CARE PACKAGES for our Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, 2008

patriciaruth ^ | 3-29-08 | patriciaruth

[Uncle Miltie]

jtill, Let’s Roll, Twinkie:

Thank you very much for your kind donations towards the Beanie Baby shipments! I’ll keep you posted if we get any feedback from the Chaplain or the Troops about their use in the field!

Sincerely,

Uncle Miltie

[JustAmy]

Good evening, Patty.

I’m ashamed to admit that my boxes did not go out until today. We have had a crazy week. :(

I mailed 3 boxes today ...

Box #1
56 3oz size microwave popcorn

Box #2
26 3oz size microwave popcorn
3 boxes peppermint sticks (15 sticks per box) not candy canes

Box #3
100 individual packages of Swiss Miss hot cocoa mix
8 3oz size microwave popcorn
1 box peppermint sticks (15 sticks per box) not candy canes.

Jim helped with these boxes.

God Bless and Protect our Troops.

[patriciaruth]

Hey, they will love getting that great stuff for New Years, even if it doesn’t make it by Christmas.

Those are great boxes. I’m particularly glad to see the peppermint sticks as I never got my act together and forgot to hunt for some, as I had them on my list last month.

They’ll keep my last two boxes less lonely; maybe they’ll all show up together.

Thank you and Jim so much for remembering our troops at Kandahar. Please God, protect and keep them.

[patriciaruth]

Thank you’s to JustAmy and Jim Robinson who sent out 3 care packages with cocoa mix, microwave popcorn and peppermint sticks a few weeks before Christmas, see post 562.

Thank you, also, to SwatTeam who ordered several large tubs of party mix sent out to our adopted base at Kandahar in time for the Superbowl on February 6.

If anyone can send a care package for either the Superbowl or for Valentines, please let me know and get the APO from me.

Meanwhile, here’s the latest email from our contact there which has suggestions for what we might send.

***

Dr. ****,

Thanks for writing. Sorry I haven’t gotten back to you recently. The pace has really picked up around here. We are doing well and are still receiving all of your packages. The soldiers are really enjoying all of it. Things I’ve noticed that they particularly get excited about is oatmeal packets, candy bars, and trail mix. We also have a keurig coffee maker in the chapel now and the soldiers really enjoy the different coffees, teas, and hot chocolate packets you can use with it. Besides just the coffee, they like the chai packets.

I hope that gives you a few more ideas. We really appreciate all the care you and your group put into these packages. They are a constant blessing and we get comments from soldiers all the time about how great it is that the chapel has them available.

We are still receiving the beanie babies and putting them to good use. The local children get very excited when they see them.

We had a great time at Christmas and it was a very peaceful one. We had a special meal at the dining facility and many of the units here on our FOB had their own little Christmas party with movies and food and recreation time.

Thank you again for your support and love for our troops. Your care packages are a constant reminder for them that they are doing a great work for our nation.

[mathluv]

I can do one for Valentine’s.

[Dante3]

bttt

[patriciaruth]

Big thank you to jtill whose contribution and pledged contribution made these packages possible!
And a big thank you to mathluv who is going to send a care package for Valentine’s Day.

Mailed January 18, 2011, to base near Kandahar, 3 care packages 12x12 flat rate
Box 1, insured $64.01, postage $15.20
8 cans Planters nuts (4 cashews 1 lb., 2 mixed nuts 1 lb, 2 mixed nuts 18 oz.)
2 DVD movies:
The Replacements (Gene Hackman, Keanu Reeves), a fun football movie
Antwone Fisher (Denzel Washington)
12 pkgs BBQ corn nuts
1 Semper Fidelis sticker

Box 2, insured $96.13, postage $15.20
1 DVD movie: The Lion in Winter (Katherine Hepburn, Peter O’Toole, Anthony Hopkins, Timothy Dalton)
6 Books:
Alive or Dead (Tom Clancy)
My Name is Mary Sutter (Robin Oliveira), about nursing during our Civil War
Hondo (Louis L’Amour)
To the Far Blue Mountains (Louis L’Amour)
Jubal Sackett (Louis L’Amour)
The Last of the Breed (Louis L’Amour)
12 envelops Giardelli double chocolate cocoa mix
20 envelops Quaker instant oatmeal (cinnamon spice, brown sugar, raisin)
53 single packets C&H sugar
1 container 7 oz. Taster’s Choice freeze dried gourmet coffee
8 pkg BBQ corn nuts
1 calendar Teen Challenge 2011

