I need care package ideas

[mrsbornkuntry]

My DH is leaving for his first tour in Iraq (Army) in a couple weeks and I worry less when I think of more practical things so I'm trying to come up with a list of things I could put in care packages for him, I know I'll send at least one a month. He's deployed before, but never to Iraq so I'm looking for things that would be specifically needed there. I do know that he will be at a base that's already established, if that helps, but he doesn't know which one so I don't know what resources he will have available to him.

Here's what I have so far:
snacks (need specific ideas of what keeps well)
books/magazines
pics of and by the kids

 

[lovemygoofy]

Hi there, I'm sorry to hear that your husband is leaving soon. I completely understand. My husband is getting ready for his third tour. I've become a pro at goody boxes and all this deployment stuff.

Do you know about flat rate boxes that the post office has? They are free priority shipping boxes that cost $8.10 to send up to 25lbs and you would be amazed at the stuff you can send. You can order the boxe, the customs forms and the tape for free at the usps website.

Here is a compiled list that I have. Don't send chocolate when it gets the hottest part of the year as it just doesn't get there very well.


Suggestions for Goody Boxes

Things not allowed: alcohol, pornography, and pork products; hold off on home made goods until we see how long it takes to get boxes over there.

Food/Snack Items
Beef/turkey jerky
Ham, chicken or tuna salad lunch kits (includes the can of meat, crackers, mayo, relish, and little spoon)
Cans/sealed packages of chicken, ham, or tuna in a bag (little packets of mayo can be found at gas stations to send along)
Crackers including soda, salad, and Ritz
“Baby” canned hams
Small summer sausage
Pasta buckets
Cans of soup with pop tops
Tabasco sauce or bbq sauce
Hard candy
Little Debbie snacks
Cans of chips such as Torengos or Pringles
Plastic bowls or cans of dips including salsa, cheese dip, and bean dip
Granola/cereal bars
Lunch box sized packets of cookies, cheese nips, cheese &cracker/breadsticks
Good coffee or cocoa
Juice boxes off the shelf not the cold section
Pre-sweetened drink mix like kool-aid, tea, lemonade, or Gatorade

General Items
Boxes of holiday greeting cards unsigned
Envelopes, paper, and pens
DVD’s—blank and with programs
Cd’s—blank and recorded
AA batteries
Int’l phone cards (best found at post office)
Magazines and local news papers
Disposable cameras if applicable
White athletic socks
Good toilet paper
Deck of cards
Handheld/travel size games
Frisbees
Athletic equipment like basketball, football, and soccer
Board games
Books/books on cd

“Theme Boxes”
Holiday boxes including funny or cute decorations
Stocking filled in a box
Coffee/cocoa box (include things like biscotti, cookies, or flavorings with the coffee)
Birthday box
Movie night box (sweets, a dvd movie, microwave popcorn and whatever else sounds good)


Please feel free to PM me or email me anytime. I understand all about the worries and the butterflies and everything else you are going through. Good luck and I hope you and your sweets has a speedy deployment with great communication.

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

Thanks! Those are great ideas.

 

[jsmith]

what tina said-but i will also add that personal things-and "silly" items are kinda cool too-i sent a teddy bear for a birthday-it seemed kind of teeagerish-but i found out later is sat on the corner of the soldiers bed for the rest of the deployment-it really meant something-and silly little toys that break the boredom and tension. I sent my husband a nerf dart gun-the day the box came they put it together and were goofing around-they lived in those connex things-two guys to a room-he heard foot steps coming down the way-assumed it was his roommate coming back from the shower-and when the door opened fired away-OOPS-it was the commander-with a nerf dart stuck to is forhead-there was 30 seconds of silence-then the commander cracked up-and that became a standing joke. (note-i dont recommend shooting your commander in the face-its just and example of tension breakers). Also my sister in law sent her BF a yoyo -he said later it was one of the best things he got-so those type of things can be awesome. definately use the flat rate boxes-i never sent for the kits-they have the boxes and customs forms in big bins in the lobby of the post off here on post so i just get what i need there-i can tell you even if you are sending a lot of stuff its cheaper to do two flat rate boxes than a regular one-and no matter what theytell you priority mail matters cause it goes to the apo site faster.
Hang in there-youll be fine and so will he-and if ya need to vent-we are here to listen.

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

Great ideas .

