Boston Globe
By Kevin Cullen
GLOBE STAFF
DECEMBER 23, 2014
"Captain Coughlin said the soldiers were whooping it up as they went through the swag. Each box contained 30 pounds of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee."
At this time of year, most of us smile when some guy in a red suit and long flowing beard approaches bearing gifts.
At Forward Operating Base Fenty, where soldiers protect the airfield near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan, the guy with a beard is sometimes bearing an explosive-laden vest.
Over the years, the Taliban have attacked FOB Fenty with some regularity, and so everything that arrives there is treated with extreme caution.
Imagine, then, the reaction of the soldiers from Task Force Wolfpack of the 82d Combat Aviation Brigade when they opened 15 big, 50-pound boxes and found them stuffed to the brim with beef jerky, tobacco, coffee, and all the stuff a grunt would want.
US Army Captain Mark Coughlin is a Medford guy and it was no accident his Wolfpack got this particular care package. His brother, Chris, is a Medford police officer, and ever since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began, the Medford cops have put together Christmas care packages for soldiers, Marines, sailors, and airmen serving overseas.
Harry MacGilvray, who heads the Medford patrolmen’s union, said his department’s organization of the care packages stems from his leadership of the Greater Boston Police Softball League. Since 9/11, cops from in and around Boston and the State Police have organized softball tournaments to raise money to pay for the care packages.
MacGilvray says one of the driving forces is Joe Byrnes, a Medford patrolman who is a Vietnam vet and knows what it’s like to be a long way from home when everybody back home is celebrating. “Joe pushes us,” he said.
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