I forgot to add I also sent gun wipes and for Christmas bought a couple of these as well.
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Posted on 09/10/2010 4:01:08 AM PDT by Mad Dawgg
This July, at a forward operating base in Afghanistan's Paktika province, I dropped my Kindle. Soldiers say that no plan survives its first contact with the enemy, and now I know that a Kindle-based travel library is unlikely to survive its first contact with concrete.
In the wake of this fiasco, I have become reacquainted with the libraries of leisure reading with which the military equips it deployed soldiers. Most military bases, even very small ones in remote valleys that are attacked daily by the Taliban, have what is known as an MWR: a morale, welfare, and recreation center.
Sometimes the MWR contains a pool table or a popcorn machine; almost always it contains a bank of computers and a shelf or two of books. Who selects these books I do not know, but I will go out on a limb and guess that it is not the soldiers who wind up reading them.
After painstaking browsing at a place called Camp Blessing, in Kunar province, I discovered three books that looked readable: a Tom Clancy novel, Tobias Wolff's memoir This Boy's Life, and a battered copy of Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities that I put back together with the green military version of duct tape.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
I’m sure some of these things were people with good intentions just completely misjudging what to send. The bigger surprise is that the military let that rag, The Atlantic, anywhere near the troops for a story. I’m surprised this didn’t turn into anther “the troops are mentally disturbed” article.
Numerous times I have sent one of those tiny 500g drives packed with tv shows, movies, magazines, books, comics, and music. I usually include a couple of thumb drives to copy stuff around as well. (a typical tv show is about 350m, allowing for thousands of shows on a single drive). Once they have them, they can connect the drive to laptops for viewing
Another win were the home made cookies vacuum sealed on sheets and cut into strips of two.
A couple of papers and magazines are usually welcome.
Just remember, they have to move... Make it small, consumable, or able to be tossed without concern. The drives are light weight, fairly durable, and tiny. Easy enough to shove in the bag.
I send a lot of care packages. 3 to 4 a week. I send items that I get for free or nearly free. the only thing I think I have gotten that I didn’t send is denture adhesive.
I sent a box full of Dulcolax to soldiers providing aid to locals. That was one of the ones I had a hard time figuring out who was going to get that box. I also sent a box with “good stuff”
I had a bunch of seeds. Sent them to Ethiopia.
I have sent a box full of play-do with instructions on how to make different things.
It was a big hit.
I have sent cake mixes ..yes cake mixes...and frosting.
You can actually cook cake mixes in the microwave and you don’t need eggs or oil.
I have sent ingredients to make a pizza and a pizza pan to soldiers on a mountaintop in Afghanistan.
I was inspired by this guy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By1jnXLR530
I also sent cake mixes to someone who had an open pit grill and told them to experiment.
I have sent toy story, barbie ,dora ,and spongebob bandaids in nooks and crevices of my boxes.
My philosophy is..and I tell them this...if you can’t use it pass it on.
That article makes those soldiers sound ungrateful. Maybe they are.
Better a tube of Sensodyne toothpaste so you can spend your money on something else than no toothpaste at all.
I have seen post after post after post from troops about how they have a hard time affording or even getting just basics.
If they don’t want an item....give it to their chaplain to put in a free area.
I once sent Soy Joy Bars to an outpost on a mountaintop. Okay, they are not the greatest.I can’t stand them. I included a note that if they couldn’t stand to eat them..just use them as Weapons and aim at the head of the Taliban.
When my son was in Iraq, 2003-2004, the “Hobbit Hole” here at F.R. sent him and his company quality radios, the 2 way kind, as the ones the army supplied them were really crappy.
The members of the Hobbit Hole also sent them other things at their suggestion. Upon their return from Iraq, when they arrived in Seattle, Two of the members that lived in the area took my son and several of his friends out for a night on the town at their own expense.
I’ve lost the links to the two vanities I wrote about them (with pictures) but when my son came back, he sent marble engraved plaques to some of them acknowledging their support, the marble having been taken from one of Saadam’s palaces. I delivered one of them in person to a lady member in Texas. I live in Illinois.
