thewomanwarriors.com

It was just like a couple of thousand other camouflage quilts sewn by a group of Wisconsin quilters for service members heading overseas – a small bedroll made of batting, green thread and American military uniform fabric.

Like many recipients of a free blanket from the Camo Quilt Project, the soldier sent a note of thanks to the quilters she would never meet. The soldier asked if 45 more quilts could be made for her comrades before her unit left Fort Hood for Afghanistan in December.

Staff Sgt. Amy Krueger signed off her e-mail by saying “thanks to all that are involved in this wonderful project!!”

Cut down in a hail of gunfire at Fort Hood this month, Krueger didn’t get a chance to use her camo quilt in Afghanistan. But the quilters are gathering Saturday at their Plymouth office space to make the 45 blankets Krueger requested for her fellow soldiers.

“Now they’ll all have something to remember her by,” said Linda Wieck.

Wieck started the Camo Quilt Project after she made one for her son-in-law in 2006. Other soldiers in her son-in-law’s Wisconsin Army National Guard unit saw his blanket and asked if they could have one. Soon, Wieck asked her friends in the Sheboygan County Quilters Guild to help, and what started as one quilt has now turned into 2,175 distributed to service members, with pending orders for about 150.

Krueger, from Kiel, received her camo quilt from a family member who knew about the project. As she and the rest of the soldiers in the 467th Combat Stress Control Unit trained in California and Texas for their upcoming deployment to Afghanistan, Krueger took the time to e-mail Wieck.

“I personally want to thank you and all the women who worked diligently to make my blanket. It is a very gracious gift that will be very, very useful,” Krueger wrote on Sept. 29. She also asked if the rest of her unit could get the free quilts.

“Thanks again and we look forward to the upcoming blankets! Take care and no rush!” Krueger wrote on Sept. 30.

Krueger, 29, was laid to rest in her hometown on Saturday.

Wieck didn’t realize one of the Fort Hood victims was the thoughtful sergeant she had corresponded with until a few days after Krueger died. She checked through her e-mail to see the messages and realized one of the pending quilt orders was for Krueger’s unit, which suffered a high number of casualties in the Fort Hood shootings. Aside from Krueger, Russell Seager, 51, was killed and four other unit members were injured.

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