Service men and women in Iraq will benefit from a sizeable helping hand from the New York Staten Island Detachment of the Marine Corps League, whose members have assembled nearly 900 cases of donated material (including Visine eyedrops and bullet-proof vests) and loaded them up for shipment to Iraq. "Survivors of Iwo Jima in World War II, Vietnam, the Korean War, the Cold War and the first Persian Gulf War all pitched in," says Bob Powell, commandant of the detachment. "We had a wonderful group of veterans help with the effort. Besides a few aches and pains from all that loading, we were happy to do it."
The effort began when the Staten Island Detachment made a telephone call to Pfizer Inc., thinking a small donation would be a miracle. When it received more than 870 cases, it realized it had a transportation problem on its hands. "It was a wonderful problem to have," says Powell, "but we had no way to get it shipped out."
Enter H&M International Transportation, a New Jersey-based intermodal service provider. H&M provided a tractor, a trailer, a driver, and the logistics know-how behind it—all free of charge. After the Marine Corps League loaded it up, the truck was dispatched to Camp Lejeune, N.C., home base for the II Marine Expeditionary Force, 2d Marine Division, 2d Force Service Support Group and other units. From there, the shipment will move via air to Iraq.
