Marines and a Tampon (it's ok to read! don't worry!)

Someone sent me this in e-mail today, and I wanted to share it with all of you. Hope that is OK to do on a blog; if I am breaking rules, please let me know!

Subject: MARINES AND TAMPONS (A GREAT STORY)

Tampons to the rescue in Iraq!! Don't worry, it's a good
story, and worth reading. It's even humorous in parts. It's from the
mother of a Marine in Iraq.

My son told me how wonderful the care packages we had
sent them were and wanted me to tell everyone thank you. He said that
one guy we'll call Marine X, got a girl care package and everyone was
giving him a hard time. My son said, "Marine X got some really nice
smelling lotion and everyone really likes it, so every time he goes to
sleep they steal it from him." I told my son I was really sorry about
the mistake, and if he wanted I would send Marine X another package.
He told me not to worry about Marine X because every time I send
something to him, Marine X thinks it's for him too.

He said when my husband and I sent the last care package,
Marine X came over to his cot picked up the box, started fishing
through it, and said, "What'd we get this time?"

My son said they had the most fun with Marine X's
package. He said he wasn't sure who we were sending the pack to, but
the panties were size 20, and he said one of the guys got on top of
the Humvee and jumped off with the panties over his head and yelled,
"Look at me, I'm an Airborne Ranger!!!!" One of the guys attached the
panties to an antenna and it blew in the wind like a windsock. He said
it entertained them for quite awhile. Then of course.......they had those
tampons.

When he brought this up, my imagination just went running,
but he continued. My son said they had to go on a mission and Marine X
wanted the Chap-Stick and lotion for the trip. He grabbed a bunch of
the items from his care package and got in the Humvee. As luck would
have it he grabbed the tampons too, and my son said everyone was
teasing him about "not forgetting his feminine hygiene products."

He said things went well for a while, then the convoy was
ambushed and a Marine was shot. He said the wound was pretty clean,
but it was deep. He said they were administering first aid but
couldn't get the bleeding to slow down, and someone said, "Hey! Use
Marine X's tampons!" My son said they put the tampon in the wound. At
this point my son profoundly told Me, "Mom, did you know that tampons
expand?" ("Well....yeah!")

They successfully slowed the bleeding until the guy got
better medical attention. When they went to check on him later The
surgeon told them, "You guys saved his life. If you hadn't stopped
that bleeding he would have bled to death." My Son said, "Mom, the
tampons sent by the Marine Moms by mistake saved a Marine's life."

At this point I asked him, "Well, what did you do with the
rest of the tampons?"

He said, "Oh, we divided them up and we all have them in
our flak jackets, and I kept two for our first aid kit."

I am absolutely amazed by the ingenuity of our Marines. I
can't believe that something that started out as a mistake then turned
into a joke, ended up saving someone's life. My sister said she
doesn't believe in mistakes. She believes God had a plan all along.
She believes that "female care package" was sent to Marine X to save our
Marine.