Some Marine Corps moms in Houston sent CARE
packages to the guys in Iraq, but 'Marine X' got a female package.
Blackfive has the story:
Then of course, they had the tampons. When he brought
this up my imagination was just running wild, but I let him
continue. My son said they had to go on a mission and Marine X
wanted the chapstick and lotion for the trip. He grabbed a bunch of
the items out of his care package and got in the humvee. As luck
would have it he grabbed the tampons, and My son said everyone was
teasing him about "not forgetting his feminine hygiene products".
My son said things were going well, and then the convoy was
ambushed. He said a Marine in the convoy 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 and got the guy 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 Marines 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".
Other funny anecdotes at
Every
Care Package Is Important. I thought CARE originally stood for
Committee for American Relief in Europe, for DPs and such, but
CARE's co-founder, Arthur Ringland says it was Committee for
American Relief Everywhere (
Oral History
Interview with Arthur Ringland.)