I just got this email that's being passed around at work. In a most unusual move for me, I've decided to spead the word. I don't know how to do the "quoted material in boxes" thing, so I'm just copy-and-pasting.

It's a letter from one of the people slogging through Texas picking up the pieces of the shuttle Columbia. CFC is the Combined Federal Campaign, an annual drive to collect auto-deducted charitable donations. I don't know what UB stands for.

I wanted tp take a moment to pass along to you a quick note from the field that perhaps you may see fit to share with the rest of our UB family.

Those of us who are out here in Texas and Louisana have taken on a job that has proven to be bigger than we had first imagined. All of us are putting in extremely long hours (for many of us 16+), and doing so 7 days a week. The work is difficult physically and emotionally. I personally have been spending the daylight hours climbing barbwire fences, crossing creeks out in the middle of the woods, and slipping in mud and cow pies in the rain, in the snow and in temperatures hovering near freezing. When we get to our GPS coordinates we search out the charred remains of OV-102, make sure they are not hazardous, try to identify them, bag them for return to KSC and hump them back out of their hiding places in the woods. Anyone who has ever worked in, on or around an Orbiter, and especially those of us like me who worked on 102, is hit hard by this work. There aren't many laughs out here while we are working.

On top of all that we miss our families, our friends and our homes. One thing, however, makes things a little more bearable: the aid and support offered by the American Red Cross and Salvation Army. We are greeted first thing in the morning with free breakfasts, hot coffee, snacks for the field and a cheerful smile from a genuinely caring person. Those lucky enough to be near a command or collection center in the middle of the day get donated lunches delivered or a fresh meal prepared for them. At the end of the day, hot meals are waiting for us at the collection center, again free of charge thanks to the hard working volunteers of the American Red Cross and Salvation Army and the donations of the American public.

I will be making sure I send a sizable donation to both of these organizations the next CFC and I would encourage the rest of UB to do the same. Better still, those contributions should be made as soon as practical. These folks really make a difference, but they can't do it without donations from caring folks back home. If folks back home have been wanting to help out with this sad task that we are involved in now, but didn't know what to do, here is the perfect solution. Who knows which one of us will benefit from these wonderful folks next.

Thanks for letting me share this with you. See you soon.