They Won't Be Home For The Holidays: A Quick Guide To Care Packages For Miltary Personnel

Preamble -- October 18 marks my first shipment of care packages to a Military service-person overseas
(specifically to Baghdad). I was going to do it since about summer, but hesitated...partly because I wasn't
sure how to proceed. Thus, I now present a (Very) Quick Guide to the sending of care packages.

Point #1: Timing IS EVERYTHING
Keep these DEADLINE dates in mind (from the US Navy website at this URL:
http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/questions/holidaymail.html

The United States Navy

Holiday mailing — 2003

The Naval Supply Systems Command's Postal Policy Division, in cooperation with the U.S. Postal Service and military postal officials from all of the services, notes that it’s not too early to mail 2003 holiday cards, letters, and packages to and from military addresses overseas. In fact, everyone is encouraged to beat the last minute rush, and bring holiday mail and packages to the nearest U.S. Post Office or APO/FPO military post office by these suggested dates:

Point #2: Identify Your Target (Service Person)

You must have a specific service person's address for the mailing of letters or packages; the "any service man"
mailing is a thing of the past.

Even if you don't know a person serving oversears personally, you know someone who does.
Ask around, check with your faith community (church, temple, etc.), your city newspaper.
For example, my hometown newpaper even has a website with service- persons names and military
address. In my case, I contacted the employer of a U.S. Army chaplain; they had his APO (military)
address and e -mail address.

Point #3: If Sending A Package, Try To Contact The Service Person FIRST, if possible
Even though 99.999% of service personnel would love (and be happy with) a nice, supportive letter from
stateside, a package really sends the message.
Luckily, I was able to exchange e-mails with a Chaplin in Baghdad and thus he gave me a prioritized list
of school supplies his unit needs to help their adopted elementary school

Take-home message: prior contact gives the service person what they need, maximizing the benefit/cost
factor.

Point #4: Consult the USPS (United States Postal Service) for information
Talking to counter personnel is helpful, but time-consuming, so go to www.usps.gov
Consult: "Supporting Our Troops FAQs" at http://www.usps.supportingourtroops/supportingfaqs.htm
Military Addressing Tips at http://www.usps.supportingourtroops/addressingtips.htm
Military Packaging Tips at http://www.usps.supportingourtroops/packagingtips.htm
Other Ways To Support Our Troops at http://www.usps.supportingourtroops/otherways.htm

These will give you the basics and answers virtually all your questions.
For those who desire to send packages, the take-home is that you can box up goods in a "Domestic"
Priority Mail box, take it to the US Post Office, fill out a PS Form 2976-A Customs Declartion and
Dispatch Note" for each box you send.

Point #5: OBEY Restrictions on your mail! Don't tick off the host country!!
While at the "Supporting Our Troops FAQs" at http://www.usps.supportingourtroops/supportingfaqs.htm
click on the Overseas Military Mail link. Use the military "zip code" in your service person's military
address to determine which (of that huge list of) restrictions apply to your shipment.
Of course, the usual biggies are the prohibition on shipping pork and against shipping religional material'
for other than personal use by the service-person.
DON'T be intimidated by the restrictions list...take a few minutes to work through it in order to avoid
problems.

Point #6: Time to get the box and all the stuff to go in it!
Make out your shopping list
Go to the USPS office and pick up an appropriate shipping box.
In my case, I found I could load and send two "Domestic" Priority Mail boxes.
I took the box with me to the store, and noted if the items to ship would fit that box.
Load up box, leave one flap easy to open, in case the Post Office counter-person wants to
inspect the contents.
Also write out a "shipping manifest" to go into the box. This could help postal workers to
reassemble the shipment if the box should break. Xerox a copy for your records (or store
on computer)

Point #7: Time to mail!
Take your box(es) to your local post office.
Fill out a Form 2976 or Form 2976-A for customs purposes.
I used the Form 2976-A for each box. Here is the important part...put this verbatim phrase in the
box for description of the box contents:

"Certified to be a bona fide gift, personal effects, or items for personal use of
military personnel and their dependents."

Pay the shipping charges. In my case, it cost about $14 for me to send a TOTALLY packed
Priority Mail box, weighing about 10 pounds.
Priority Mail going the APO or FPO route should take 10-15 days to arrive; the less expensive
parcel route takes more like 24 days.

Point *8: Contact your service person, if possible
Because tracking is not available for even Priority Mail going through the APO/FPO
system, send an e-mail to your service-person to let them know the package is on the way;
include the "shipping manifest" in the e-mail for two reasons.
The shipping manifest lets the service-person know what material is "in the pipeline" and thus
they can customize/re-prioritize their wish-list for other donors.

Thanks, VOA! Thanks for the ping, Tonkin. Just got two boxes ready to send off.