I don't know about getting there faster, but on his other deployments DH always swore that his packages got there in better condition (less beat up) if I shipped priority so I always do.

I didn't see it mentioned on the prohibited list or anything, is it okay to send cigarettes?

 

[lovemygoofy]

Oh yes cigs can be sent. They have cigs there that look like the same brand but are haji as my husband said and I told him not to smoke them. We don't know what the heck is in them He said that finally the PX does carry them but hard to either get to a PX or get there when it is stocked.

 

[dreamergirl78]

First of all THANK YOU and your family for your service. My hubby is over there right now. We are working on a 2 year deployment.
All of those ideas are GREAT! I would suggest anything that your hubby loved at home he will miss terribly while he is over there. Some bases or FOBs have larger PXes, etc and some are very limited. I would suggest sending seasons of favorite shows. You get a lot more bang for your buck rather than individual movies. And you could send one season a month or something. My hubby loves this and I guess they are all swapping shows so it is working out good. Card games, handhelds, etc are good as well. I have gotten requests for board games too! One thing I would say is don't be hurt if a lot of this stuff does not make it back. Packing space is a premium and I know there is no way for him to cart all of these goodies home. I told him he can leave a lot of this stuff there for the guys coming in after his deployment. We also make sure to send homemade cards and handwritten letters too.
If you ever need to talk or vent, PM me. I am a pretty good listener!
Take care of yourself ok?

 

[Kim10110]

just a thought my my mom sent me altoids (everyone loved them) small things of snacks (like 100 calorie bags), fresh tee shirts after a while depending on where he is, the juice packs that fit in one bottle of water like crystal light. mmmm ill keep thinking.

 

[tracers]

When DH deployed it was just before DS baseball season started. (minor-major/pre lilttle league) I video taped one game at a time and sent them along in his goody box. The guys enjoyed it more than DH did!

The other wierd request I got were small paint brushes. The brushes were easier to help get the sand out when doing routine weapons cleaning.

I don't know who posted about the nerf gun BUT I cracked up when I read that! TOO FUNNY! At least the commander had a sence of humor!!

 

[Blueeyes101817]

A guy that is like my brother is deployed for the 2nd time..we sent a rubix cube and they fought over it! we also send little things like a yo-yo or things related to holidays..Steve loves halloween so we sent him a halloween goody bag when he was deployed over halloween--one of the candy buckets and a ton of stuff--he loves getting fun stuff as well as necessities!

 

[jmskinner]

If they have Ipods, the Itune gift cards are a good idea if they have access to a computer. Fortunatly my DH has a laptop with him along with an Ipod, we hooked him up real good before he left. He got $100 in ITunes giftcards for Christmas and I noticed I am just now starting to see receipts for Itunes on my email, so the gift cards last him about 3 months.

Oh, and about the pornography, I had to laugh. My DH's office has a girl scout troop sending packages to them and my DH found the Playboy with the Air Force member in it. He figured one of the girls dads must have dropped it in there. All he could say was she looked different out of uniform.

Something I wished we had splurged on, but didn't know about at the time is one of the DVD projection systems they have now. My DH said they sit around and watch movies on someones laptop. I would love to surprise them with a projector so they could feel like they are in a movie theater.

I go to Sams and buy a lot of stuff I know my DH likes. Like a a box of cookies with different varieties. The Grandma's cookies are the big cookies with 2 cookies per pack and there are about 24 packages per box. He has told me that he picks out what he wants and then lets the others go for it.

His daughter was able to send him Cheerwine (you North Carolina people will know what that is). Don't know how she did it, but he hid it in his hooch. Kept one bottle for New Years! For those of you who don't know, it's not alcohol, just a type of soda. But for him, it is like gold.

 

[powellrj]

when my DS was there he had a APO address that was from Germany so we weren't allowed to send coffee which was strange, so check with the PO to see what his address will allow if you haven't already.

One thing I always did that seemed to help was line the box with black tube socks and magazines. He said that black tube socks were always in short supply. Another odd thing that he seemed to always ask for was the huge and long zip strips. I think he used them for everything and DH would buy the heavy duty ones for him.

The funniest thing we send was a subscription to our local newspaper. The mail people gave him a hard time about it because they would come and fill his mail box quickly, but the guys in his unit loved it because they use to say they knew more about our hometime than they did their own.

