By Ellen & Rob Raede

Our son Jason served in the IDF in 2010-2011 as a sharp-shooter in the Givati Brigade. This week, after the Hamas attacks, about half of his old unit was called up from the reserves, but not Jason.  In fact, because of certain rules, he’s exempt from being called up.

Still, he feels a deep connection to Israel and his IDF comrades, and, in addition to being sad, hurt, and angry like the rest of us, was frustrated that he couldn’t be with his guys. He’s been in constant contact with them since last Saturday.

So Ellen and I and Jason brainstormed a bit, and decided he should ask his friends from his old unit if they needed anything.

Which they did.  To a person they said the same thing:  Tactical Boots.

The army does not keep a spare 300,000 pairs of modern boots lying around, and a lot of these guys might’ve been going into battle in old hand-me-down US surplus boots.

Jason’s has an Israeli friend, Sh’mil, who is one of these people who always ‘knows a guy.’  Whatever you need, he knows the right guy, and he knew just the person to help with this: The guy who runs a private contractor army supplier, who had the 96 pairs of boots in the right sizes in stock.

So Jason got them going on it, and Ellen and I called a few pals and raised the money to buy the boots and some of the good gloves the soldiers favor.

Today Sh’mil drove to the boot supplier in a rental van, and he and his son and some of the boot people were gathered around the phone with us, working on the purchase details.  When the credit card verification came through, they said together: “God Bless America.”

Sh’mil drove the boots down to the base where Jason’s old unit guys are stationed, and delivered the boots.  36 hours from idea to delivery.

Photo above: Shmil after delivering boots, gloves, mattresses, and other equipment to Jason’s old reserve unit.