Operation Home-In-a-Box

Thanks to RG for the title. Many of you have emailed/commented asking how to send items to Iraq for my friend's soldiers. Thank you -- I am very touched by that. I'm concerned about the length of the tour; in her original email, she said this tour will keep them away from home for TWO Christmases. (I've asked her to let me know more about that.) Anyway, she has given the OK to publish her name/addy on the Internets.

Betty Perry-Boehm
HHC 4TH BCT 3ID (S-4)
Unit # 40620
FOB KALSU
APO, AE 09312

So if you'd like to Support the Troops with more than a yellow ribbon magnet on the back of your car, these men and women would surely appreciate anything you could send over their way. Betty's idea is to put together Christmas stockings and have some nice surprises for the soldiers above and beyond the regular care items to make being away from home during the holidays a little easier. Here's a list of some suggestions to get you started, with some specific requests from the soldiers or my friend:

• Magazines (US, Cosmo, Psychology Today, Ebony, Muscle Mags, etc.)
• gummi bears
• hot tamales candy (for me)
• jelly bellies
• sour worms
• Ferrero rocher
• Mon Cheri
• almonds, cashews, other nuts
• other nice "stocking stuffer" type snacks/treats
• Jolly Ranchers, lemon drops, life savers, other hard candies
• AA, AAA, C batteries
• books! all kinds (incl. vampire books, Chicken soup books)
• crossword puzzles, word games, activity books
• 2008 Calendars
• modern music CDs; even Xmas music
• DVDs
• coffee, creamers, cider, hot chocolate packets
• small bottles of hand-sanitizer
• lotions, shower gels, or something nice for the ladies in the Bath & Body Works style (there are 10 females in my friend's group)

She'd like everyone to know they'll be happy about whatever folks wish to send, "even just Xmas cards". I know from just regular overseas military experience that a package at mail call is worth its weight in gold -- I'm sure that's even more true in Iraq.

Feel free to branch out from the list; if every person sends a big box of sour worms, it loses a bit of the appeal. It's good to pack items in Zip-lock bags, as the soldiers always use the bags.

I looked at some of the care package web sites and found these suggestions, if you want to include some regular care package items as well, or send something at a later date:

• board games and other "boredom busters"
• handheld electronic/travel games
• facial cleansing wipes (Oxy, Sea Breeze, Noxema, etc)
• eye drops
• wet wipes (baby wipes)
• foot powder
• hair elastics/barrettes
• dried fruit (healthy snacks are hard to find there)
• instant oatmeal packs
• pop-top canned fruit
• Pringles (they don't break)
• cookies
• powdered Gatorade drink mix
• Granola bars, trail mix
• microwave popcorn, soup cups, add-water foods like mac-n-cheese
• tuna/chicken sealed t0-go packets, Vienna sausage
• nail files
• Venus/Mach3 disposable razors
• Chapstick
• Neosporin/bandaids
• Dr. Scholl shoe inserts

Oh, and for you naughty types out there, these items are prohibited:
-anything depicting nude/semi-nude people
-"obscenity" or porn of any type
-any pork products
-alcohol

Unfortunately, the mailing deadlines for soldiers in Iraq are earlier than the deadlines for other overseas locations -- wish I'd known about the deployment earlier. The Parcel Post and Space Available deadlines have already passed, and the deadline for Iraq deployments (APO zips starting with 093__) is DECEMBER 1st.

If you can't get yours in the mail by that date, please don't let that stop you --- anything you send will still be much appreciated. (and if you just miss it by a day or two, it may still arrive in time.) But if there's any way you can get something mailed off to these guys by December 1st, that would be wonderful for them to have those stockings on Christmas.

When mailing, you'll need to fill out a customs form with a description of the contents. There's a place on the form where they'll ask for where to send it if not able to deliver to that individual. Just put "First Sergeant" and fill in the rest of the unit address in that space.


Again, a huge thank you to all of you who are willing to do this -- it will mean so much to my friend and her soldiers.