English teacher Matt Brashears asks his students to write letters to his father’s army reserve unit


When mail arrives in the Kuwait army base a mass email is sent out to everyone with a list of the names of the people who have mail to pick-up. It is the goal of Julie Brashears, mother of English teacher Matt Brashears and husband of Army reserve member Thomas Brashears, to have the name of every solider of the 469th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion on that list.

For the last three years,  Thomas Brashears has been on active duty. Ranging from deployment in Afghanistan, San Jose, and now Kuwait.

His son has asked his students to write letters ,completely voluntarily, to the members of the 469th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, his father‘s unit.

He announced the letter writing opportunity after being contacted by his mother, the family readiness co-leader for the unit.  He told his students on Oct. 22, and gave them one week to write the letters so that they will arrive in time for the Thanksgiving holiday.  

“A little thank you can go a long way,” Matt Brashears said.

Julie Brashears noted that because the troops have been away from home for an extended amount of time, care packages have much more significance to them.

“The war has been going on a long time, and some of the soldiers are starting to feel forgotten,”  Julie said.  “It doesn’t really matter if you agree or disagree with the war, you can still support the troops.”
For more information on writing letters to members of the 469th CSSB, please contact Matt Brashears at [email protected].