Forward, the country’s largest pro-troops grassroots organization, I would like to take a moment this Memorial Day to thank some very, very special people. There are hundreds of men and women who are working to re-patriate our fallen soldiers, who were Killed In Action, or are Missing In Action for the past 75 years. Service representatives from every branch of the military act as sleuths by scouring the world for the remains of our war heroes, to bring them home in honor and give all of America yet another opportunity to acknowledge their sacrifice. Today, we salute the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). I want to quote directly from words they have written for this day of remembrance. \”Memorial Day, observed the last Monday in May, is a day to remember the men and women who have sacrificed their lives in service of our great Nation. For more than 156 years, since the Civil War, flowers have been placed at the grave markers of fallen American service members. Long known as Decoration Day, federal law changed the name to Memorial Day in 1967. In 2000, Congress passed the National Moment of Remembrance Act, asking Americans to take pause at 3:00 p.m., and remember those who lost their lives. More than 58,000 U.S. service members died in the Vietnam War; 1,587 remain unaccounted for. More than 54,000 U.S. service members died in the Korean War; 7,589 remain unaccounted for. From the Cold War, 126 U.S. service members remain unaccounted for. More than 400,000 U.S. service members died in World War II; 72,597 remain unaccounted for. There is no heavier price than the one borne by those who remain missing from past wars and have not returned home – the ones DPAA diligently works to find answers for their grieving families. Every unaccounted-for U.S. service member or DoD civilian/contractor is entitled to one certainty: that he or she will not be forgotten. The men and women of DPAA are committed to honor their sacrifice.” God bless each and every soldier who died to defend our country from enemies foreign and domestic. We will NEVER be able to pay our debt to you, but we can remember your stories this Memorial Day and every day. “Greater love has no one than this that they lay down their life for their friends.” John 15:13 Blessings, Melanie MorganMove America Forward Co-Founder

We Support our Four-Legged Troops Too!

At MAF, we celebrate Man\’s Best Friend with special K9 care package meant especially for our brave K9 service dogs and their handlers in the military. These dog and handler teams have a very special bond and we love to help them with special treats and training aids.

Dogs are known for their unique ability to form loving bonds of trust with humans, and service dogs are no exception. These brave dogs go the extra mile to protect our troops, sniffing out bombs and alerting our troops to potential dangers and providing the love and comfort only an animal can provide. With all the stress many of us are currently experiencing, we thought we would take the opportunity to share some photos our troops have sent us of their heroic K9 companions.

MAF felt this was a perfect time to highlight the K-9s in the military, those furry four-legged friends who serve alongside our troops all over the world.

Military Working Dogs have been used for years by our men and women in uniform deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

These dogs highly trained and are instrumental in sniffing out IEDs, bomb making materials, patrolling, and standing guard. It\’s as dangerous for these K-9\’s as it is for our soldiers, especially in the harsh environment of Afghanistan. IED\’s threaten our troops as well as the local Afghan civilians, so every bomb found by a K9 warrior means innocent lives are saved.

To all our supporters who sent out K-9 packages we say thanks you! We offer K-9 packages year-round so if you would like to send a care package to one of our brave four legged troops it’s never too late!

Covid-19 Delays our Annual Troopathon

June usually finds MAF in a flurry of activity as we prepare for our annual Toopathon, Troopathon is our single largest fundraising events which allows us to send thousands of care packages to our troops in the lead up to 4th of July. Although Troopathon will be delayed this year and may look different than in the past, we are dedicated to bring Troopathon 13 to you as soon as we safely can.

Move America Forward is busily weighing our options as to when and where we can broadcast our annual Troopathon. Troopathon is a vital part of our mission and our single largest troops support event of the year. We thought you would enjoy this video from our 2019 broadcast as a reminder of this important troop support event.

Throughout the past 12 years Troopathon has raised millions of dollars collectively to send care packages and support to our brave men and women serving around the globe. We have enlisted the aid of our fellow patriots to sponsor packages and our celebrity guests who have contributed their time, talent and in many cases generous personal donations to help make our Troopathon a huge success.

We can\’t wait until we can bring Troopathon 13 to you, in the meantime, enjoy this video of Rush Limbaugh from one of our past Troopathons. Rush has been with us from the very start. Thank you Rush!

Photo of the Month