a mobilized year

I’ve been asked (at an impressive frequency) what would our troops appreciate over here and recently what would we like for the holidays. My reply has thus far been, “we really don’t need anything.” Of course, since people are so good natured, they ignore me . . . and end up sending something anyway. So, to avoid things being thrown away or wasted, I thought I would put together a list of things soldiers here have requested. Just so that we’re straight though, the soldiers here (myself included) are taken care of fairly well. But, because I know that some people are just “hell-bent” on sending holiday care packages, I thought that a list may be a good starting point in order to avoid receiving some of the items that we’ve already received that aren’t . . . well, let's say, totally appropriate (I’ve included a summary of those items in the second list below). The final list (and as you can tell, I do like lists) is a list of items of which we have many boxes of already.

The items below are ones that soldiers have mentioned would be nice:

PC Games (they have XBOX and PS2 games already)
DVDs (recent movies, TV series (season))
Twin bed sheets
Calendars
Mail order gift certificates
Starbucks (or other brand) canned coffee products for missions
Edge shaving cream
3 x 5 picture frames
Male/gender-neutral toiletries
UnderArmor/Coolmax undergarments (L-XXL)
Breakfast bars
CDs (music)
Christmas decorations
Trail mix
Jerky
Apple Cider and Cappucinno Mix
Dried fruit

Not to sound ungrateful (and I do hear in the back of my head a voice saying, "sometimes, you are such an ingrate!"), but the list below includes items that we have received that for one reason or another, weren’t appropriate for an infantry unit stationed in the Middle East:

Combs
Feminine hygiene products
Mistletoe
Nail polish
Rum
Perfume
Used deodorant sticks
Stale cookies (I’m sure they were fresh when they were sent)
Teen Magazine
Expired canned products
Danielle Steele books

This final list below contains items that we already have waaay too much of already:

Dry drink mix
Hard candy
Hotel soaps
Chapstick
Baby wipes
New Yorker magazines (we just received several huge boxes of them)

For those who can hold out and/or are interested, I’ll be publishing a blog update shortly on The Badger OIF Foundation and our efforts and needs there. That would be a more noble and needed cause to which to contribute.