VETS BRIGHTEN LIFE FOR TROOPS FACING WORST FIREWORKS.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

The ``Mad Dogs'' from Delta Company can't be home this year to celebrate the Fourth of July with us. They won't be barbecuing with their families or enjoying the fireworks shows later on.

This anti-armor-heavy weapons company, attached to the 101st Airborne Division, has already seen enough fireworks to last a lifetime since arriving in Afghanistan, Capt. Greg Frey, the company commander, says.

But the Mad Dogs do miss home - do want to be remembered today on our national birthday.

``I can tell you they are bearing the family separation, physical discomforts and enemy threat better than I could have hoped for,'' Frey writes in one of his letters to some Burbank men he has never met, but with whom he has formed a deep bond.

They're some World War II, Korean and Vietnam vets who know exactly what it feels like to miss another Fourth of July, Christmas or New Year's with their families because they're in another part of the world, fighting to protect freedom.

They call themselves Hands Across the Battlefield, and they've been sending our men and women serving in Afghanistan a little bit of home since they got there on Jan. 6.

It started small, with a few boxes of supplies the men gathered on their own, and now it's grown to dozens of boxes and letters being shipped every month to G.I.s overseas from the people back home.

From the kids over at Pinecrest School in Northridge. From the ladies knitting and crocheting over at Happy Hookers Yarn in Chatsworth.

From people they don't know back home, just wanting to say thanks.

``I want you to know my soldiers are all extremely grateful and overwhelmed by your generosity,'' Frey says in a recent letter. ``We just received five very large packages, and it worked out perfectly because I have five platoons.

``The interaction with you folks back home is an unbelievable morale booster. Your support means a lot to our company, and you've definitely won the hearts of the Mad Dogs.

``God bless you for your support. Sincerely, Capt. Greg Frey.''

Marc Cutter shows Mickey DePalo, Dusty Worthen and Frank Bullock a new letter that just arrived from Afghanistan.

The letters from officers are great, but it's the thanks from the lowly privates that really touch these men - that tell them the supplies and letters from the folks back home are getting down to the men and women doing the heavy lifting in the field.

It takes a lot to make these tough old vets shed a tear, but these letters do. Every time, Cutter says. Never fails.

``Thank you very much for your generosity,'' writes Pvt. Dustin Burger. ``The items you sent will help out a lot. People like you make everything we're doing well worth it.

``I miss my family and friends back home, and all these little things you've sent make it better.

``But what you're doing is no little thing,'' Burger writes. ``It is a great, big deal.''

The men finish reading Pvt. Burger's letter, which arrived Wednesday, and get back to work. They've have 20 more filled boxes to send over to our troops in Afghanistan this week.

Boxes filled with candy bars, comic books, crossword puzzles, magazines, playing cards, sunflower seeds, wooden pencils and other things they wanted when they were young men fighting overseas for this country.

``We used to love to get that stuff,'' said DePalo, who served in Vietnam with Cutter.

``You don't know how much it meant to get letters or cookies from school kids back home. It made you feel like you were not just another number, that there were people you didn't even know thinking about you.''

Worthen, a World War II prisoner of war, agreed. ``The national holidays were the toughest times,'' he said. ``You're feeling pretty lonely and forgotten.

``Then you get a letter or a package from someone you didn't even know, and it just lifts everyone's spirits and morale,'' he said. ``It's like receiving an unexpected birthday present.''

And now the ex-POW and his war buddies are packing up their own unexpected birthday presents to send overseas to another generation of young G.I.s missing a Fourth of July back home.

Before he closes one of the cartons, Bullock slips in a letter. It's from a little girl in the first grade at Pinecrest School in Northridge.

``To our U.S. military,'' she says on the envelope. ``With lots and lots of love.''

If you want to help Hands Across the Battlefield, donations of material goods can be dropped off to DePalo at the Verdugo Park Recreation Center, 3201 W. Verdugo Ave., Burbank.

For people in the West Valley, supplies can be dropped off at Happy Hookers Yarn, 21619 Devonshire Street in Chatsworth. To find out the types of supplies needed, call owner Linda Richardson at [phone] or DePalo at [phone],

Also, monetary donations can be made through the city of Burbank, Hands Across the Battlefield - P.O. Box 6459, Burbank, CA 91510.

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Photo:

Veterans in Hands Across the Battlefield at Burbank are sending more treats to U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. From left are Frank Bullock, Marc Cutter, Dusty Worthen and Mickey DePalo.

Phil McCarten/Staff Photographer