Pizzas 4 Patriots and DHL Express will team up once again to help troops in Afghanistan get a taste of home this Fourth of July by sending 17,000 pizza pies to thousands of U.S. servicemen and women serving in the region.  This effort follows the team’s record setting pizza delivery last year, which was recently confirmed by the Guinness Book of World Records. The non-profit Pizzas 4 Patriots was born in Chicago in 2008 when the son of Master Sergeant Mark Evans had a “pie in the sky” idea to provide pizzas to U.S. troops serving overseas. Evans and son could not have imagined that with the support of international shipping specialist DHL Express, over one million “slices of home” would end up being served to U.S. servicemen and women since the program’s inception. “I know firsthand how meaningful these packages are to the troops and am thankful to DHL Express who time and again, graciously agrees to donate their shipping services to deliver a ‘slice of home’ to our troops”, said Retired Master Sergeant Mark Evans, founder of Pizzas 4 Patriots. “Since we started the organization, letters of appreciation we get from the military as well as from friends and family of those stationed overseas are really heartwarming and makes it all worthwhile.” In the scorching hot summer of the Middle East, the International Specialists at DHL Express will fulfill the mission of Pizzas 4 Patriots by working against the clock to ensure the designated tasty care packages are received fresh and in perfect condition. DHL personnel will load the perishable pies onto direct U.S. flights to the Middle East, re-icing the shipments along the route and tracking the shipments every step of the way. The pizza delivery will be distributed to Camp Bastion, Bagram Airbase and Kandahar Airfield and then on to various Forward Operating Bases in Afghanistan – with some pizza pies also destined for troops in Kuwait and Oman. In addition to transportation, tracking and logistics management, DHL Express will provide final, door-to-door delivery for the distribution, working closely with the U.S. military to ensure the pizzas are delivered fresh and ready at the various military bases.  “As the specialists in international shipping, DHL is honored to leverage its global network in support for Pizzas 4 Patriots which continues to lift the spirits of our brave servicemen and women,” said Ian Clough, CEO of DHL Express U.S. “During important holidays, it’s even tougher to be away from friends and family, so we’re pleased to bring a small reminder of home to the deserving military personnel in Afghanistan.” Since 2008, DHL Express has shipped more than 139,000 pizzas in support of U.S. military personnel overseas and this year was entered in the Guinness Book of World Records for performing the largest pizza delivery in history for Pizzas 4 Patriots.