Tulsan's ' Joe for GI's' campaign

A lot of us can't make it through the day without that morning cup of coffee. Well, a Tulsa coffee shop owner wants to use coffee to make life a little easier for our nation's troops. <br/><br/>News

Thursday, October 7th 2004, 10:03 am

By: News On 6

A lot of us can't make it through the day without that morning cup of coffee. Well, a Tulsa coffee shop owner wants to use coffee to make life a little easier for our nation's troops.

News on 6 reporter Steve Berg says while Brian Franklin is busy brewing coffee at DoubleShots on 18th and Boston, his buddy Brad Messner is working as an Army medic in the middle of Iraq's worst hot spots. "The fighting that they had last week. I just talked to his wife a few minutes ago, and he actually called while I was on the phone with her and she said the one casualty that we took over there, he worked on and it was on a rooftop, and there was shooting all over the place."

He says whether or not you support the war, he wants to support the troops. "Too much, I hear just political rhetoric about the war and whether we should be there or shouldn't be there and I think we forget about the day-to-day lives of the soldiers and who's over there, people, real people."

Its help that does amount to a hill of beans. Joe for GI's is Brad's cleverly-named fundraiser. He'll take a dollar from each sale and use that to buy items for the soldiers.

He says even a small treat can make a difference in a place when its 120-degrees, you haven't had a shower in a week, and the fighting is fierce. "His girlfriend, his wife now. And his mom send him like, Rice Krispie treats, and I send him coffee beans. It's just anything from home, which reminds him of home."

And that his friend hasn't forgotten him. "Everybody kind of felt that pull when 9/11 happened and the airplanes crashed and what can we do to serve our country, and how can we help and Brad did it, y'know?"