Earlier this year, USMC 1st Lt. Paul Herdener emailed his parents, Tony and Cathy Herdener of Gainesville, about the effectiveness of shaving cream in saving Marines' lives.
Tony Herdener spread the word at the Gainesville Rotary Club, the drive spread to other organizations and money was raised to purchase and ship 20,000 cans of shaving cream to 1st Lt. Herdener and the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines in Afghanistan. The shaving cream was used to mark a path through suspected sites of roadside bombs.
"You can directly correlate the casualty rate and number of wounded we took to being able to properly mark the lanes," Lt. Herdener said. "We were able to do that because of the shaving cream that Gainesville sent to us. It was going straight from J. and J. Foods or wherever you bought it straight to a Marine's hand to watch out for his buddy next to him."
Herdener, a graduate of North Hall High School and the U.S. Naval Academy, finished his Afghanistan deployment in October. He issued a public thank you to the community.
A panel of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, including Herdener; Lt Col Kevin Jarrard, Riverside's commandant; Lt. Col. (Ret) Anthony E. Fritchle, executive assistant to the president and director for planning at Riverside; and Maj. David J. Nelson, Battalion Executive Officer 5th Ranger Training Battalion, fielded questions about American military involvement.
Jarrard said it was valuable from his perspective because it helped support the success of Iraqis and Afghans.
"Now whether that success holds or not is really up to them," Lt. Col. Jarrard said. "We did what we could to share our courage with them and we hope the future will bring good things to those countries."
1st Lt. Herdener (L) with Pres. of RMC, Dr. and retired Marine Col. James H. Benson
Gainesville community members Monday night were invited to attend An Evening of Thanks and Remembrance, How a Community Makes a Difference: Operation Shaving Cream
http://accesswdun.com/article/2011/11/243909