April 16, 2008

Before I share the letter I just finished writing, you’ll need some background:

Father Sean O’Brien is known to many people in Oneida County, especially in Forestport and Otter Lake, where he was the priest at St. Patrick’s and St. Mary of the Snows. He is a frequent visitor to Boonville, where he is a member of the Tun Tavern Leathernecks, Marine Corps League, Detachment 961.

Father O’Brien is also a familiar face at Kayuta Lake, where he has a camp, and in Utica, where he once served as assistant pastor at Our Lady of Lourdes.

He is just as well known in Pulaski where he has served as parish priest since being transferred from Forestport a few years ago.

Father O’Brien is also Commander O’Brien, a U.S. Navy chaplain. He was called to active duty last year and sent to Bagram, an Air Force Base about 40 miles north of Kabul, and he traveled bases and outposts throughout Afghanistan.

Now for the letter I wrote a couple of minutes ago. I didn’t have a name to send it to so I addressed it to “Any Chaplain” c/o the Chapel at Bagram Airfield. If the letter gets through to a chaplain and if I get a response, I’ll let you know.

This is what I wrote:

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Father Sean O’Brien, a Lt. Commander at the time, was stationed at your base last year. He asked people in our area, which is in the center of New York State, to help children in Afghanistan. Father O’Brien, who has since returned home, said the children were in need of items such as T-shirts, flip flops, and school supplies.

Thanks to people here in Boonville, Rome and other parts of Oneida County, about 70 cases of those items were shipped to Bagram as part of Operation Care.

People around here are quite generous.

The folks at Boonville’s Erwin Library, for example, put a box at the library’s front counter so people with items for Operation Care could have a convenient drop off point.

Private citizens such as Darlene Wheeler of Boonville helped by purchasing t-shirts.

Sue Kraszewski, who also lives in Boonville and works at the Air Force Research Lab at Griffiss, also helped. In fact, Sue talked with people she works with at the Lab and they helped too.

Adirondack Bank came through with pens and blankets.

And the Tun Tavern Leathernecks, Detachment 961, Marine Corps League, Boonville, which is always doing one good deed or another, served as a driving force, as did Wilcor International.

Wilcor’s Bill Corrigan, who is also a member of the Tun Tavern Leathernecks, and Tonya Van Dresar, the company’s shipping coordinator had the big job of getting all those crates to Bagram.

Chaplain, the reason I’m writing to you is to find out if the work done over here did any good. Do the children appreciate the stuff they are getting? Is Operation Care making a difference? I know you are all busy, but if someone on the ground over there - either a chaplain or an official with Operation Care - can answer me, I’d be appreciative.

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That’s the letter I just sent.

One final thought. People throughout the United States are doing what people in Boonville, Rome, Utica and other parts of this area have done.

In fact, just this past weekend, I talked with a Utica Police Department sergeant who is sending stuff to his daughter who is in the Army and is working to get things to children in the Afghanistan-Iraq area.

I’ve always thought that people in this country have such big hearts. But they don’t get much credit.


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Joe Kelly is the editor and publisher of The Boonville Herald & Adirondack Tourist and THE GRIFF.