Have you ever tried an MRE (Meals, Ready to Eat)? They arent nicknamed, Meals Rejected by Everyone for a nothing!

Bathroom stuff, especially hand sanitizer is perfect for when you are out on patrol and want clean hands or clean anything. Travel size supplies are nice for patrols as well (think travel size tissues, t.p., chap stick, etc.)

Cold weather gear (knit caps, scarves, and gloves) are also nice. The length of a deployment ranges from 3 to 18 months and eventually you run out of things or they get holes in them. And supplies at the base or post exchange, well, lets just say that choice and number is extremely limited. I know one guy who picked up an awful star magazine habit, because that was the only magazine available to him.

I have also sent my fair share of care packages to friends deployed. The flat rate boxes from the post office are awesome or perhaps there is a local church or organization who will provide the postage but not the supplies.

The US Postal Service has a whole webpage dedicated to supporting the troops. http://www.usps.com/supportingourtroops/

also, click on the section labeled New Priority Mail® Flat Rate Box to order boxes for FREE!

So, if you’re making poverty wages in the military and your family is getting by on little to nothing, who’s going to send you anything? My sister is constantly putting stuff together for the enlisted guys, because they just don’t have anybody else who can do it.

I’d like to see us do a little more fighting for fair wages for our military and other employment opportunities for those kids living in poor communities. But until then, I suppose it’s care packages, eh?

A small but significant percentage of our soldiers have joined the military to escape foster care or a terrible home situation. Those people are on their own; they don’t have any families to send them things. If they are lucky, they have friends or family members to whom they can send money for necessities to be shipped to them.

The vast majority of the posts on Anysoldier, though, just seem to want letters and cards (Although, like any of us, they are not advers to gifts:). I get the feeling that our overseas military feel that they are forgotten by those of us here in the States, and it is nice for them to have some tangible reassurance that people here realize that they are fighting and dying over there on our behalf.

I do think there’s a bit of guilt involved in all of this. After all, the packages that I send are nothing compared to the sacrifices that they are making. But I don’t think that that is all that is involved. Mostly, I am trying to give them one more human connection that reminds them of why they thought joining the military was a worthwhile endeavor.

Also, the post office will give you a slight price break ($2 off) on the large flat-rate box if you are sending it to an APO address. This is on top of the discount they give you for buying your postage online.

But way to look at this from the positive side – that she might have saved you some lost money in the end.

It’s very kind of you and you always inspire me with your generosity.