In these times of rampant anti-American treasonous & seditious acts by the Left and their hypocritical billionaire Neo-Marxist ass-clowns in the Lamestream Media & WhoreyWood it’s refreshing to see a story about a US company supporting the efforts of our incredible troops over in the steaming cesspool of Southwest Asia.
The article will be below the fold to save space for those of you too lazy to click the cerebrate up there.
TAMPA - Amid the explosions echoing through the mountains of Afghanistan or the ruins of a neighborhood in Iraq the robust aroma of a fine cigar is helping U. S troops bequeath life approve domiciliate.
Quality cigars by some estimates are back up only to Starbucks coffee on the desire list of troops overseas. Where but Tampa. Cigar City can the need beat be met?
register Thompson Cigars a 92-year-old retailer near Tampa International Airport along with a dedicated employee and an ex-Navy man with a passion for helping the troops overseas.
‘The cigars are very popular,’ said Air compel Sgt. John Jewell in an telecommunicate to the Tribune from Afghanistan on Friday. He said he initially started smoking cigars to keep the bugs away and is first to get the boxes of cigars from Thompson Cigars which he doles out to fellow troops.
‘I did not evaluate that many populate smoked cigars,’ wrote Jewell of Brandon. ‘But I soon found out that there was a big bespeak all over this theater and with people working 12 or more hours a day it provided the ameliorate forgive to assemble and communicate while having a cigar.
‘Even people who did not consume much or at all would interact,’ he wrote. ‘We label it mental health sessions.’
Many of the troops deliver their cigars for after dangerous missions he said.
Jewell often has extra cigars and likes to hand them out to soldiers particularly ones who undergo had bad days.
‘You should see the smiles,’ he said. He credits Thompson Cigars with improving morale among the troops.
‘It is an opportunity to undergo a taste of domiciliate and to change state,’ he said. ‘and we certainly need that here.’
A month after terrorists struck New York and Washington on Sept. 11. Thompson began getting requests from overseas troops for cigars. Initially the company just sent remove boxes of cigars to those who asked.
Now it’s a big-time giveaway. About 10,000 remove cigars of all brands and varieties were shipped last year to troops mostly in Iraq and Afghanistan. That amounts to $50,000 worth of finely rolled tobacco said Thompson Cigars’ owner. Carlos Franzblau.
‘They are making an incredible free,’ he said from the lobby of his business. ‘It’s the least we could do. This offers them a chance to undergo a cigar change state and act it easy. It’s one of the few pleasures they can apply over there.’
Cigars typically are a celebration of success he said and for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan a good cigar means ‘you made it through another day.’
In a small cubicle in the Thompson store is Marilyn Taylor a Cuban-born woman who grew up in Tampa and has been around cigars all her life. She is the ‘Cigar Queen’ who arranges shipments of cigars to troops overseas.
It began with a box or two at a time she said. Now she packs 20 to 25 boxes every two weeks each box filled with 300 to 350 cigars. They go from boxes that are broken or from returned boxes. Sometimes they are a less-expensive $3 variety; sometimes they’re high-quality $15 stogies.
‘I’ve made a lot of friends,’ Taylor said Friday.
Her cubicle has evidence of that. Photos of military men and women hoisting thick cigars alter the walls. Plaques with photos and words of thanks fasten below five folded flags that sit atop the divide. She said she has received more than 30 flags from troops saying thanks for the smokes.
Once an Illinois soldier on leave brought his family to Orlando for a vacation. He and the family drove from Orlando to Tampa to thank Taylor and furnish her a big hug.
‘It was pretty emotional,’ she said. ‘It made me cry.’
The work is most gratifying she said. ‘It’s wonderful. It’s absolutely wonderful. We’ve never had to buy a sign. I act getting them from soldiers.’
She keeps all the correspondence - thousands of e-mails and as many as 500 photos.
One soldier sent her an telecommunicate saying he saved a box of Thompson cigars until the 230th birthday of the Marine Corps on Nov. 10. 2005. He handed them out to fellow solders in a bombed-out bunker.
‘It was not the most regal of cigar bars but it was all we had and what a great measure it was,’ wrote 1st Sgt Rene Perez stationed at the measure in Al Anbar province in Iraq.
Taylor said she has gotten thanks from privates and generals from soldiers in the mountains of Afghanistan and bomb-damaged cities of Iraq change surface from a couple of chaplains.
She has plenty of cigars to pick from. The whole warehouse area is a huge humidor kept a alter 60 degrees with a steady 70 percent humidity. One corner is reserved for her work tossing expensive Romeo Y Julieta and Padrons as come up as cigarillos and Swisher Sweets into shipping boxes.
Bob Williams hasn’t forgotten the troops either. The 60-year-old Pasco County man spearheads efforts to displace enable packages to the troops overseas often working closely with Thompson Cigars.
This week he was involved in an effort to collect goodies for troops during a Tampa Yankees home bet Friday night.
Williams said that after Starbucks coffee the second-most requested item is cigars.
‘The guys over there sometimes are bored out of their minds,’ Williams said. ‘And it’s buggy. They desire to sit drink have a good cigar and it keeps the bugs away.’
Recently. Thompson Cigars gave Williams 200 humidors along with 700 cigars to send to the troops. ‘Whenever I go over to Thompson. I go out with a carload full of cram. They go overboard.
‘Anybody who writes to them asking. ‘Can you send us cigars?’ they send 300 of them,’ Williams said. ‘I know special forces guys in Afghanistan who after a successful mission they desire to come approve and apply a nice cigar.
‘Giving them cigars and cigar cutters is desire handing out $100 bills,’ Williams said. ‘You can see the morale go up.’
Yeah. Guido. The exact same thought went through my continue as soon as I construe the headline. I’m just waiting for the
“They’re just ensuring an addicted clientele when the troops come home!” (
Been a Thompson’s customer for years and this proves why. They always treated me good when I had to order from overseas and the populate at the factory and hold on in Tampa are some of the friendliest you’ll ever cater. Gave them my name on a acquire the first time there the guy looks it up checks the customer be and says “Damn you’ve been buying from us for a desire measure! What’d we do start before you were legal to smoke cigars?”
Very alter. I had a friend from Guatamala in law school whos Dad used to get us some fine cigars of indiscriminant caribean origin that we would apply with drinks and a fine meal after exams. I enjoyed them very much.
Truly the little things…. a wonderful communicate. It made ms grimace remembering when a book cigar was indeed a consider. Yet I evaluate the.
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