Mail Drop to Iraq -- what to send

[dp the wonder dog]

Buddy is settled in Irag, USMC --

what are some good things to include in a mail drop to him? he sez liquor is in good supply

[dp the wonder dog]

IRAQ, actually, he is in IRAQ, not irag

[SGT Rock]

It was cool to get good trail books over there. Junk food is getting easy to get, so it was nice to get something you can't just normally go buy at the Exchange.

I liked getting some of the backpacking meals and such. But that was me.I kept a couple of stoves and liked to cook occasionally.

[whitedove]

I've sent a lot of carepackages to Iraq to different groups. The most requested items I hear are for books/magazines/movies/games/CDs/pictures and letters and as SGT Rock said anything different to snack on. Anything that is a piece of home is great. Good luck and please tell your buddy I said...THANK YOU!

[Nightwalker]

Babywipes. Everybody wants more babywipes. Sand gets into some nasty-A$$ places, and babywipes will help prevent monkey butt. Rock did a little prevention tutorial on it sometime last year, I think.

Frank/Nightwalker

[alanthealan]

Stuff and Maxim magazines, home town news papers, junk food, and pictures of friends.

[Lone Wolf]

Marines have done some much with so little for so long that these days they can do anything with nothing!
GET SOME DEVIL DOGS!
Semper Fidelis

[willyhort0w2]

lip moisturizer and sunblock

[SGT Rock]

Wellforme it was more like MP3 cds, arline bottles of whiskey (it wasn'tflowing at all while I was there) and a little bit of.... well lets leave that one alone.

[Tenacious Tanasi]

Wellforme it was more like MP3 cds, arline bottles of whiskey (it wasn'tflowing at all while I was there) and a little bit of.... well lets leave that one alone.

Hey Sgt,

I know that some of our soldiers in Iraq do not have family back here to send them care packages. Is there somewhere that we can contact if we wanna adopt-a-soldier?

[TakeABreak]

Well, since you are communications with (he says liquer is in good supply) I would ask him?? I say that because my nephew was over there in the beginning, and food was what they were in short supply of, they were only getting one MRE a day, for weeks at a time. I think, when my family found out ( I have 5 brother and sisters) from his wife, he got my food packages than anyone over there. I sent him a food box of vacuum sealed meals and snacks, gatoraide, power bars, beek jerky, and candy bars.

He said he got so much food once the word got out that he actually had to give to some of the other guys.

[ocourse]

My church found out they were screaming for white tube socks so we collected and sent a bunch.

[SGT Rock]

Like TakeABreak's nephew, I was over there from basically the start (I crossed the berm 5 April 2003) when we were lucky to even get food at times. Back then ramen was mana from heaven. I had a great support network of family, friends, and WhiteBlazers who sent stuff. Back then everything was needed. T-Shirts, laundry soap, candy, socks, drink mix, hot sauce (and I got A LOT of that ), books, DVDs, etc would come in packages and I would set the stuff out in boxes in the barracks area for the soldiers in my unit.

But as we were over there, they started getting the food services fixed. Before I left, almost every post had a small exchange and a KBR dinning facility that served good food. Some of the pogues over there were starting to get fat. Iraqi vendors started figuring out soldiers liked DVDs and they would sell pirated DVDs for about $2 each.

I guess my point is that almost everything a Soldier or Marine needs or wants is available these days, so it is hard to give a list of what an average package should contain.

If you don't know someone over there to send stuff to, try finding the FRG (Family Readiness Group) for a local NG unit deployed over there and they usually have a program to support soldiers. Send one addressed to a soldier in a unit like:

First Sergeant
A Troop, 278th Cavalry Regiment
UMR#11111
APO AE 11111-1111
For A Soldier in your unit.

**Note, this is not an actual address, you will need the Unit Mail Room Number and the actual APO number.

Include a short letter with an already addressed post card and ask them what their name is and what they need. Hopefully it comes back within a month, but that should provide you a hook up directly to a soldier. The Postal Service is discouraging sending things addressed to any soldier.

[TakeABreak]

Good point SGT ROCK, the FRG would probably be the best place to contact, to see what they are short of and what they really need.

[dixicritter]

Include a short letter with an already addressed post card and ask them what their name is and what they need. Hopefully it comes back within a month, but that should provide you a hook up directly to a soldier. The Postal Service is discouraging sending things addressed to any soldier.

I second all of what he said with the exception of the self addressed post card. I would change that to a self addressed envelope personally. That way individual soldiers/marines info isn't going out to everyone whose hands that post card passes through.

Ok sounds paranoid I know, but there is a reason the military no longer allows "any soldier" mail.... security of our forces.

Ok stepping out of "FRG Leader" mode now....LOL

[Mother Nature]

My son has been serving for a year in Iraq. Actually he will be flying home tomorrow. Yippeeeeee! His unit craved homemade chocolate chip cookies or just about anything homemade. I asked him if the cookies were hard by the time they got there and he said milk softens anything and they are wonderful.

I sent three dozen not too long ago to him. They have a rule in his unit, if something is on the "table" it's up for grabs. He dropped the box on the table without thinking and went out for a few hours duty. When he returned the box was empty and everyone thanked him. He never got a crumb.

All the items mentioned earlier were items they wanted as well. The one big hit in my son's unit was CDs of the most recent episodes of their favorite tv shows like the Sopranos.

Mother Nature