Are you Enlisted in the US Military?
|
|
In the Beginning & the Letter that started it All !!
Operation Toasty Toes was founded by Irene Silliman of Madison, Ohio, a 72-year old grandmother of 13 and great-grandmother of 4. It all started one early December, when Irene received a letter from her grandson, David Ward, who is a U.S. Navy cryptologist stationed on the U.S.S. Carny. In the letter he thanks his grandmother for some homemade brownies she'd sent to him and his wife, Julie, who serves on the U.S.S. Washington. It was in this letter that the subject of the slippers came up.
"Hey, guess what? David writes, "I was telling the guys I work with about your world famous slippers, so if you can find some time to make a few pairs, I know some of the sailors would love to have them."
The thought of so many servicemen and women walking around on the cold floor of the guided missile destroyer spurred Irene into action.
Irene's husband Bob of 32 years had just passed away Feb 18, 1997, after a two year battle with cancer. Bob Silliman, a U.S. Army POW of Korea, was a proud wearer of his wife's now famous slipper socks. To get through the holiday Irene believed their was no better way than to immerse herself in knitting slipper socks. She enlisted the help of about 50 friends. The mission! To knit 1,000 pairs of slippers and ship them to the Persian Gulf by Jan 1998.
Thanks to all the wonderful knitters and crochet people from all over the US, for that matter the World, their has been over 20,000 prs of slippers sent to our service men and women.
That is how Toasty Toes got started.
Hi, Grandma,
It's February 06 and it is about 11:00 o'clock at night. it is one of the only moments I could find time to drop you a line. It is very busy out here as you can well imagine. Things are getting crazy over here with all the antics of Saddam Hussein. We really don't know what to expect if we do end up attacking Iraq, so we all sit and wait for the word. Don't worry though I've been here before and there's really nothing to worry about. Me and Julie both received the brownies you sent. I don't know if Julie was able to write to you as well, but hopefully she did. I know the guys onboard the Carney enjoyed your brownies very much and we al signed a picture of the ship thanking you for them. Also just received the first shipment of the slippers just the other day. You would not believe how fast they went. I had guys lining up all day to get a pair. Please tell all of the women who worked so hard how much we all appreciated their time, effort, and love. We are all missing our families out here and this was a nice surprise. I told most of the guys to write back to the person who made their slippers so hopefully some of the other ladies will be getting some correspondence soon. The Commanding Officer came over the ships IMC (system used to talk to everyone onboard all at once) and told everyone the story of how the slippers were made and that we could be expecting about 300 pairs. Just so you know there are 320 sailors on my ship. He sends his gratitude for your work and efforts. We will be sending some special gifts back from the ship, but under the current situation it is hard to find the time to get to the projects we have planned for you and the other ladies. We plan to put the pictures of some sailors wearing the slippers on the internet. The USS Carney has a homepage and anyone with a computer who can get on the worldwide web can take a look. I will send you the web page address so you can go next door and have your neighbor bring it up so you can take a look. Also the public affairs officer intends to send the article to the Navy Times (paper) so if and when I hear about that I will let you know. Please continue to send more slippers if you can. The first hundred were gone in about 8 hours, and there are plenty of guys asking for them. Other than that things are going well as can be expected, I miss Julie very much, I miss home, both in Spain and Ohio very much. I sometimes wonder if it was all worth it. But I guess being out at sea for 5 months at a time can do that to a person. This trip has been extra hard, we have only 9 days off in the past 4 and half months. Working just about everyday. So believe me when I say the slippers were a welcomed treat and I have guys coming up to me each and every day saying "Those booties are great, my feet are so warm" Everyone on the ship is calling them "booties" instead of slippers. Some of the Officers were even wearing them on watch in the combat information center, it was pretty funny. There even talking about having a slipper day before we head back home. Enclosed is a picture of the ship, and a shirt for you. I will be working on getting shirts for all the Ladies so please tell me exactly how many there are. Well once again Thank you so very much, you've always been there for me, like no one else has ever been, I Love You Grandma........ Now get Back to work on these slippers (booties).. ....hehehe...tell all I said hello and miss them all very much, but I am so busy right now it is hard to find time to eat let alone write. So I will write again when I can and I will be sending some special things back for the other Ladies ....
Love your Grandson
|
Letters from
|