If you are considering sending a care package to members of the military serving in Afghanistan, the following tips come directly from soldiers.
No doubt, they will be grateful for anything, given that life in Afghanistan is — by many accounts — spartan.
Still, if you want to make sure those servicemen and women get what they want, here are some suggestions:
—Disposable razors; ones that last a while like Bic, Schick and Mach 3.
—Deodorant, shampoo, lotion, aftershave, Febreeze (people go weeks without showers or laundry), and axe style body spray.
—Baby wipes. This is huge! Best are the camping wipes that you can buy at REI.
—Running shoes, size 8-14. Everyone there runs pretty often and shoes are in demand. Any brand will do.
—White running socks (sizes 8-12), the kind that go above the ankle.
—Individually wrapped candy like Butterfingers, Reeses, M&Ms, Snickers. Those candies you get for Halloween trick or treaters? Send those.
—Good coffee. Pre-ground is better. Or try something called Cup of Joe for a Joe. It’s the military version of Starbucks, and this program is a great way to do something nice without the carbon footprint of sending a package.
—Local foods from home that travel well. If the chow hall is serving pork ribs, a bottle of BBQ sauce from home makes the meal. Green chili salsa? Cool salad dressings. Bring it on.
—College hats. Any college will do since its football season there are people in country from everywhere.
—Swiss Army type pocket knives. The multi-tool types are handy.
—Cigars (handmade or machine made) dip, chewing tobacco. Flavored stuff is popular.
—Fitness magazines (Runner’s World or muscle mags), People magazine, and believe it or not, the National Enquirer is popular. Other magazines: Smithsonian (yeah, really), gun magazines, Maxim and anything with attractive females.
—Mp3 players. Everyone has music on their computer, but not everyone has an mp3 player.
—Headphones or ear buds.
—Action DVDs (Stallone, Schwartzenegger and plenty of others.) Think of who’s watching this stuff: Lots of 18-25-year-olds. Think what they like to watch. Buy that.
—Rewritable CDs. They’re not allowed to use thumb drives, so all data from a PC must be saved on a CDRW disk.
—Letters to the soldiers. Put pictures in, too, especially of kids or a picture your kids drew. Big morale booster. Maybe you can get your class to do it. If you happen to be a cute young lady, send two photos of yourself –no, seriously: Arguing over who gets the photo for their bunk will boost morale. And this is straight from a soldier’s mouth: When you write –quote– “you don’t need to dwell on the ‘how proud we are of you’ stuff. We get it. Thanks.”