ARPC, HQ RIO first sergeants send holiday cheer Published Dec. 10, 2014 By Master Sgt. Timm Huffman HQ RIO Public Affairs BUCKLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- Five first sergeants from Buckley Air Force Base, Colorado, worked with a local Denver radio station to collect cards to send to deployed troops this holiday season. The effort, dubbed Operation Warm Heart, was led by Senior Master Sgt. John Neeley, of the Air Reserve Personnel Center, who worked in conjunction with KYGO 98.5 to collect over 10,000 cards from the station's listeners. The first sergeants from the 460th Space Wing's medical squadron, security forces squadron and force support squadron, as well as the first sergeant from Headquarters Individual Reservist Readiness and Integration Organization, assisted Neeley with collecting the cards and the logistics of mailing them to deployed first sergeants. "This initiative was with a local radio station, collecting 10,000 cards for troops. For two weeks in November they put it out to their listeners to send these cards to a PO box they collected them and then handed them over to us so we can send them overseas to five different first sergeants I know who are deployed and they're going to get them out to their troops. The total was not 10,000, but was 13,134," said Neeley. "During the holidays we want to make sure everyone has something to open. Not everyone has family to send them care packages, home baked goods, stuff like that, so a card is a nice gesture to let them know that people back home are thinking about them," said Master Sergeant Jerrod Kester, HQ RIO first sergeant. In total, the holiday cards filled 71 boxes and were sent to troops in Afghanistan, Korea, Japan, Germany at Qatar.