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Stephen and Tabitha King foot bill for troops' ride home
Horror writer and all-around mensch Stephen King and his wife, author Tabitha King, are donating $12,999 so that members of the Maine Army National Guard currently training at Camp Atterbury, Ind., can come home to Portland and Bangor for the holidays, the Bangor Daily News reports.
This amount is short of the $13,000 that had been requested, but King didn't want any form of the unlucky number 13 to be associated with the troops. The remaining dollar came from one of King's assistants, Julie Eugley.
A total of 150 members of the Brewer-based Bravo Company of the 3rd Battalion, 172nd Infantry Unit, will be going back to Maine by bus, courtesy of the Kings. The guardsmen are scheduled to ship off to Afghanistan in January.
King has been involved with a number of charities, including the Jimmy Fund and others that deal with AIDS, hunger and poverty.
By ETo at 11:09 AM ON 12/14/09
A very classy thing to do, King just went up a few notches on my respect-o-meter.
Merry Christmas to our troops all over the world, and thanks for keeping us safe.
By wilcoy at 11:30 AM ON 12/14/09
I agree very classy move by Stephen King...and Merry Christmas to all the troops and their families.
By spiritreaver at 12:01 PM ON 12/14/09
As if i needed more reason to like the guy; well done Sai' King!!!
By kingsransom at 12:28 PM ON 12/14/09
he should have given more, considering how crappy he treats every single soldier character in his books. i swear, i have yet to meet or read a character in a king book that was a soldier who didn't end up being a lunatic or eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil.
By Shannno at 12:55 PM ON 12/14/09
@kingsransom The soldiers in Under the Dome were all pretty decent guys.
By melsner at 1:32 PM ON 12/14/09
I think this was a very classy, cool thing for King to do.
But I also suspect that he may start writing a book that starts off with a 150 soldiers on busses trying to get home for the holidays... :)
By Flux Cheese at 3:15 PM ON 12/14/09
Good for you King.. :)
By Mandy at 4:10 PM ON 12/14/09
And as Tiny Tim observed, 'God bless us, everyone!'
By Grace at 5:42 PM ON 12/14/09
Thats awesome! I just have one thing to say, where is stephanie meyers gift to troops? ;P I'm kidding of course, but its funny! I wish people would stop worshiping that woman and her book!!!!
By mhochman at 6:34 PM ON 12/14/09
Sai King always gives well to Mainers, He and his family have given millions of dollars to Maine based charaties. He really is a good guy, a little strange, but a good guy nonetheless.
By Overseas at 2:07 AM ON 12/15/09
That is pretty awesome. In the mean time, Simon and Schuster, the company handling the limited edition copies of Under the Dome, refuses to accept a US credit card from a military person that is stationed overseas. They won't ship to us, but many companies won't. They will not even accept the payment to have something shipped in the US. They had a really nasty attitude about it too.
By skyhawk at 10:45 PM ON 12/15/09
A fine example for others of wealth should follow. A tip of the hat to you Mr. King.
By pepperrae at 3:09 PM ON 12/16/09
I used to like King but his political beliefs and the way he shoves them down your throat in his books has really turned me off. Of course he has every right to say what he wants and I have every right to not read what he writes.
I also find this whole gesture a touch self-serving considering the comment he made earlier this year - "I don’t want to sound like an ad–a public service ad on TV–but the fact is that if you can read you can walk into a job later on. If you don’t then you got the Army, Iraq, I don’t know, something like that. It’s not as bright. So that’s my little commercial for that." So King basically is saying only illiterate idiots are in the military. However, I'm sure the illerate National Guardsmen appreciated the ride home.
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pepperrae:
I used to like King but his political beliefs and the way he shoves them down your throat in his books has really t...More »