Volunteers with Treat the Troops Southern Style often include letters of thanks along with cookies and other treats they box up and ship to soldiers overseas, but this week they got a thanks of their own.

At the group’s packing on Thursday, Sgt. First Class Brian Harness, who had received packages from the group in the past and recently returned from a 400-day deployment to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, told volunteers how much the support means to troops abroad.

“It is nice to be over there training troops and to receive something from folks back home, and every bit of it goes to good use,” Harness said. “There was nine of us in our group, and there would be cards taped up on people’s refrigerators, and there would be fights on the basketball courts of the Skittles and bartering going on back and forth, but nothing ever went to waste.”

Five times a year, members of Treat the Troops Southern Style prepare boxes of snacks, toiletries, notes and other items for deployed soldiers. Harness, a drill sergeant with the Army Reserve, said it was good to know packages came through American hands.

Harness and his team were training Saudi troops to deal with critical infrastructure, meaning oil refineries, the base of the county’s economy, and water distillation plants to make saltwater drinkable. 

“By us training the troops, it allows the U.S. safe haven to land there to go other places, such as Iraq and Afghanistan,” he said. “It’s a good stopping point, and they’re an ally fighting against terrorism. It’s a barter back and forth; they help us and we help them because everyone wants their oil.”

Life in Saudi Arabia took some getting used to for Harness.

He said he had four pieces of lettuce over the year, “and that was it for green vegetables” due to horror stories from other troops. He said training took place in 135 degree heat — the coldest it got in winter was 78 degrees.

One member of the group asked what they could do different or send more of to better benefit troops, and Harness replied “nothing.” He said drink mix packets were especially popular.

“We go through so much water, it’s nice to have a different taste of something,” Harness said. “I would probably go through 25 or 30 gallons a week, just all day long.”

Harness said this was his fifth deployment and that “my wife’s had about enough of it.”

For Thursday’s packing, boxes were shipped to troops in Italy, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, South Korea, Africa, Camp Buehring in Kuwait, the Kuwait Naval Base and to the USS George H.W. Bush and USS Howard.

Organizer Linda Jones said the group had its largest ever June packing with 260 boxes shipped, beating their goal of 250. Last year, 218 boxes were filled, up from 157 in 2015, 129 in 2014 and 73 in 2013.

The next packing will be in August.