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I am in daily email contact with a soldier and can tell you that todays news about having to defer return times for soldiers who were ready to ship home has hit them all very hard. Most of the soldiers who have been there for a year now had already shipped all of their stuff out of Iraq last month, so even basic items are now going to be needed.

All the soldiers expecting to return in the next few weeks have only their most basic items currently on them. Anything you can do to organize collections of items will mean the world to these soldiers in coming weeks.

As they have not yet been redeployed to their new bases of operations there are not yet any addresses to send stuff to them, but you could at least start people you know collecting items.

I will write back if I find out anything more. I am hoping that some direct link via the Army can be set up given the sudden circumstances, which will allow people to send items to units directly. If anyone hears anything of such a link please post it here, as will I.

On my brothers unit only 12 of the guys kept their DVD players, most everyone else either shipped or sold theirs. Most of these soldiers have absolutely no way of tuning out now during their off time from the constant battles they are undergoing during this push of increased conflict.

I am asking my friends to start collecting old dvds and game items that they no longer use. My brother mentioned that even basic items will be needed. It is important however to send any items collected via reputable sites, or thru friends that you know well which have relatives in the military.

If you ask around at work, school and socially you will be surprised how many people that you know that have relatives or close ties to people currently deployed, so start asking around, you may find a source very close to home. Items sent thru friends can then be passed around the units.

Also do whatever you can to start collection drives so that items will be available for shipment when links become available.

I have been telling my own friends to consider it as Spring Cleaning to just find what items may no longer be needed in your own homes, which may provide some sort of recreation for our troops.

There are sites via Army links which give ideas for what sorts of items could be useful. Most of these lists were made up early in the deployments, but as so many troops are now back to this status in their supplies I bet alot of that info will still be useful.

Thanks for starting this thread - Take Care, GypsyMonk