Operation Gratitude Volunteers Pack Gift Boxes for the Troops

Volunteers were busy Saturday offering some Thanksgiving to the troops deployed overseas by filling care packages with goodies and reminders of home. 

"They are literally putting their life on the line for us," Chris Pulos of Chatsworth told the Daily News. He's a retired Marine and member of the U.S. Air Force who is now a high school teacher. "When I go to work, I'm worried if I have my lesson plans. When they go to work, (it's) `Do I have my body armor? Am I squared away to go into combat?'

"The least we can do is say, `People back here care,'" Pulos said.

He was one of the Operation Gratitude volunteers working an assembly line at the Army National Guard Armory in Van Nuys, packing boxes with "lotion, ChapStick, Girl Scout cookies, toothbrushes and toothpaste, energy drinks, knit scarves and hats, books, CDs and DVDs."

Each package costs $15 to send.

For more information, call 1-262-OPGRAT-1 or visit operationgratitude.com.

For the complete story, click here.