captain jonathan niblock has been involved with the past five years now, thank you for being with us,tain. >> thank you. >> what is operation gratitude? >> operation gratitude was started in 2003 and it's since given out over one million care packages to soldiers deployed. since 2003, it's expanded to a little bit beyond that so it's now soldiers that are deployed, family members, wounded warriors and veterans in nursing homes or v.a. hospitals. >> veterans day, of course, is coming up on november 11. why is it important to have another day to kind of rally the community together? >> well, really it's just to keep us out there all year round. it's not just about veterans day, it's all year round. and really any support that can be given is outstanding. i've personally been a recipient of one of these packages and it just brightens your entire day to know somebody cares. >> what did you they have? what can people gather and donate. >> really we're looking for toiletries, snacks that are stable, beef jerky or candy or stuff like that. really the letters mean so much when we get them whe