Posted on 02/19/2005 12:40:42 AM PST by patriciaruth
Time for a new thread!
Our Merry Band of Patriots has seen a psy-ops unit at Bagram, Afghanistan, help educate voters in Afghanistan and come home successfully, while we supported them and special forces in the field by sending over 100 movies and many packages of snacks and toiletries and Hallowe'en candy. A Christmas tree and decorations (Daybreakcoming) and stockings (Ican'tbelieveit) and cards and over 400 candy canes were sent for their follow-on unit, and a box with movies and magazines and misc is just beginning to fill for their next care package. The movies and books we sent previously went into the Special Forces library there.
We've seen Beast Battery at Kirkuk, Iraq, through till their deployment home, sending them over 100 movies and dozens of books and a microwave and DVD/VCR player (from arjay) and many big boxes of snacks. Plus a huge wave of goodies was organized by McLynnan for Christmas in Kirkuk (2 prelit trees, ornaments, Santa suit, many stockings with stuffers, many cards, and a couple thousand candy canes to share out with all the forces there).
We've supported the 411th Engineers at Baghdad in 2004 with about 70 movies and several dozen books, a Playstation 2 and a Nintendo console with a couple dozen games (from asgardshill and ican'tbelieveit), a 4 foot Christmas tree and ornaments and boxes of snacks and many cards and 600 candy canes. In the next couple months we will be bidding them Godspeed as they return to their homebase in Hawaii.
We've sent over 50 movies, a DVD/VCR player (from arjay), and a dozen and a half books to an MI unit near Kirkuk, plus some Christmas decorations and stocking stuffers, and many cards and 156 candy canes. They have mostly left for home now and we just sent a package with more movies to their follow-on unit.
Also we have sent some packages to an Aviation unit at Balad, Iraq and to an Infantry Medics unit, and a small Christmas package each to another AVN unit and an MP unit.
Stryker Infantry company formerly at Fallujah and now at Mosul since November has been the major focus of our care packages these past months. All of Stryker at Mosul has taken fire, and our adopted company has suffered a KIA and some soldiers with severe injuries.
Early on we sent food items (mostly power bars and dried fruit and nuts) then Christmas stockings stuffed with goodies and many cards and 200 candy canes, and since Christmas have begun sending movies. They recently received a DVD/VCR player (from arjay) and with the movies just mailed today their collection will total about 75 movies and a dozen books.
And all this happened because our grassroots volunteer group began forming in the early summer of 2001 to send care packages to Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo, when the 101st Airborne and then the 10th Mountain were there.
The contents of packages just mailed will be listed in post below.
I haven't heard anything from our contact in Mosul about Christmas requests yet.
I am going to buy several boxes of hot chocolate to send. I don't think we can go wrong with hot chocolate! It's on sale this week at the grocery store, so I thought I'd go ahead and buy it.
If any of you see candy or other treats on sale and want to get them for the Stryker soldiers for Christmas, I'd say go ahead. Then when you are ready to send stuff, let me know what and how much you are sending. I'll let you know as soon as I hear back from Mosul about their Christmas requests. I would guess that they would like some Christmas movies and music, as well as decorations, but hopefully we'll hear from them soon.
Patty, any idea how many soldiers are in the Stryker brigade?
If they don't mind Halloween Candy, that should be on sale now.
What do you all think?
The Nov. 12 date is for parcel post. We should all be using Priority Mail, and the dates for that are December 5 and 10 (depending on the APO #). So we have some time to get our stuff together, thank goodness!
Thank you. Priority Mail, got it. That scared me for a minute. :-)
Mailed October 31, 2005, to TAL AFAR, 2 boxes
Box 1, value $33.02, postage $7.70
3 boxes 10 envelopes Swiss Miss cocoa (2 chocolate, 1 chocolate marshmallow)
5 Renuzit “airwicks” (3 After the Rain scent, 2 Cinnamon Apple)
3 bars Caswell-Massey sandlewood soap
1 DVD movie: Frequency with Dennis Quaid, Jim Caviezel
Thanksgiving pamphlet
Box 2, value $42.23, postage $7.70
9 Renuzit “airwicks” (4 After the Rain, 5 Cinnamon Apple)
1 box 10 envelopes Swiss Miss cocoa, chocolate
2 DVD movies:
The High and The Mighty (John Wayne) [for the airmen]
Kicking and Screaming (Will Ferrell, Robert Duvall, Dick Butkis) [donated by jtill]
They do get bunched up toward the end at the Army staging area and receiving unit depots in country, so the sooner boxes, especially bigger ones, are sent out, the better.
But everything I sent from California by December 2 (priority airmail) made it last year, but I don't recommend shaving it that close.
There are more soldiers deployed this Christmas than last, so it may be more clogged than usual this year.
Okay thanks. I'm starting to catch on a little bit. Can you let me know if there are any tricks or known things about mailing that I should know. Priority mail is the way to go. Is there anything else? Do I have it insured?
BUMP FOR LATER
LOL! Mine is too...I give up on it --forever. It was hacked...so now they want me to send them telephone bills and DNA for Gods sake to reactivate. They won't cancel without tons of proof...so I leave it in limbo. I don't trust it anymore either.
I got another credit card and another bank account and now have an active and open Paypal account for receiving donations for care packages for the troops.
But Paypal is a pain to deal with.
Halloween candy on sale...That's a good idea!
I packed 3 boxes today that will be sent to Kirkuk tomorrow.
The following books:
Running Blind by Lee Child
The Widow of the South by Robert Hicks
1776
3 boxes of tea bags, assorted flavors
68 individual packages hot chocolate mix, some with marshmallow bits
5 bags of candy, kit-kats, hersey's kisses,2 snickers, reeses peanut butter cups. These are big bags of individual bars.
And last but not least, 4 packages of Oreo cookies, 2 of them are the new peanut butter ones. There are so good. I hope the troops like them.
I'm confused.
I thought these were going to the Engineers in Baghdad.
The Kirkuk units are leaving and not receiving mail any more.
I have a new APO for a new MI unit at Kirkuk.
Insurance depends on total value and whether anything in it is a risk for theft.
DVD movies and computer games and appliances (like Xbox, DVD players, microwave, etc. are things that should be insured.)
We need to talk about redirect addresses. If you don't have one, check return to sender as return postage is already paid if you send a box priority.
The only address is the one you gave me. It could be for Baghdad for all I know. I think it is for the Engineers.
Yes, CSM ** is our contact for Engineers Combat Battalion in Baghdad.
All is well...
:-)
Good. All I knew for sure was that they were going to Iraq. I think I got Kirkuk from reading all the milblogs I read every day. I'm off for the night. I've got about 6 more rows on a lap blanket I'm knitting so I am going to finish that tonight.
thanks, Patty. I'm actually being organized and saving info in one place so hopefully I won't be asking any questions twice, but you never know! :-)
I made contact with Baghdad Psyops...he is forwarding my email to the Chaplain and "elves" to coordinate Christmas for them. ;) I'll let you know when I hear from them...in the meantime, I'm still sewing stockings! :)
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