MEMBERconnection
Costco members
helping the troops p
COSTCO MEMBERS ACROSS the
nation have found unique ways to
honor the courage and sacrifice of
active soldiers and veterans. Here
are just a few examples.
OPERATION GRATITUDE
Operation Gratitude
OPERATION GRATITUDE (
www.opgratitude.com), a nonprofit, volunteer-based organization, sends care packages filled with snacks, entertainment items and personal letters of
appreciation to troops deployed in hostile regions on land and at sea. Costco member
Carolyn Blashek, founder and president of Operation Gratitude, says, “Our mission is to
express to all our armed forces the appreciation and support of the American people.”
Since its inception in 2003, Operation Gratitude has shipped more than 560,000 packages
overseas. Above, an Army field artillery unit, deployed in Iraq, poses with their gifts.
Steaks on the ground
PHOTOS COURTESY OF STEAKTEAMMISSION.ORG
THE LOOK ON the soldiers’ faces makes it
all worthwhile for Harvey Gough.
Gough, of Dallas, Texas, is the founder
of Steak Team Mission (
www.steakteam
mission.org). He and a small group of volunteers have traveled to war-torn areas over
the past eight years to perform a simple act:
cooking a steak dinner for American soldiers. It’s added up to some 30,000 meals,
and counting.
“They look at us and say, ‘You came all
this way to do this?’ ” says Gough. “We see
in their eyes: You care enough to come all
the way over here and do all the
stuff you need to do to get here to
feed us steak?”
Gough, 71, ran a popular ham-
burger joint in Dallas before retir-
ing. Looking for something to do to
support the troops, he thought
about bringing them homemade
meals. He used his connections in
Top, a Steak Team Mission meal
is prepared for hungry sailors on
the USS Nimitz. At left, Harvey
Gough and his volunteer crew in
action at Mosul, Iraq.
the food business for supplies, found a company to pack it all and persuaded American
Airlines to provide cargo air service. And as to
how all the food is paid for, most of the support comes from the pockets of Gough and his
friends.
The first trip was in 2002 to soldiers in
Uzbekistan. Since then, Steak Team Mission
has served dinners in Kuwait, Iraq,
Afghanistan, Djibouti, aboard the USS Nimitz
and at Fort Hood, Texas. The menu is all-American: an appetizer, an 8-ounce tenderloin steak cooked over charcoal, cornbread,
coleslaw and a Klondike bar.
As The Connection spoke with Gough, he
was preparing for another steak mission in
November. It could be the toughest one yet:
feeding 1,000 wounded soldiers at the Brooke
Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in
San Antonio, Texas. “Logistically, that one will
be easy,” says Gough. “But for me personally, it
will be the hardest one that I have done.”
Gough is mulling options for the next
steak mission. “Freedom is not free,” he says.
“This is our payback to the soldiers who are
out there serving in dirty, smelly, sweaty
places. We do this because it contributes to
their morale and well-being.”—Tim Talevich
90 ;e Costco Connection NOVEMBER 2010
