Backpackers in Support of US Troops

“Did a quick search and found articles about 40,000 troops lacking ceramic trauma platts for their kevlar vests (which make them far safer) some lacked vests all together (though I dint see any hard numbers in my cursory galnce). The articles were all from 2003 though. I'll check more.”

“I would like to open my home for families that are staying in hotels (and often can't afford to), while their wounded family members recouperate in the VA hospital near DC. I've looked online and can't find a way to make this happen.

Anyone?”
techntrek
11:11:14 AM
12/13/04


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6686538/

Fisher Houses are residences that provide temporary lodging for members of U.S. Armed Services, veterans, and their families during a medical crisis. They provide a warm environment where families and friends can stay close to one another and nurture one another in time of need.



On December 16, 2004, ‘Hardball’ airs a visit to the Fisher House in Walter Reed Army Medical Center to see how America’s bravest are doing there. As soldiers and their families spend their holidays rehabilitating, Chris Matthews shares two amazing stories about life in the Fisher House, the long road to recovery, and the soldiers' hopes for the future.

The Walter Reed Army Medical Center has treated 150 amputees from the Iraq war. American military hospitals collectively have had 200 amputees from Iraq and Afghanistan, three of them triple amputees. By mid-November this year, 10,369 American troops are known to have been wounded in battle in Afghanistan or Iraq.

There is at least one Fisher House at every major military medical center to assist families in need and to ensure they are provided with the comforts of home in a supportive environment. These sites were selected by the Secretaries of the Army, Navy, Air Force, respective Surgeons General and Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Annually, Fisher Houses serve more than 8,500 families, and have made available nearly 1,750,000 days of lodging to family members since the program originated.

Links
How you can help: Support Fisher House
Your messages to the troops

To access the above-mentioned links, click on the link at the top of this post. That will bring you to this article and the links.”

“Sorry for the long cut and paste. But it seemed like a good resource for anyone who wants to do something for our troops. At this point it's too late to get packages to them in time for Christmas. But my guess is that they are still going to be appreciative in January, February, March when the holiday treats have subsided.

Holiday gifts for troops overseas
Bring the holiday season to soldiers who need a taste of home

Palmer Brian / Sipa Press

Camp Iskandariyah in Iraq received its first mail call since deploying for Marines of the 24th MEU on July 25.
By Teri Goldberg
Shopping columnist
MSNBC
Updated: 12:21 p.m. ET Nov. 8, 2004

Mailing Santa a letter this holiday season may be easier than sending a package to a loved one in the military. As we all know, Kris Kringle will receive most any mail addressed to him, whether it’s sent to the North Pole or a U.S. court house. (Remember the piles of mail delivered to Santa at the court house in “Miracle on 34th Street.”) But writing the country name on a package addressed to a soldier in the Middle East may delay its arrival. And packages containing any materials prohibited by the military — such as a juicy Christmas ham or an electronic kid’s toy with the batteries intact — may never reach its destination.

Special rules and regulations have been established when mailing a package to military personnel overseas to protect the troops and to help the military postal service move the mail as efficiently as possible, explains Mark DeDomenic, assistant deputy director and chief of operations for the U.S. Military Postal Service, the division of the Department of Defense (DoD) that is responsible for all military mail.

Military mail is also considered domestic mail. So a letter addressed to soldier in Baghdad only costs 37 cents.


“Please do not put the name of a foreign country on any package sent to the military overseas, whether it’s Iraq, Israel or Italy,” pleads DeDomenic. Putting the country’s name on the package shifts delivery from the military postal service to the “regular” international mail system, which not only takes more time but also can be more costly.

International mail tends to take more time because it is sent through exchange offices to post offices operated by foreign countries, explains Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a DoD spokesperson. In contrast, military mail is processed by the USPS and then transported to military hubs where the mail is handled by military postal service personnel, she says. “In contingency areas, getting mail to the soldier is the real challenge,” says DeDomenic, who remarks, “soldiers are still getting shot over there.”

No matter what the destination, military mail is also considered domestic mail. So a letter addressed to soldier in Baghdad only costs 37 cents, whereas the same letter sent international rate costs 80 cents per half ounce.

Read the rules and regulations
Packages sent to the military overseas should contain an APO/FPO (Air/Army Post Office or Fleet Post Office) address, a military zip code of sorts. A list of new military postal codes can be found at the Web site of Operation Home Front, an organization run out of the Office of Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn of Illinois to help men and women of the National Guard and Reserves and their families with their deployments. For other guidelines, see tips and FAQs posted at the USPS Web site.


