To help Dixfield Sgt. Adam Perreault and his unit, drop items at the home of Joyce Richard at 23 River Lane, Dixfield, or send to: American Legion Post 100, P.O. Box 454, Dixfield, ME 04224, or make checks payable to Sharon McKellar at the same address for Troop Support Fund. For more information, contact Post 100 Commander Marcel Martineau at 364-2474.

15-2 to help 15F
Cribbage players, legionnaires join forces to treat troops

DIXFIELD – Area cribbage players and American Legion Post 100 in Dixfield answered a hometown soldier’s recent request for care packages by adopting the 20-member unit in Iraq for the duration of their stay.

Now they’re asking people to donate a mix of items that will be packaged and sent to Sgt. Adam Perreault of F Detachment, 15th Finance Battalion, in Kirkuk.

Perreault, a 1995 graduate of SAD 21’s Dirigo High School, is the son of Lauren and Elizabeth Hebert of 592 Common Road.

Sought are single-packet drinks, gum, sunflower seeds, beef jerky (no pork, it’s forbidden), nuts, dried fruits, crackers, baby wipes, lip balms, socks, foot powder, DVD movies, candy (no chocolate), granola and protein bars, and Ramen noodles.

“We’re hoping the public is willing to help, but we’re doing this whether anyone helps us or not,” Post 100 Commander Marcel Martineau said Thursday morning in Rumford. “The more we get, the more we can send. Nobody really knows what it’s like to be over there. If you could see what they have to do in 160-degree (Fahrenheit) weather; they can’t wash, they can’t bathe. We jump into a shower here, and they don’t even have that.”

The first package will be sent before Halloween to the seven women and 13 men, who left their base at Fort Riley, Kan., and arrived in Iraq in July. Another package will be sent for Thanksgiving and a third for Christmas.

“Any donations will be a big help. We’ve already raised money at a cribbage tournament on Sunday to cover postage, which is very expensive,” Martineau said.

The group is also considering holding a “big cribbage” on a Sunday, with profits going to the Troop Support Fund.

Perreault, who has been in the military for 12 years, serving first in the Marine Corps, then in the Army, e-mailed U.S. Sen. Susan M. Collins on Aug. 20, asking for care packages.

“Our daily life here has been interesting,” he wrote. “There are many things that take place everyday, making you grateful for life and the way Americans live.”

Perreault said he was seeking “just a mix of everyday things that would make us enjoy life a little more, give us that feeling of home. … We are kind of a ‘close knit’ unit.”

Staff in the senator’s Lewiston office contacted the Department of Maine American Legion, who contacted Martineau.

“Susan Collins is a big part of this. She always tries to help the troops,” he said.

According to Collins spokesman Kevin Kelley, Collins, as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, often fields requests for assistance from Maine service men and women, and is happy to help.

“As soon as Sen. Collins was contacted by Sgt. Perreault, she asked her staff to help find a way to fulfill his request,” Kelley stated by e-mail. “Sen. Collins is proud of our troops and she is equally proud of the people of the River Valley who stepped up to the plate to help Sgt. Perreault and the other members of his unit.”

According to Alison Kohler, an assistant media relations officer at Fort Riley, Kan., the 15th Finance Battalion takes care of soldiers’ pay and entitlements. At Fort Riley, they also trained to load and unload Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopters.

“They carry a weapon and, if engaged, they would need to engage, but it’s not their primary mission to root out the enemy,” Kohler said in a telephone interview late Thursday afternoon. “But, the Army says, ‘Everyone is a soldier first and what they do as a job comes second.'”

She said Fort Riley has 9,300 soldiers deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.