Posted on 09/10/2010 4:01:08 AM PDT by Mad Dawgg
Ping! :)
My aunt, bless her soul, baked me a cake in a coffee can (a trick, learned in WWII to prevent it being crushed by the mail service) and shipped it to me in RVN.
I got it, sliced it up and shared...I forgot she was a terrible cook..troops gagged...accused me of attempting to poison them, but I still thanked her for the cake...got three more of them in the next three months...killed three NVA regulars, and destroyed a weapons cache with them...OK, the last part was BS, but the idea had merit, according to my guys. 8^)
I do book reviews for my local paper. Get tons of books each month SF, myteries, thrillers, historical fiction — guy stuff.
I put the excess books in a bagm especially Baen SF paperbacks. (Most are reprints of hardbacks I already have.) Whenever I go to Hobby Airport, I take the bag and leave it at the USO there.
Could I add....Visene (or similar eye drops)....all that sand.
Also a good recommendation is to make the date the package was packed very clear. If the unit moves alot or like my experience, transferred often, the military mail, while sometimes inefficient and slow, almost always catches up to you. I am still expecting a Valentine’s Package to arrive on my stoop from ‘97
Damn! I just purchased a dozen Hello Kitty t-shirts to send in the next care package. ;-)
Target has a Whack-A-Mole game that came very close to jumping into my shopping cart. I’m still thinking about sending it over.
I am model thin and work out every single day for about six hours. When I got married I was pure as the virgin snow and had not even looked at a man before my husband and I kissed for the first time. How is that?
Combat veterans WANT silly stuff from home. Family photos, Sour Patch Kids candy, Spaghettios, muscle building and wresting magazines, DVDs (to watch on their laptops), books of ANY kind, stone-ground mustard and pretzel sticks, whatever.. What they like most (aside from real food) is a full, local newspaper, ads and all.
I'll make my guys wear 'em and take a pic. They'd actually do something like that. Once. LOL
Target has a Whack-A-Mole game that came very close to jumping into my shopping cart. I’m still thinking about sending it over.
Silly games are very popular. One group sent us a blow up kiddie pool. We blew it up, filled it with water and soaked our feet in it. Then, we stood around it and scooped great amounts of water at each other with our hands. There are pics of that somewhere. :)
Romance novels....not so much. However, as much as they won't admit it, the People and Us Weekly magazines people send sure do disappear quickly around here. I see soliders skulking away from the care package table with them slipped underneath the Guns and Ammo or car magazines in their hands.
OK, yes, I appreciate anything that others do to make life on the front lines of freedom easier for those who volunteered. That being said, it fires me up when instead of folks saying something like, “Here’s something that the guys and gals really would appreciate...”, they say, “ When I send a package I send...” and make the discussion about them. By the way, we have a loved one who’s doing his part.
My jarhead nephew really liked the expensive wool socks in the winter. However, his all time favorite was the habanero sauce which they used to barbeque a goat.
Can't control how others present their input though, ergo, not worth fussing about, IMO.
More power to those you hold close doing their part and be grateful there are many willing to think about making his/her life a little easier to stomach, regardless of presentation.
JMO
Great pic. While I am very proud of my military service I have always been a little in awe of Marines!
I think I’ll wait until someone specifically requests those before I’ll send them! LOL!
If somebody gives you one, send it to me. (I have kids in college).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.