"" CHULA VISTA, Calif. – When Aaron
Negherbon opened his email and read a
message from a longtime friend and U.S.
Marine Corps captain in Afghanistan
requesting medical supplies, he took action
immediately.
The email read: “Major firefight last night.
Medical supplies destroyed or depleted.
Resupply could take 6 weeks considering
where we are relative to the supply depot.
Stethoscopes, gauze, bacitracin and hydro
cortisone are the big needs. Any way you
can help? We’ll take anything.”
He sent the package to his friend who at the
time was leading a unit with 150 marines.
“I came to find out that service members
were not issued these essential items,” says
the 40-year-old Northern California native.
That was the first time Negherbon ever sent
a care package to anyone. “As patriotic as I
am and was, I just never thought to do it,”
he says. That email touched off a process
that would lead him to reinvent himself and
touch the lives of thousands of service
members.
His friend’s response prompted Negherbon
to take action on a larger scale to help
other service members who needed supplies.
“We started to supply this unit with all
items that they were asking for. Other
commanders were hearing what we were
doing and took notice and started requesting
items,” he says.
What started in a small scale in his garage
at home became TroopsDirect.org in 2010.
”In the government supply chain there’s
good or bad, there’s bureaucracies and red
tape. We believe that the end user, that unit
knows exactly what they need better than
anyone does for the task that they have in
hand. It is our responsibility to get that item
to them when the government system can’t,”
he says.
Negherbon’s group would grow to ship to
entire companies and battalions in bulk,
supporting upwards of 1,000 service
members in a single shipment.
Negherbon’s main goal is to support and
assist servicemembers on the front lines
with critically needed items. Some of the
items include stretchers, ballistic eye
protection, body armor carriers, medical
supplies such as tourniquets, ointment,
artificial airways, hygiene products and
nutrition products. “Essential staples that
would keep Americans healthy, sharp,
motivated…and alive,” he adds.
The organization receives daily requests via
email, Skype, Facebook and satellite phone
in his office and ships the items within
seven to 10 days when a military supply
chain can sometimes take months. “We’re
not knocking the government supply system
but sometimes we’re able to do things more
efficiently or faster or more precisely than
a larger government supply can,” he says.
TroopsDirect has sent over 200 tons of items
to troops overseas from their small office in
San Ramon, east of Oakland, California. As
of their latest IRS filing for 2013, 90
percent of the total organizational
expenditures went directly to program
expenses. “We’re making a difference every
single day. We’re simply about supporting
our American forces the best way we know
how and until there’s no more war, we’ll
be there,” says the father of two.
They also send energy bars, protein shakes,
toothbrushes, electronics and other items.
“When you send that first package to
somebody and you see the positive impact
that it has on that individual and all of the
people under his command, how do you not
send a second package and a forth package…
it just continues,” he says. “You don’t think
about, you do it. It’s a responsibility that
we took as Americans to make this
immediate change for our service
members,” he said.
Click here to view an email sent from a unit
to TroopsDirect requesting a long list of
items.
One important item that TroopsDirect gets
requested a lot is bright color chalk
powder. When soldiers find IEDs on patrol
or an area believed to have one, they use
powdered chalk to mark the location so that
fellow soldiers and civilians avoid the area.
“Instead of using bottle caps, rocks, they use
this bright color chalk to mark the area
safely,” he says. “It is great to get their
responses saying, you saved our lives, you
saved our limbs.”
The organization ships to unit commanders
on the front lines via United States Postal
Service. They also work with veteran-
owned suppliers like T3 Gear in Chula Vista,
where some of the products are
manufactured and are shipped. The
shipments are paid for with donations and
corporate contributions.
Negherbon has left his real estate career to
focus on continuing to provide troops with
lifesaving items. “It is a weird kind of
gratification because TroopsDirect should
not have to exist but when you know that
an American service member is reaching
out to your organization for support and
they’re relying on you and we’re able to get
that list of items that they need, it makes
you feel good when you get that satellite
call saying,’ I got the product. Thank you.”"
Link.

Hmm....a private citizen can get sh!t done when big govt cant.....imagine that!

Wow, God bless em!