NSCF

When standard shipping limits threatened to stall the Halfway Box Campaign for the USS Asheville (SSN-758) in Guam, the North Carolina Submarine Foundation and a few dedicated crew families stepped up to pull off a massive logistics operation—turning a garage full of packages into hundreds of morale-boosting care packages for our sailors. Here is how teamwork, pure generosity, and community solved the distance to deliver for our crew.

Start with the kitchen counter the night before. Foil trays lined up end to end, cinnamon rolls, French toast bake, a hundred breakfast burritos wrapped in foil and labeled in marker. Then the back of an SUV packed to the max, a water cooler wedged in beside the trays, and a drive down to the waterfront at Pearl Harbor. The crew of USS Charlotte (SSN 766) ate outside that morning, in coveralls, at folding tables with the harbor behind them. Strawberries and syrup included. The Silent Stinger...

A 1/2 Way Box goes aboard before the boat leaves the pier. It sits in storage through the first half of the deployment, and at the midpoint it comes out for Halfway Night. Halfway Night is the turn. The galley puts out one of the best meals of the deployment, often steak, the crew runs skits and competitions, and the count shifts from days away to days back. The boxes are opened during it, and for most sailors that box is the only package they will get the whole time they are gone. The window...