More good news for our clothing drive for the troops at ARCENT. Larry Brewer, the decent and patriotic program manager at WMMB1240 talk radio, Melbourne, Fla., invited Brenda from sosopsministry@bellsouth.net on to talk about her care package drive efforts for the troops. A listener then phoned her and offered 500 T-shirts for the troops!

Giving them both a free plug for pure joy. (^;

Ping for Holiday mailing tips!

Thanks, Tonkin!

If you want on or off my Pro-Coalition ping list, please Freepmail me. Warning: it is a high volume ping list on good days. (Most days are good days).

I'm sure the needs have changed. Someone told me they could use tan/brown/green mufflers,
wool socks and long underwear because it gets very cold there. Is this true?
What else do they need now?

I'm glad that you reminded me of the "temperature factor", which I hadn't talked
about with my service-person in Baghdad because I had only sent non-perishables
(school/stationery supplies).

By "surfing" this route "Yahoo->Weather->Middle East->Iraq, I got to a list of
cities in Iraq at this URL:
http://weather.yahoo.com/regional/IZXX.html

After checking Baghdad, Basra, and Mosul, I was a bit suprised to see that
these major cities are still locked in a cycle of daily highs in the mid 90s, cooling
to mid 60s at night. Just about what you get in Los Angeles during the warm days
of August...and definitely NOT the sort of high temps for shipping "meltable"
goodies like chocolate! (I would guess).

Here is my GUESS:
I suppose there would be areas of Iraq with higher elevations (and lower daily
high temps), but I suspect that anything beyond light sweaters, gloves or cap
(for evening cool) would be a ways down the wish list...unless you find a soldier
in an area (e.g., Afghanistan) that actually will anticipate a need for cold-weather gear.

Thanks for bringing up the topic.
While my experience has been "Iraqi-centric", I posted my simple care-package instructions
hoping to "grease the skids" for folks to send packages to our service-people serving
in about 160 countries through-out the world.
While we need to be good to the 130,000 US personnel sweating it out in Iraq and
those in the hot zones of Afghanistan...I posted my Quick Guide to encourage
those who may have a friend or relative that will be doing Thanksgiving,
Christmas and New Years Eve in any of the thousands of "nowhere" places where
our best and brightest are serving.

Sneakers, thanks for checking in and tell your friends and neighbors that
"It's Time To Stand and Deliver".

It's that simple. And it is the thought that counts.

TruthNtegrity,
Thanks for posting the additional information...I was hoping that this thread
would bring all sorts of helpful information that would help push the hearts and
brains of our citizens to "Stand and Deliver" in a timely manner.

And as I finally said in an earlier post: while I hope lots of good materiale
is sent to our best and brightest in the hot zones of Iraq and Afghanistan,
a care package to some soldier who is probably feeling lonely in some "nowhere" place
(especially some remote stateside location) needs to be sent...AND SOON!

What if you don't know anyone personally, but would like to send something anyway?

1. TruthNtegrity has a good alternative in post #11.

2. And I can shamelessly point you to a list of the best and brightest from my
old hometown that is maintained by my old hometown paper (www.poncacitynews.com)
Just go to the list at "Project Hometown Spirit" at this URL:
http://www.poncacity.com/spirit/list.asp

Just scroll down the list and let your heart pick out a service-person. Don't worry if your
selection method seems frivolous, random and unscientific.
Maybe you'll pick someone who is serving in a location you've visited, or a place
you've always wondered about.
And maybe you'll pick out a female service-person because maybe (UNINTENTIONALLY of course)
our tough good-guys are getting all the attention.

Don't bother yourself about who you pick and where they are...but just pick someone
and even if money is an issue, just send a holiday card with a good quality
international calling card. Even if it turns out they can't use the card where they
are, your service person will have something to "re-gift" to a comrade who's
going on leave...

Just do it!

Point 8: Hide a bible somewhere in the package.

Although I can't speak with authority, my reading of the regulations/restrictions
allows for you to send religional material (e.g., a Holy Bible) to a service-person
"for personal use".
This appears to be true even for Afghanistan or Iraq.

I think the points are:
1. follow the rules so the host country won't shut down the gift pipeline
2. be discrete about shipping materials that might offend the sensibilities of
people in the host countries...that's why I sent a 2004 calendar with photos
from our National Parks...no girls in bikinis! (as much as they'd be appreciated by
the service-people and some honest Iraqi males!)

So, if you stick to something like a Bible and maybe a religional-content book or novel,
things would probably be cool.
But I suspect that a large box filled with religious tracts would either get dumped
in the trash at customs and/or get your service-person some unpleasant Q and A time with
some officers and postal inspectors.