Box 3, insured $74.51, postage $15.20
6 DVD movies (most are chick flicks for the female medics):
Romeo and Juliet (Zefferelli’s masterpiece with Olivia Hussey)
Hamlet (Zefferelli masterpiece with Mel Gibson, Glenn Close, Helena Bonham Carter)
Julie and Julia (Meryl Streep)
Cheaper by the Dozen (Steve Martin, Bonnie Hunt, Tom Welling)
Yours, Mine and Ours (Dennis Quaid, Rene Russo)
Amistad (Morgan Freeman, Anthony Hopkins)
1 large container 90 mini Snickers candy bars
1 large bag 90 Reese mini peanut butter cups and Kitkats
10 envelops Quaker instant oatmeal
4 pks BBQ corn nuts
2 Popular Mechanics magazines and 1 Imprimis newsletter on the Constitution

[patriciaruth]

Easter is April 24 this year. This will mark our cut off for mailing chocolate candy until October Halloween packages.

Anyone who wishes to send an Easter care package, please let me know. Meanwhile I could use some modest donations toward these two care packages, or for the upcoming Easter boxes.

Mailed January 21, 2011, to base near Kandahar, 2 more care packages 12X12 flat rate.
Box 4, value $50.70, postage $12.95
45 heart shaped Valentine candy boxes with 3 Russell Stover chocolate candy treats
1 bag Hershey’s Valentine milk chocolate kisses
Popular Mechanics magazine for Feb/2011
Imprimis newsletter with North Korea discussion

Box 5, value $38.85, postage $12.95
7 large bags trail mix (tropical, mountain, and I forget)
1 bag Hershey’s Valentine kisses
3 tubes hair conditioner cream
2 perfume sample pages

P.S. As you can see the postage price for military care packages has gone up.

[airborne]

As always, you are doing an incredible job, keeping the morale of our brave troops high!

As of the beginning of 2011, I am an “empty nester”.

I am spending lots and lots less on food (surprise, surprise) so I can afford to send you some financial assistance.

Too late to send it today, but I'll put a check in the mail tomorrow for you and the “Merry Band of Patriots”!

[PGalt]

BUMP for FR’s finest supporting America’s finest. Thanks to all contributors.

[patriciaruth]

Oh, boy! I love spending your money. Anything in particular you’d like me to send the troops for Easter?

[airborne]

Spend it however you see fit.

I trust you.

[patriciaruth]

A BIG THANK YOU to Airborne who donated the following two boxes that went out today. Volunteers who want to send Easter candy care packages or a Passover card, please check with me for the new APO for Kandahar. Easter is April 24 this year, so they should be mailed out by March 26.

Mailed March 16, 2011, to base at Kandahar, 2 boxes 12x12
Box 1, insured $200.00 (value $204.39), postage with delivery confirmation $16.40
1 box 24 Snickers dark chocolate regular candy bars
1 box 24 Snickers almond milk choc candy bars
2 individual Reese’s 2 pack peanut butter cups
3 large Hershey’s almond bars
1 large Hershey’s milk choc bar
1 TV miniseries:
Shogun (Richard Chamberlain, Toshiro Mifune)
8 DVD movies:
The Ten Commandments (Charlton Heston, Yul Bryner)
Lawrence of Arabia (Peter O’Toole, Anthony Quinn, Alec Guiness, Omar Sharif)
Ben Hur (Charlton Heston)
Starship Troopers
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (John Wayne)
Rio Grande (John Wayne, Henry Fonda)
Defending Your Life (Albert Brooks, Meryl Streep)
Robin and Marian (Sean Connery, Audrey Hepburn)
2 books:
Starship Troopers (Robert A. Heinlein)
The Quick and the Dead (Louis L’Amour)
2 magazines:
People magazine, January 2011,
Popular Mechanics, March 2011

Box 2, insured $170.02, postage $16.40
1 box 24 Snickers dark chocolate regular candy bars
1 box 24 Snickers almond milk choc candy bars
5 individual Reese’s 2 pack peanut butter cups
2 TV miniseries:
St. Peter (Omar Sharif)
Wild China (BBC nature miniseries)
8 DVD movies:
Quo Vadis (Robert Taylor, Debra Kerr)
Outlander (Jim Caviezel)
How to Train Your Dragon (Jay Baruchel)
Knight and Day (Tom Cruise, Carmen Diaz)
Daddy’s Little Girls
Thirty Seconds over Tokyo (Van Heflin, Spencer Tracy)
We Were Soldiers (Mel Gibson)
Cleopatra (Rex Harrison, Elizabeth Taylor)
1 book:
Reagan’s War (Peter Schweitzer)
2 magazine: Reader’s Digest April 2011, Westways with volcano trips
index file cards with the names of the movies and books for the library file box

[patriciaruth]

I forgot to write in that each box had 14 bags of Act II butter microwave popcorn.