Operation Military Pride
Soldiers stationed in Iraq from the 1st Cavalry division in Fort Hood, Texas, hold up a sign that says “Will work for packages.”
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Reading the list of rules and regulations can be overwhelming. DeDomenic explains the logic behind some of the restrictions. Batteries have to be removed because electronic devices can inadvertently go off while in transit. “We just don’t want things going boom,” says DeDomenic, who has heard “clocks tick inside boxes, radios turn on and sex toys vibrate” on military airplanes. All these relatively benign incidences “immediately puts us in bomb mode,” says DeDomenic. We prefer if friends and family do not mail batteries at all, he concludes.

Other restrictions apply because of requirements of the host country. To monitor what’s coming into their country, custom forms are required with each package. Different regions also have different restrictions. (The USPS also lists military restrictions on its Web sites.)

In the Middle East, religion is sensitive, says DeDomenic. So it’s OK to send a bible to a loved one stationed in the Middle East but not a stack of bibles or “bulk quantities of religious materials contrary to the Islamic faith.” Homemade cookies are fine but pork or pork products are prohibited because of dietary restrictions in many Muslim countries.

Like religion, sex and politics are also sensitive subjects. So “obscene articles,” “any matter depicting nude or seminude persons” and “unauthorized political materials” are all prohibited. (Sorry, you can’t send Playboy magazines to your buddies overseas.)

To ensure delivery, DeDomenic also recommends:

Mail packages early. Last year, the military processed and transported 8.5 million pounds of mail during December.
Use strong reinforced materials to package the goods. Remember military packages have to travel a long way and are handled a lot.
Do not use boxes from grocery or liquor stores printed with the name of a hazardous or prohibited material. For example, any box labeled bleach, whiskey or wine will automatically be “unmailable.”
Check postal deadlines carefully. (See the release posted at the DoD Web site.) The last day to mail a package parcel post or by container ship is Nov. 13. Dec. 6 is the deadline for space-available mail and Dec. 11 is the last day for priority mail. Note: Any package sent to a military address in the 093 zip code or the countries involved in Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom (OEF/OIF) is sent by aircraft.
Cyber treats

Treatsfortroops.com
A Santa sack at Treats for Troops, filled with holiday treats, only cost $9.95 plus shipping.
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Fortunately, there are cyber alternatives for friends, family and others who want to support the troops, who would rather let someone else do the packing for them.

One such group isTreats for Troops. Cyber shoppers at Treats for Troops can select items in the “market store” to make their own package or choose to send a “gift-to-go” to a loved one. The market store stocks a limited selection of goods that soldiers frequently request, from freshly baked cookies to practical items, such as duct tape and lip balm. Ready-to-send packages also run the gamut, from a collection of Burt’s Bees natural bath and body products to holiday-themed gifts.

The least expensive item, priced at $9.95, is a festive holiday sack filled with a jumbo mint chocolate chop cookie, salt water taffy wrapped in holiday paper, ½ pound of red and green jelly beans, a candy cane, fruit leather and a snowman ornament. It’s hard to imagine putting together a package for that price. Remember, though, the price does not include shipping and the minimum order is $15. A heftier holiday gift is the “feast for four,” priced at $149.95, which includes turkey jerky, turkey pepperoni, cheddar cheese, crackers and a variety of snacks, from pumpkin pecan fudge to peanut brittle.


Army And Air Force Exchange Service
The Army and Air Force Exchange Service currently operates 51 stores in the “SW Asian theater” or countries involved in Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom.
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Friends and family of military overseas also can sent a gift certificate from the Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES), one-shop shops for military personnel worldwide that stock all sort of goods, from licorice sticks to digital cameras to “bug-out” bags. A “bug out” bag is a backpack that service members pack in anticipation of having to change locations at a moment’s notice, explains Judd Anstey, an AAFES public affairs specialist. Soldiers can buy anything they want with the gift certificate but CDs and DVDs have been the most popular, she says.

Sold in denominations of $10 and $20, gift certificates can be redeemed at any AAFES PX (Postage Exchange) or BX (Base Exchange) throughout the world. The AAFES currently operates 51 stores in the “SW Asian theater” or the countries involved in Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom (OEF/OIF), including 29 in Iraq, 10 in Kuwait, five in Afghanistan, four in Qatar/UAE/Djibouti, one in Pakistan, one in Kyrgyzstan and one in Uzbekistan.

