Friday, October 23, 2009

They have done their share!

I have been contacted recently by several veterans groups. They want to know how they can help my project. I tell them what is happening and how they can help. I do not turn anyone away. Still it is not for Veterans to have to worry about supporting our current troops. It is all of us civilians that are not Veterans to step up and do that duty. You see examples on the news all the times. The Rangers hiking hundreds of miles with full ruck sacks to raise money for fellow troopers. The disabled veterans riding or running to support the troops. They should be applauded for their efforts and they should constantly be thanked for their service.
I believe that the load lands squarely on our shoulders. The free citizens of this country.
Hunter

Monday, October 12, 2009

Hello Friends
I urge all of you to write to our leaders and urge them to support our troops.
Here is my sample of what I wrote to our Senators.


I am very involved with supporting our troops. I am asking you to use all your effort to urge the President to follow his General's advice and send all the reinforcements that are asked for.
To see our Combat Outposts being over run by the Taliban is an outrage. Many of those brave soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq as well are Montanans. They should be supported with all the power and will of our country.
Thank you for listening to me.
Hunter Jones

Thursday, June 4, 2009

the note

Dear General
I had a disturbing note this week. As you know I have my project and I get funding for my shipping costs through different sources. Sir recently I was in the paper here in Billings. There was a nice piece on us and a nice picture on the front cover. After seeing the article about our soldier project here at Will James Middle School this lady decided to send a check. The amount of the check is not important.
What is important is what the note said. She said, “Dear Mr. Jones I wanted to help you with your project. I still believe in our country”! Sir how can our country fall so fast that a nice lady says that? There was such a note of sadness in that one sentence. “I still believe in our country” How many people out there are watching with despair the daily chipping away of the nation’s pride.
I will keep on fighting the good fight and trust in the Lord to watch over us all.
With respect, your friend Hunter Jones


Hunter Jones

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Flag Pins

Hi all, this is to let you know that I will be at Shipton's this Sunday from
noon till about 3:30 selling flag pins with the kids. If anyone is out shopping
you can stop by and drop off any care package items while you are out and about.
Hunter

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

They threw vegetables

I had a great time yesterday over at Shipton’s Big R store. 5 hardy 8th grade students turned out

on a Sunday to help sell flag pins to raise money for shipping our soldier boxes. It was a good

time and we were very successful. Many people were happy to see us out there working on this

cause. I did have two sobering conversations with two different Viet Nam vets. The first man was

older and didn’t talk very much. He just quietly got out a dollar and stared at our pictures looking

them over. He gave us the dollar and simply said, “no body ever sent me any mail, I was in Viet Nam ”

he looked sad for a moment and walked off. The other man was even more troubling. He stopped and

talked to us for a while. He explained to the kids that when his company was shipping out, crowds

of anti-war protesters threw vegetables and trash at their busses as they were shipping out to do

their duty. He also said the same thing how no body sent them any boxes or letters.

How could that have happened?

My students learned a lot on a Sunday afternoon I think.

Thanks for the support.

Hunter

Hunter Jones

WJ Soldier Support Coordinator

Will James Middle School

Billings Mt. 59106

406-651-8523

http://willjamessoldiersupporters.blogspot.com/

Friday, April 24, 2009

Recent emails form Iraq.

Hunter and Class,

Greetings from Central Iraq (BALAD), this is Spc Brandon Delvo,

First of All let me apologize for the late arrival of this email, with missions and the daily of routine of work it is hard to write a letter.

Let me take sometime to tell all of you a little bit about myself, I was born in Williston, North Dakota.
I Graduated from Skyview High School in 2003.

I joined the Army when i was 17 and was on my first combat tour in Iraq by 2004. Things were pretty bad back in 2004, I remember us having to use sheet metal on our vehicles to protect us from roadside bombs.
My main job last tour was dealing with Ordnance, such as bombs, explosives etc. We would go out and blow up weapons caches of captured weapons and roadside bombs.

This current Combat tour I am an Infantrymen 11B. Our main mission is guntruck security, which means we provide security for KBR truck drivers hauling supplies. Our missions have taken us as far east as the Border of Iran, as far south as Basrah, and we have even been to the infamous Green Zone in the middle of downtown Baghdad, that place is the most amazing thing that my eyes have ever seen. There are several palaces and old thigns left behind from when Saddam Hussein was in power.

Currently we have less than 3 months left over here. I figure when I get home if my home unit is not going to Afghanistan, I am going to try to get over there and be a memebr of a METT team, which provides guidance and trains foreign armies, you are embedded with a platoon of Afghans and go out on raids and patrols with them. I figure that the war needs me elsewhere.

Thank you for all the great letters and sorry for the lateness of this email Take Care SPC Brandon Delvo


Dear Mr. Jones,

I would like to say thank you for the many packages and letters you and your class has been sending me. I want to apologize for the lateness of my reply. We do tend to stay pretty busy, and I am the world’s worst at writing letters. I really do appreciate all that you and your class has done for me. I am a SGT in the Oklahoma army national guard. I am from Elk City OK, but now live in Norman OK where I am finishing up my college. I coach High school football. I was coaching freshman in Norman, but when I get home I will be coaching varsity at Western Heights in Oklahoma City. I am very excited to start my new job. I have a girlfriend named Kassy who graduates this year from OU, and a cat named Theo. Well he is really more her cat, but I paid for the shots and some food so I have some clam to him. That is what I do when I’m not “playing army”. Here in Iraq I work in the communications shop. We are in charge of all the communication in our battalion. We are scheduled to work 8 hour shifts but it usually turns into a 10 or 12 hour shift. After I get off work me and a friend go to the gym and work out. Some days it’s hard to go to the gym after work but we keep each other going. In the evenings we will get together and watch movies or play station. I’ve gotten really good on the drums on guitar hero. That is pretty much all we do here. It gets pretty boring, and we are all ready to come home. This is my email feel free to write me anytime. I will send some pictures as soon as I take some good ones. Again thank you for all the care and support.



SGT Chris Malone

Monday, April 20, 2009

DAR Awards Dinner

Hi there and happy Monday.

I am fresh back from Kalispell Montana. I had quite a compliment from the Daughters of the American Revolution. This was an honor for me and also for Will James Middle School. The Shining Mountain Chapter of the DAR selected me for the teacher of the year. They then sent my application to the state DAR committee and I was selected Teacher of the Year for the State of Montana.

I was invited along with Diana my wife to the State Convention awards banquet. I was honored along with several outstanding students who had participated in the DAR’s annual student essay contest. (I will be sure to get some Will James’ students involved next year.) I was happy to speak to the convention and explain how my history classes are connection our past with today’s events. I also was happy to explain how Will James Middle School has supported our soldiers continually for the past six years and how we are prepared to continue. A special and unexpected treat was meeting and listening to the key note speaker Major General Paul Vallely US Army Ret. I had not expected to meet such a noteworthy man. His speech was outstanding to hear.

Diana and I were able to spend time visiting with the DAR leaders from every part of Montana. I will tell you that if you want to talk history a DAR convention is the place. Diana and I then took a sight seeing drive along the south edge of Glacier Park. We then continued to drive home south east through parts of Montana we had never seen. Oh what a marvelous state to drive through.

SO I am back and we are learning about slavery in the south and the coming civil war. If you have any comments just send them along.

Bless you all

Hunter