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Back in 2009, Marine Corps veteran Donald Downer Jr. started sending care packages to troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. Last Friday, hesent his 3,000th care package, this one addressed to Capt. John Lefebvre who is currently serving in Afghanistan, reports the Baltimore Sun.

At approximately $17.35 per care package, it's estimated that Downer has spent almost $116,000, according to the paper.

"It's enlightening to know that one person can do so much to keep the morale of the troops," Downer, 88, of Colombia, Md., told the Baltimore Sun. "The most important item is what they put in their stomach and if you can fill it, it's very appreciative from their standpoint."

When Downer was 17, he quit high school to join the Marines and was sent Tsingtao, China. His mom would send him care packages of chocolate chip cookies and spam. In 1948, carepackages were sent by boat and could take 30 days to arrive at their destination.

"After 30 days on the boat ride, those cookies were just crumbs, but the Marines would gather around and wolf down those crumbs," Downer told the Baltimore Sun."Nothing was wasted; even the dust was poured into the coffee. And it got so I couldn't even look at the Spam."

His packages often contain items such as magazines, foot powder, Tabasco sauce, sausage, sunflower seeds, Pop Tarts, Cracker Jacks and his signature item: a can of Spam, earning him the nickname, the Spam Czar. Marines all over the world have sent their thanks and even gifts, including folded American flags and an Afghan rug or embroidered silk.

I know how important it is to get a care package from home when one is deployed overseas in the military, Downer said on his website, GoDonGo. I am now compelled to ensure, in some small way, to make as many of these deployed service personnel a little happier when they receive a care package, from someone back home who cares.

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This Marine Corps veteran has sent 3000 packages to troops in Afghanistan and Iraq - Marine Corps Times

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Jared Auchey, Virginia-born and raised on a sequence of Air Force bases, was just 18 years old when he joined the U.S Army Reserve in 1999. Five years later, after graduating from Penn State University, his first assignment withthe Harrisburg Recruiting Battalion was as an active duty soldier in Afghanistan.

Little did he know then that at age 36 and now with the rank of major, Afghanistan would still be the mainstay of his military career, or that the war against terrorism in that country would be far from over. Auchey spent his first deployment in the western province of Herat, then a relative sanctuary of stability compared to the southern and eastern provinces. Today Auchey works out of Kabul and is now six months into his third deployment in the conflict-torn country.

A dramatically reduced U.S. troop count, part of President Obamas withdrawal plan, means Auchey has to wear numerous hats: He serves as ministerial advisory team lead; as military assistant/aide de camp to the deputy chief of staff for communications; and as the U.S. Strategic Commands adviser to the Afghanistans Ministry of Defense (MOD).

Major Jared Auchey (Hollie McKay/Fox News)

Aucheys day begins with a slow 15-minute walk from the headquarters of Resolute Support, as the current U.S. mission is called, to the headquarters of the Afghanistan MOD. But even such a simple thing as that commute requires its own mission number, a briefing and full body armor. Auchey walks through a so-called Green Zone, a dystopian maze of 20-foot-high poured concrete blast walls, striped metal bars and nervous Afghan gate guards and past barricades. A "Good Luck" sign adorns the turnstile leading out. Aucheys daily commute is a walk into another world.

Impoverished Afghan children peddle pens and scarves in the streets outside, waiting patiently each day in the warmmorning sunfor a familiar Western face. Then when those camouflaged, rifle-toting figures come, they are met with a mix of excitement and desperation. It's candy and conversation. It is begging, for some kind of ticket out of hell.

Auchey engages the young boys in both their native tongue of Dari and in English, which they have learned to speak with precision. He gives them bags of local and U.S. sweets. It's a gentle moment in the otherwise harsh hustle and bustle of working a war behind-the-scenes. Meanwhile, Auchey's own two children, ages 6 and 8, are more than 6,000 miles away in Philadelphia. He awakens each day at 5 a.m. to talk with them before they go to bed.

Major Jared Auchey with street children outside U.S. base in Kabul (Hollie McKay/Fox News)

While other American service personnel train Afghans in weaponry, tactics, drone operation and intelligence gathering, Auchey's work centers on public affairs for the countrys MOD.The Afghans have been getting better at fighting the physical war, but the Taliban, ISIS and others are still dangerously strong at the information war. With Aucheys help, though, the MOD aims to squash that.

It's a delicate process centered on trust building and cross-cultural sensitivity. Often, it is the small steps that make crucial changes, Auchey says. Among those small steps are encouraging the more junior-level MOD staffers not to be intimidated in addressing questions with higher-level staff and establishing a daily press conference system to ensure better productivity and avoid entire days being spent on the phone fielding journalists questions.