Its true it gets cold, at least to them! They have been use to 120/130 degree days when
it dips into the 70/80's it feels cold to them. White/Black/Green cotton socks
are still the best bet. Lightweight Blankets/Flannel sheets are good.
Other requested items include Advil or other headache medicine, cold/sinus medicine, kleenex.

boxerblues,
I've re-posted your comment...it is a great improvement on my speculations
on the "temperature factor" in post #23.

I've got to admit I was suprised that the daytime highs in most big Iraqi cities
is still in the mid-90s. But I guess that goes with the territory when you're in
a desert country!

Thanks for this posting! I for one am very appreciative of posts of this type. Because of comments by others on this site, I had absolutely zero problems sending my first package to my "adopted soldier" The one item I did not know about was the customs form, but the post office personnel were great in helping me to get it done correctly. I took special note of the words to put on the customs form and will do that next time -- the Christmas package.

I've been running through ideas of what to send that might be special for him for Christmas. I'll take suggestions if you have any -- different than the ones already posted. My daughter suggested putting in a gift for another soldier that my adopted soldier could give to someone else who isn't getting much mail from home. I plan to do that.

Has anyone gotten mail where the soldiers have specifically asked for some specific items? If so, please post.

Could you ping me if you get an answer to this question?

Please see posts #11 and #27. (I shamelessly promote a list of my hometown boys/girls
and their military addresses in the lower part of post #27).

Although I didn't explicity say it at the start of the thread...don't worry about
your own personal method for selecting a service-person to mail to.
The important thing is to pick someone, no matter how you pick.
Then, mail something, even if it's a supportive holiday card (hopefully you'll be
able to toss in a $10 or $20 international calling card).

Regardless of what you can send, even just a card and a brief, honest expression
of support and good wishes will do wonders.
Having dithered over mailing something for the past three months, I can personally
give you the take-home message:

JUST DO IT!

I hope this copyright violation doesn't get Mr. Robinson and me sued...

From my own experience let me say BEEF JERKY is the way to go, they love it. Another is cigarettes and/or cigars. Now some folks may be against that but if you do decide you want to provide them, even if your person doesn't smoke they can give them to someone who does or use them for bartering purposes. I did not include these on my custom slip, nor any pork items. They frown on that so they just never made my itemized list.

Pretzel sticks and chip dip are good and do make the trip if wrapped well. Boxes of fruit drink are good but be forwarned they do make the box weigh a lot, they're quite heavy. Tunafish in the non perishable tear open packages or pop top cans with crackers an the small fruit cups with pop top cans is also a welcome treat. If sending these food items it doesn't hurt to remember some plastic utensils to go in the package as well as napkins.

A new wash cloth and towell are always appreciated, especially to ground troops. Toothbrushes, toothpaste, all the necessary toiletry items.

No matter what I sent my customs slip always said it was a gift and the itemized list was always beef jerky, stationary and toiletries. Just keep it simple. :)

Has anyone gotten mail where the soldiers have specifically asked for some
specific items? If so, please post.

You might run across some extra suggestions by just clicking the keyword "CAREPACKAGES"
at the bottom of my initial post for this thread. That would get you to archived threads
that have some suggestions, although some are from the spring.

I can only speak for my single (so far) care package experience. The person
I sent the packages only asked for school supplies (with a small list) for
the Iraqi elementary school his unit is adopting.
I fulfilled his requests...but I suspect that this fellow (an Army Chaplain) is telling
me a manly little white lie.
I suspect he's following perhaps the proudest tradition of the US Military: taking
about anything handed to him and giving most or all to the struggling civilians and
subdued former enemy.
So, at least in my case, I first met the stated needs.
But I do intend to send one package (maybe one out of four total) that will
be nothing but goodies for the soldiers...with a declaration that the goodies
are a free gift to use as they see fit.
I don't want some soldier to feel a bit guilty when he hands the sweets I send to
some Iraqi kid he meets in the streets.

No matter what I sent my customs slip always said it was a gift and the itemized list
was always beef jerky, stationary and toiletries. Just keep it simple. :)

Thanks for checking in with the good suggestions.
Especially the one about keeping things simple.

My "Quick Guide" (that started the thread) was aimed at simplicity, but I did compromise
because I wanted everyone to get all the necessary details and basically tell them
"You can do it! So now, JUST DO IT!"
I got bogged down in the summer over a lot of conflictory details on care packages...
I just hoped to boil things down to the essential and help others avoid the
hole I stepped in during the summer.

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For military mail addressed to APO and FPO addresses, the mailing dates are:	For military mail FROM APO and FPO addresses, the mailing dates are:
Parcel post — Nov. 13 Space available — Nov. 28 Parcel airlift — Dec. 4 Priority mail, first class cards and letters — Dec. 11	Space available — Nov. 20 Parcel airlift — Dec. 4 Priority mail, first class cards and letters — Dec. 11

The United States Navy

Holiday mailing &#8212; 2003

Holiday mailing — 2003