After sending more than 700 care packages to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, Sharon Rainey and the rest of the Neighbors Great Falls staff received a very special thank-you late last week from Trent Jessup, a Navy lieutenant with whom they’ve been corresponding.
Jessup, whom Rainey has never met in person, sent her and her staff an American flag that had flown above Camp Fernandez Plank in Balad, Iraq on Jan. 30, the day the first democratic elections were held in that country.
“I was on the phone with Karen [Bush, another staff member at Neighbors] when the package came in,” Rainey said. Opening the battered package with the foreign postmark and recounting the contents of the box to Bush, “it was like reality TV,” Rainey said Bush told her.
The flag was sent in a triangular wooden box Jessup made himself, which he said in an email the next day was not as nice as his Seabees would’ve made: Sandpaper is in short supply and there were no brushes to put on the varnish to make the wood shiny. There was also a certificate of authenticity, saying the flag was flown over the base on Jan. 30 and was given to Rainey and the Neighbors staff for their continued support of troops overseas.
“For him to take the time out and do this for us is incredible,” Rainey said. “They’ve got more important things to do than make someone at home feel good.”