The dramatically reduced U.S. troop presence also means the American base in Kabul has become mostly quiet, except for the sound of aircraft landing and taking off.

Thats a contrast to the final days of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), which preceded Resolute Support. Under Operation Enduring Freedom, there was constant activity, 24/7. Outside the base during OEF, coalition forces could stroll Kabuls streets in civilian clothes and sit with Afghans over tea and kebabs in nearby bazaars. The surge of 2010 and 2011 in which the U.S. had a peak of around 100,000 personnel dispatched across the country -- had created safety blanket even in some of the most terrorist teeming southern provinces.

Today, forces from a melting pot of NATO nations and from all walks of life occasionally dine in the citys few restaurants or shop for local crafts in a small nearby bazaar.But mostly, U.S. forces and their international counterparts remain confined to the base as the security situation has slowly unraveled.

The "Good Luck" gate at the U.S. base in Kabul (Hollie McKay/Fox News)

On Sundays there are soccer tournaments and once a month there are "coming-and-going" barbecues for the incoming and outgoing. There are half-marathons, yoga and spin classes.It's as home as home can be for those serving in a nation still at war.

And after 16 years battling inside Afghanistan with more than 2,200 American killed in battle, Americans have lost the access they once had to the country they liberated.

"You have to make sure," Auchey stresses, never to become complacent."

Kabulis are the first to say, in their own words, that their city has become its own frontline of sorts. There is a sentiment that even though the grind of life goes on, something could happen at any place at any time. Just over two weeks ago, a suicide bomber attacked an American military convoy just by the fortified front gate -- killing eight Afghan civilians and wounding three American soldiers.

Major Auchey, like all personnel at RS, is relieved to see signs that the current U.S. administration will not abandon Americas longest war or its Afghan allies. It is expected that President Trumps team will roll out its plans for the embattled nation by the end of May. It will likely involve the deployment of several thousand more U.S. and NATO troops to augment the already 13,000 on the ground, a proposal welcomed by the Afghan MOD.

Gen. Dawlat Waziri, left, with Auchey (Hollie McKay/Fox News)

"The assistance and the equipment supply to us is most vital. If this training stops, it would be a devastating situation," said Gen. Dawlat Waziri, officially the MOD spokesman and unofficially the "King of Afghan Media," said from the immaculately manicured grounds of the MOD. "We appreciate so much that people have left their families, to sacrifice so much, to come here and serve our country."

Over lunch at the base, Auchey is surprised to spot a familiar face, one of the scarf-selling teens. It is an Afghan boys first week off the dusty streets, working with the very foreigners he spent his youth pleading with from the outside. It's small but significant change.

For that young Afghan, it is that coveted ticket out of hell.

Hollie McKay has been a FoxNews.com staff reporter since 2007. She has reported extensively from the Middle East on the rise and fall of terrorist groups such as ISIS in Iraq. Follow her on twitter at @holliesmckay

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US soldier in Afghanistan: A day in the life of one American fighter - Fox News

ANDERSON U.S. Rep. Susan Brooks has made her first trip to visit American troops deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Brooks, R-5th District, joined a group of bipartisan congresswomen on the trip, which focused on meeting U.S. female service members, thanking them for their service, particularly during Mothers Day, and learning about their experiences in the military.

During the visit, Brooks distributed Mothers Day cards that were made by local students.

The congressional delegation met with Afghan and Iraqi women who are leaders in their communities, government, media and business.

During the visit, Brooks met 5th District resident Chief Master Sgt. Lisa Arnold, who is the first female command chief master sergeant to lead all U.S. airmen in Afghanistan.

Arnold shared with Brooks how fulfilling her career in the military has been, and how honored and humbled she is for the opportunity to be in the position.

Some of the troops they met with voiced concerns about access to the same quality of health care as their male colleagues once they come home, Brooks said.

It is a problem that our female troops, who put their lives on the line to protect democracy and sacrifice time with their families in order to fight for our country, are concerned about a lack of access to the healthcare services they have earned, she said in a press release. The concerns I heard during this trip echoed the ones I have heard from Hoosiers in the Fifth District. Men and women have different medical needs and it is important that all of our veterans get quality care after their service.

The congressional delegation met with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, the first lady of Afghanistan Rula Ghani, attended listening sessions with USAID representatives, heard from local businesses and female entrepreneurs, participated in round tables with Afghan female police and soldiers and had discussions with Iraqi female leaders and other humanitarian leaders.