Leave no soldier behind
Don’t know anyone in the military but want to help? Several organizations offer some simple ways to support the troops overseas, and help make this holiday season a little brighter:

Every donation of $25 to the United Service Organizations (USO) — best known for its entertainment shows in World War II — covers the cost of delivering a package to members of the U.S. Armed Forces deployed around the world. Each package contains a pre-paid worldwide phone card, sunscreen, travel size toiletries, a disposable camera and more.

Anyone can send a gift certificate to a soldier by making a donation to one of the organization listed at the AAFES Web site. Currently, the list includes the American Red Cross national headquarters, the Air Force Aid Society, The Fisher House and the USO. “What all of the organizations have in common is that all have the ability and access to get phone cards and gift certificates in the hands of deployed troops as quickly as possible,” says Anstey.

Operation Military Service has an “adopt a soldier” program where any interested person can request the name of a military person overseas along with their wish list. Frequently requested items are also listed on the site.

Soldiers’ Angels helps fund a variety of programs. The organization not only has mounted an effort to send 140,000 stockings to men and women deployed in Iraq but individual angels also deliver handmade blankets and backpacks filled with goodies to the wounded in combat support hospitals (formerly called MASH units), Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany or any of the stateside hospitals, such as National Naval Center in Bethesda, Md. or Naval Medical Center in San Diego, Calif. “Our mission is to connect American people with the soldiers,” says Viktoria Carter from Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, N.C., whose husband was supposed to retire in May 2002 after 22 years in the military and re-enlisted after the attacks on America on Sept. 11, 2001.

To date, Soldiers’ Angels has enlisted 16,000 angels. After talking with Carter, who was on her way to comfort a wounded solider and his family at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, my guess is many of the volunteers are truly angels.

© 2004 MSNBC Interactive”

“Ruby RAWKS!”

“Thanks Ruby!

I got an email from my good friend in Balad. She wants a black locking carabiner, plastic bowl and spoon and some heat in the cup soup and meals, plus some books. An odd list for sure.”

“I was invited to a lawyer friend's Christmas party on Friday. While there he introduced me to a number of his friends, all wealthy lawyers and doctors. Then my friend asked me about my boyfriend and conversation turned to how to help our troops. All of a sudden all these guys wanted to donate good sums of money to help our troops in some way, whether by sending care packages or some other means. They asked me to spearhead it.

So now I have a project. I can't wait to hear from Jon again so that I can tell him the good news. My inital thought was to find out if there are men in his platoon or at his camp (Camp Blackhorse) who are in need of things. Then I am thinking that the Fisher House would be a good place to donate money to.”

“Odd lists...

My friend, Scott, asked for Quaker Maple and Brown Sugar oatmeal pouches, chicken in a can/pouch and Swedish Fish (ya know, those gummy things?). I sure hope he doesn't plan on mixing them together. lol

His wife and three daughters will be coming out for a visit on the 26th. I asked my dad to dress as Santa and show up w/ presents for the girls from "Dad". Can't wait!!”

“My kids came home from school today with a note requesting items for Christmas stockings for our service personel. They are going to make stockings and decorate them in art class. I have to say they sure made me proud when I watched them going through the house looking for things to send. Regardless of your political veiws, please remember our troops that have their lives on the line this holiday season.”

“Tru DAT!

Hooray for your kids Whiskey!”

“Very cool!!!


My girlfriend's son is doing the same thing so she called me to ask for Jon's opinion on stuff to include in a box for troops. Jon said something interesting. He said that everyone thinks they should send toiletries. But the troops are getting so many toiletry items, they have more than they need. At one point last year Jon had 20 deoderants. Think about how much deoderant you really go through in a year. He said most of the guys were donating the surplus to Afgani groups. What they really liked to get was snacks.”

“Are the Handy Wipes and such still a hot item on the list? Do you think snacks need to ship in cans so critters don't get into them?”

“Great Idea.”

“The list my kids had requested all kinds of things. Wipes and canned fruit and meat were on it. They sent a lot of snacks & candy, cleaned the snack cabinet out. Playing cards, Nerf balls, books, sun glasses, new greeting cards (for the troops to send home), sun screen, shampoo, hand lotion, tea bags, candles, beef sticks, peanut butter crackers, ect...”