 

[mistyt]

A dear friend of mine is currently serving, and I was passed this link to artificial snow that is so life like and totally easy to send! Check it out!

http://www.sno-wonder.com/index.asp

 

[storzo]

small puzzle books, beef jerky, lip balm, sunscreen, eye drops, batteries, power bars, those single drink mixes for bottled water, individual packets of condiments, Bounce sheets (helps with fleas) and paint brushes or makeup brushes (for cleaning sand/dust from guns)

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

paint brushes or makeup brushes (for cleaning sand/dust from guns)

Dh and I were discussing how soon he would have an address for me to send things and I told him:

"Don't be alarmed if I send you make-up brushes."
He looks at me like I'm from another planet, until I explained to him what they were used for!

He also didn't appreciate me buying him a flea collar to pack, but MIL said that some of the soldiers wear them around their ankles to repel sand fleas.

Thanks for all of the great ideas, I'm sending out my first one next week (hopefully if I have an address by then).

 

[dreamergirl78]

Dh and I were discussing how soon he would have an address for me to send things and I told him:

"Don't be alarmed if I send you make-up brushes."
He looks at me like I'm from another planet, until I explained to him what they were used for!

He also didn't appreciate me buying him a flea collar to pack, but MIL said that some of the soldiers wear them around their ankles to repel sand fleas.

Thanks for all of the great ideas, I'm sending out my first one next week (hopefully if I have an address by then).

You should get the address soon. We had it a few weeks before he left from Texas.
Lots and lots of snack is what my hubby is requesting. Even Creamy Chicken Ramen and Easy Mac. Sounds yucky to me, but to him I guess it is better than the chow hall or MRE's. (depending on where he is at the moment)
Anyway, have fun shopping for the gift boxes. I really enjoy it, it gives me something to plan for and I like to imagine how he feels when he opens them and sees all of the goodies!
Take care of yourself!

 

[MariaEllerºoº]

Definitely send silly items! I had the best time coming up with different themes with each package while my hubby was in Iraq. When he first got there he said they sent him on vacation where there's sand, but no beach. So, I sent him one! LOL I sent a baby blow up pool, bottled water, sand buckets, frisbees, water guns, water balloons, lemonaide, plastic martini glasses, Jimmy Buffet CD and a singing/dancing Flamingo that would go off any time someone walked in front of it.

My husband and his roommate got bicycles to ride on base. So another time I sent Disney Princess bike helmets, horns and tassles for the bikes.

Christmas time I got enough small stockings for everyone in the band. My husband was part of the 1st Cavalry Band and they went all over Iraq. Anyways, I had a bunch of little goodies in the bags, but from what I understand the biggest hits were the yo-yo's, hand held electronic games (like the old football, yahtzee hand held games) and reindeer antlers.

The children and I had so much fun trying to come up with the funniest packages each month that it helped our waiting time to fly by.

 

[jmskinner]

I just remembered something my DH requested. A pillow case that I had slept on for a couple of nights. I then sprayed it with some of my perfume and placed it in a ziplock bag.

I'm now working on a box for his birthday. I think I am going to go to the party store and buy some birthday party supplies to include in it! Our son wanted to send him a cake.

 

[casndan]

For the birthday cake thing, a good friend of mine sent her DH a bunch of those microwavable cakes so him and his buddies could celebrate his birthday I thought that it was a cute idea.

 

[momrek06]

My bro is a COL in USARMY at Ft. Carson. He was Battalion Commander and took 5000 soliders March 2005- March 2006 to Iraq. We (as his family) sent him many many care packages but he asked us to please not to forget the WOMEN serving in Iraq. So we would send one box a month filled with items from Bath and Body Works, Avon products, hair brushes, combs all to my bro and he would give all these items to his female soldiers and believe me they LOVED it.

Also remember DISer's there are many of our soldiers overseas whose families just do not have the $$$ to send them boxes...my son had a drive at his h.s. and he collected boxes and boxes and boxes of items and we sent them all overseas so those less fortunate would also be receiving items.

It brought me to tears one day when my bro told me the highlight of his day was getting BOXES from all of us. The mail would arrive, he would get a box from us, and he would leave it next to his desk in his trailer, stare at it alllll day long until the day was done for him and he could go back to his tent and open it.

ALSO please remember our soldiers in Iraq are on call 24/7...they do not get any time off. Please pray for all of them daily.