Tomorrow I go shopping for Easter candy to send it with some other movies and books for jtill. If anyone wants to have me make up a care package from them or send a little for some extra goodies to tuck in, please let me know.

[airborne]

Great work as always, Patty!

God bless you!

[mathluv]

I have sent two boxes of candy and hot chocolate. I did not keep a list of what candy I sent.

[patriciaruth]

Big Thanks to mathluv who reports she mailed 2 boxes to Kandahar with cocoa and candy! Fabulous!

Mailed March 31, 2011, to base near Kandahar, 4 boxes 12x12

Box 1, value $57.75, postage $12.95 THANKS to Kitty Mittens for donating to this care package!
107 Russell Stover chocolate covered Easter eggs
5 vanilla cream, 21 raspberry, 17 strawberry, 18 caramel, 17 maple cream, 15 truffle, 14 marshmallow

Box 2, insured $109.20, postage $15.70 THANKS to jtill for donating this care package!
4 Books:
The Seven Pillars of Wisdom (T.E. Lawrence)
Call of the Wild/White Fang (Jack London)
Tunnel in the Sky (Robert A. Heinlein)
Glory Road (Robert A. Heinlein)
2 DVD movies:
The Social Network (Justin Timberlake)
Cecil B. de Mille old B&W spectacles Collection with The Crusades (Loretta Young, Ian Keith), The Sign of the Cross (Charles Laughton, Claudette Colbert), Cleopatra (Claudette Colbert), Four Frightened People, Union Pacific
9 bags of Whopper’s Robins eggs medium size
8 large 2-pack Reese’s peanut butter cups
1 Almond Hershey’s bar
2 small Easter baskets
index cards with movies and books for the lending library
2 travel tissue pks

Box 3, valued at $61.78, postage $12.95
used DVD’s donated by local friend who got them at local rental bankruptcy sale
2 TV series:
Lost, season 1 in 6 separate clam shells
Lost, season 2, in 6 separate clam shells
5 Japanese animation films? TV series? games? If anyone knows what these are, please let me know.
Dragonball Z Broley the Legendary Super Saiyan
Rurouni Kenshin box 2 with discs 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Versus
Samurai The Motion Picture
Naruto, Disc 19
7 bags of Whopper’s Robins Eggs medium size
6 large 2-pack Reese’s peanut butter cups
Popular Mechanics magazine, April, 2011
2 Imprimis
misc stickers (flowers, animals, etc)

Box 4, value $29.30, postage $12.95
52 envelops Quaker oatmeal (15 cinnamon apple, 14 cinnamon spice, 18 maple brown sugar, 6 original)
1 large bag Sunsweet raisins
4 bags Whopper’s Robins Eggs medium size
2 magazines:
Astronomy (on finding planets)
Weekly Standard (on attack of Libya)
3 travel tissue packs

[ALOHA RONNIE]

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http://www.Freerepublic.com/~aloharonnie/

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[patriciaruth]

Email from base near Kandahar!

Thank you so much for the boxes. They all got here and the movies were very much appreciated. The Easter candy was gone within 3 days and the snickers were gone in about 4. It was all very much a morale boost for all of us to get Easter stuff. Please let all of your group know what a blessing they have been to our soldiers. Thank you for your prayers and support.

****
Update:
I need volunteers to help with the Fourth of July. Please let me know if you can send a box of Pringle’s potato chips from the East Coast or can send a flat rate box of chip dip and/or lemonade mix to be mailed by the end of May from anywhere.

Suggestions for other ideas to go in the 4th of July boxes are welcome, as are small and medium and large contributions for me to do the leg work.

THANKS ALL!!

[Ros42]

Hi Patty...been away for awhile, so let me know how I can help for the 4th! :)