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Birthday letters being collected for Crooked River Ranch soldier serving overseas

(Update: Adding video, comments)

CROOKED RIVER RANCH, Ore. (KTVZ) --Birthday letters are being collected for Dustin Gallegos, a Crooked River Ranch soldier who is currently deployed overseas.

Gallegos is serving with the U.S. Air Force in Qatar.

“He’s always been around military, and he loves his country,” Deanne Proffitt, Gallegos' mother, said Wednesday.

Gallegos was deployed last month and is spending his upcoming 24th birthday away from home. Proffit said she wanted to find a way to show him community support while he’s overseas. She owns two food carts next to the Over the Edge Taphouse and thought having letters mailed to him would be a nice surprise.

“The idea came up, why don’t we just put something together inside the taphouse where all the customers can see and send their love and support," Proffitt said.

Proffitt says her son joined the U.S. Air Force at age 17 and became a bomb technician.

Gallegos comes from a family full of veterans.

“I was Navy myself, his father was Navy -- that’s how his father and I met. My brother was a Marine and my father was Air Force,” Proffitt said.

Greg Turnbow, an Army veteran, encourages anyone who can to write a letter to Gallegos. He knows how much these letters will mean to him.

“There's nothing like it, especially in my case, where I would be out in the field for three or four days," Turnbow said. "It was nice to get hot food, but the main thing was when the chopper brought in your letters. You can sit down and read those, and it was so important to know what was going on back home.”

Turnbow added that he has a great amount of respect for Gallegos for serving his country.

“He's got a tough road ahead, but I'm sure he's capable of doing it -- we've just got to give him the support,” Turnbow added.

If you would like to write a birthday letter to Gallegos, letters are being collected at the Over the Edge Taphouse until April 30.

Article Topic Follows: War-Military

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Leslie Cano

Leslie Cano is a multimedia journalist for NewsChannel 21. Learn more about Leslie here.

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