It was encouraging to hear that women in Afghanistan and Iraq are continuing to gain respect in their country and hold prominent roles in society, and that is due, in part, to the presence of our female troops, Brooks said. They are role models for not only the women in the Afghan and Iraqi military, but for the women who are now the head of households because their husbands have been taken from their homes or killed. Still, there is work to be done. Domestic violence and rape are shockingly commonplace, and many women we spoke to indicated that most Iraqi women have, at some point in their lives, been a victim of abuse. However, leaders in government, business and the nonprofit community are committed to changing this terrible reality.

Follow Ken de la Bastide on Twitter @KendelaBastide, or call 640-4863.

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Brooks travels to Afghanistan, Iraq - The Herald Bulletin

Security forces called to Radio Television Afghanistan in the city of Jalalabad were drawn into a long gun battle with the attackers.

Four employees of the TV station and two police officers were killed, Nangarhar province governor's spokesman Atauolah Khogyani said.

Four of the five attackers were also killed, including one suicide bomber, he said. The fifth attacker was arrested.

ISIS claimed the attack in a message posted on the Telegram messaging service by the ISIS-affiliated media Amaq. CNN cannot independently verify the authenticity of the claim.

At least 19 people were injured in the attack, including seven who were treated in hospital and released, the provincial health services director, Najibullah Kamawal, said.

An explosion erupted from the area of the assault after the attackers entered the building, police said. Footage from the scene showed people running in panic as a barrage of gunfire rang out.

A crisis response team was called to the scene and searched the premises room by room.

Civilians are often targeted by militants in Afghanistan in bombings and shooting attacks.

In all, 3,498 civilians were killed and 7,920 injured in 2016 in Afghanistan, the UN Assistance Mission in the country reported. It marked the highest number of civilian casualties since the UN began documenting statistics in Afghanistan.

CNN's Angela Dewan, Elizabeth Joseph and journalist Aleem Agha contributed to this report.

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Afghanistan: 6 dead in ISIS attack on TV station in ...

Otto von Bismarck said, The whole of the Balkans is not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier. America should apply the same reasoning to Afghanistan.

This month we learned the U.S. Marines are back in Helmand, Afghanistans most violent province and the center of opium poppy production, and their mission may expand. President Trump will soon decide if he should send 8,400 more troops there for the latest chapter in Americas longest war. Should he?

And dont take my word for it: the Talban has rejected peace talks with the Afghan government as surrendering to the enemy and against Islam.

The Afghans have seen off every visitor and invader, from Alexander the Great to the U.S. Central Command, so why spend another dollar there? For example, the regional transport network has avoided Afghanistan and the enthusiasts for a New Silk Road or One Belt, One Road havent absorbed that the world is avoiding Afghanistan not out of stupidity but out of hard-won experience.

Yes, there is wealth to be had: Russian, British, and American geologists have found that Afghanistan has enormous untapped mineral resources, valued at $1 to $3 trillion. The minerals are in the ground, sure, but theres no way to get them out so theyre effectively worth nothing. And theres no way to get them out because the country is violent and corrupt which scares away prudent investors.

In 2008, the Chinese won the rights to the Aynak copper mine for $3 billion and an alleged $30 million bribe to the minister of mines. In 2017, no copper has yet been mined and the Chinese executive heading the project has been expelled from the Communist party for corruption. The only good news, if you can call it that, has been the recent Taliban green light for the restart of the project.

Wise Western investors should temporarily cede the field to the Chinese, Pakistanis, and Iranians our enemies and frenemies and let them try to make something of it. Afghanistan will still want friends in the West and we should exercise some of that recently derided strategic patience until the time is right and the Chinese have worn out their welcome when the Afghans realize they wont create any jobs. Dealing with Afghanistan should be like buying a used car let someone else take the loss and get it later at a savings. In this case, the savings of American lives and the bandwidth our leaders can devote to tractable issues.

What should the U.S. do?

We did our best in Afghanistan, but its time to move on.

James D. Durso is the managing director at consultancy firm Corsair LLC. He was a professional staff member of the 2005 Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission and the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and served as a U.S. Navy officer for 20 years specializing in logistics and security assistance. His overseas military postings were in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, and he served in Iraq as a civilian transport advisor with the Coalition Provisional Authority. He served afloat as supply officer of the submarine USS SKATE (SSN 578).

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.

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Time for the US to take a step back from Afghanistan - The Hill (blog)