How a former soldier decided to send video games to troops in the field.
http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/16/5179074/launching-operation-supply-drop
Army Ranger Stephen Machuga is nervous. He's trying to hide it, shuffling through the cluttered room — once a living room, now a warehouse — that's serving its second or third life as headquarters for his charity. But it's there plain as day: Something is eating at him.
It's an old soldier trick, this, the staying busy. Don't think about what might happen when you walk outside the wire, or jump out of the plane. Don't think about the danger. Busy your mind with simple tasks. Fill the hours of waiting, or else go crazy obsessing over things you can't control. It's a trick that, as a former captain, a literal leader of men, Machuga must have mastered — must have taught. But one wonders, seeing the worry creep through the smile on his face and the hesitation in his steps, if he might not be slipping. Or even if the trick is any more effective in war. It's sure as hell not working now.
Machuga, retired from the Army, is now the head of Operation Supply Drop, the charity he established to send care packages of video games to soldiers serving overseas. The cluttered room is stacked floor to ceiling with video games, video game machines and an assortment of tchotchkes sent by well-meaning donors, mainly corporations. The items being stored here will get placed in boxes (of a precise size and weight) and then sent to soldiers overseas. The boxes may take months to arrive at their destinations. They may not even arrive at all.
Read more by clicking on the link.
http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/16/5179074/launching-operation-supply-drop
Army Ranger Stephen Machuga is nervous. He's trying to hide it, shuffling through the cluttered room — once a living room, now a warehouse — that's serving its second or third life as headquarters for his charity. But it's there plain as day: Something is eating at him.
It's an old soldier trick, this, the staying busy. Don't think about what might happen when you walk outside the wire, or jump out of the plane. Don't think about the danger. Busy your mind with simple tasks. Fill the hours of waiting, or else go crazy obsessing over things you can't control. It's a trick that, as a former captain, a literal leader of men, Machuga must have mastered — must have taught. But one wonders, seeing the worry creep through the smile on his face and the hesitation in his steps, if he might not be slipping. Or even if the trick is any more effective in war. It's sure as hell not working now.
Machuga, retired from the Army, is now the head of Operation Supply Drop, the charity he established to send care packages of video games to soldiers serving overseas. The cluttered room is stacked floor to ceiling with video games, video game machines and an assortment of tchotchkes sent by well-meaning donors, mainly corporations. The items being stored here will get placed in boxes (of a precise size and weight) and then sent to soldiers overseas. The boxes may take months to arrive at their destinations. They may not even arrive at all.
Read more by clicking on the link.