What I did personally for my son, was pray for his safety and safe return night and day.
I never claimed to have “superior thinking”, nor do I think my thinking is superior. I’m a rather simple man in my own opinion but have a Supreme Savior whom I trust for everything.
What are orthotics?
While most troops overseas are probably male twenty-something-year olds, not all of them are. ;)
I wrapped it all very carefully so it wouldn't get damaged......with centerfolds from certain mens magazines. I then wrapped that in old newspaper.
About 3 months later I got a letter from a Platoon Sgt thanking me for being so thoughtful. He said my 'wrapping paper' was being used as a form of currency among his Marines.
I still chuckle about that.
That said, the folks picking the goodies and packing the boxes didn't quite grasp the obvious sometimes. No, most soldiers didn't want multiple copies of the same Chris Isaak CD. And no, packing bags of M&M's in the same box as detergent packs is NOT a good idea. Even the hungriest troops doesn't usually eat soap-flavored chocolate.
Human nature.
See post 47.
I know this is going to sound like I'm bragging, but I think it is a good idea and I hope more people do it. My nephew-in-law is a Ranger in Afghanistan. His address is very long and complicated, and I know how people hate to go find envelopes, stamps and cards. So, I put together eight addressed, stamped envelopes with blank note cards and brought them to my Wednesday night men's prayer group. All they had to do was write a note and drop it in the mail. I handed them out and they eagerly scarfed them up.
There is nothing people enjoy more than receiving a personal letter or note...and its pretty fun to write them too.
inserts for boots that take the pressure off and allow the foot a better cushion when running. some are malleable so that they can form to the individual foot. Basically the soft part of the inside of the shoe that your foot rests on.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3850616
I forgot to add I also sent gun wipes and for Christmas bought a couple of these as well.
Those troops in Saudi Arabia sure seem to get sent a lot of mouth wash! LOL!
Thank you very much, they will be included in my next care package. Both my son and nephew are serving, one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.
May God protect them and bring them safely home to you and your family. I pray for them and for my brothers now serving and those that have served.
There are some great ideas on this thread. FReepers are the best.
all these guys went to the same high school I went to.
“And some NY Yankees paraphernalia during baseball season.”
Being a Texas Rangers fan I can honestly say, I think I would rather have the Hello Kitty T-Shirts! LOL!”
Actually, one of the greatest pleasures of Major League Baseball is hating the Yankee with a white hot heat. I have been doing that since I was in diapers.
So...maybe the Yankee paraphenalia was used for target practice or for testing a new incendiary bomb. You never know.
*Why do these types of threads always wind up with some people telling the rest of us how smart they are and how they do things?
Let’s just cut to the chase. I’m the smartest and coolest person here and the things that I do are the best and most interesting things that anyone could possibly do. Now that we all agree on that, we can have some profitable conversation. *
Every thread will be ruined almost immediately by some dolt telling everyone else what s/he does which may or may not be even tangentially related to the matter at hand...it’s like these people don’t know anyone in the real world with whom they can have mindless banter so they come here.
There were several libraries that had to cut their inventories last spring. They donated about 40 paper boxes full of all sorts of books, fiction and non fiction. I sent 20 boxes to the troops and the other 20 to injured troops in San Antonio. They loved the variety of various topics.
.OK, what dumba$$ thing have you sent to the troops...to get back on topic.8^)
I sent them a copy of your comments to this thread.
Sorry, my wife sent me on a mission and I couldn't get back to you.
OK, that was pretty funny...either you have a sense of humor or you went back to bed and got up on the dexter side instead of the sinister side (there's a double entendre in there...look it up...
Those who commented on what we send are offering suggestions as to what to send instead of what not to send, witch (pun intended) is basically on topic or did I miss the memo electing you chief of the thread police, in which case I'll get out of your way.
Keep in mind, though, anything that benefits the troops is worthwhile, and anything you have an objection to in that regard sucks rocks.
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