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| LIFE IN SOLERA | MAY 2023 | 43 In last month's article, I spoke of Solera supporting Command Sergeant Major Gregg Phillips, and his Corps of Engineers for two and a half straight years, in Iraq. During those early days of fighting we supported construction units in Afghanistan also. Construction has always been an import part of the military, going back to Roman times and before. Now, to more current times. Starting in 2016, Solera began our first support of a Navy Seabee unit in the African country of Niger. When one unit would rotate back stateside, we would continue with their replacements. This continued for a total of three Navy groups. They were then replaced by Army Reserves construction units. We supported five of these Army Reserve units. The last group was from western Montana where I had friends and traveled to quite a bit, so we had a lot in common. The Army group that has replaced the Montana group is our first National Guard unit. They happen to be from North Carolina, the state where I was born and spent much of my youth. Although I met my wife, Linda, in Maryland, she was born in North Carolina as well. Both the Montana group and the North Carolina unit have split their units, and are stationed in two African countries. Niger is in Western Africa and Djibouti is in the extreme northeast part of Africa. The two groups are often required to do work for our military, in neighboring countries. On to a different topic. Last year, we had two garage sale fundraisers, to raise money for postage. Solera's spring garage sale was April 15. The troop project did not do a fundraiser this time. I was involved in other matters, and no one else stepped up to take on the chore. This is not all bad, as our volunteers needed a break. We will definitely be having a sale in the fall. That will be Sat., Sept. 16. If you had your own garage sale in April, and still have items that did not sell, consider donating them to our sale in September. On our last sale, we arranged to have trucks pick up large items. We will do this again. With missing the spring sale, a lot will be riding on the fall event. Thank you for caring. ~ Jesse Donardt SUPPORT OUR TROOPS VETERAN ASSISTANCE Billy (Mitch) Mitchell is a resident and Veteran who has voluntarily worked with individuals and the Veterans Administration to assist Veterans in obtaining benefits. If you are a Veteran and want to know which benefits you may be eligible for, contact Mitch at (951) 797-0800. There were no occasions to raise the flags in April. The flags will be raised in May for Armed Forces Day (5/19/23) and Memorial Day (5/26/23). Thank you to those few dedicated resident volunteers who are up "at the crack of dawn" on these special days to put up and take down our flags. Contact for the Flag Brigade – Nick Gercis, nick.gercis@gmail.com. Jesse Donardt is a resident of Solera and someone who cares for our troops overseas. Jesse collects things that our troops need and enhances the morale and well-being of these troops worldwide by shipping care boxes containing items specifically requested by them. Please support Jesse and the SUPPORT OUR TROOPS program. Jesse can be reached at (951) 845-9028. To all veterans, THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE! Billy (Mitch) Mitchell is a resident and veteran who has voluntarily worked with individuals and the Veterans Administration (VA) in order to assist veterans in obtaining veteran benefits. If you are a veteran and interested in finding out which benefits you may be eligible to obtain, contact Mitch at (951) 797-0800. FLAG BRIGADE

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