Last month we told you about Jamie Franks, an Operations Specialist and Rescue Swimmer in the United States Navy. His unit is US Navy EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) Mobile Unit Three, stationed out of San Diego. They are currently deployed to southern Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Jamie became a fan on our Facebook page and wrote on our wall that he grew up in Selma, North Carolina and “eating at Smithfield’s Chicken ‘N BBQ is always a MANDATORY event when I’m at home on leave!”. We shipped Jamie and his unit some t-shirts and hushpuppy mix in appreciation for all they do. The unit had a Memorial Day Cookout and Jamie sent us the following note:

“We are 9 1/2 hours ahead of North Carolina. We just wrapped up our Memorial Day ceremony and cookout. I have to tell you – the hush puppies were a HUGE hit! I couldn’t make them fast enough! Every time a batch came out of the fryer they were instantly gone. Most of the guys were eating a hush puppy for the very first time, and kept coming back for more until the fryer eventually ran out of oil, and I had to close hush puppy production. .Thanks for providing us with a little taste of home while we’re way over here.”

We were so touched by Jamie’s excitement and appreciation that we have decided to “adopt” his unit. We will ask each store to send letters, cards, magazines, peanuts, coffee, sunflower seeds, etc to our operations center. Every month, Smithfield’s Chicken ‘N Bar-B-Q will send his unit a care package filled with these items from the stores. We deeply appreciate all what Jamie and his fellow soldiers are doing and we hope our effort can help brighten their day.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 11:21 am and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.