How to Send Care Packages to Troops Overseas

Care packages for troops on duty overseas are not only needed, but are still the best way to 'thank you'. While most basic needs of troops are already provided for, there are always certain items that are in short supply.

For example, prepaid phone cards are the best and most useful things to send troops overseas, according to the Army & Air Force Exchange Service, whose phone campaign is called Help Our Troops Call Home. Prepaid phone cards can be sent to individual troops or to any troop via a service such as the American Red Cross. As well as phone cards, send a batch of blank greeting cards, so that troops can remember loved ones back home.

Food and beverage items that remind troops of the tastes and smells of home are always cherished. Small individually packaged items such as instant coffee, hot chocolate packets, and sugar packets, are always needed. Instant food items such as breakfast foods, instant soup mixes, and ready-to-eat meals and salad kits, are ideal. Also, individual packs of snacks, such as chips, peanuts, pretzels, cereal and granola bars, brownies, cakes, candy and gum. Chocolate items are a bad idea, because chocolate melts.

Personal items, such as T-shirts, hats and gloves, flip flops or shower shoes, and shoe polish are great.

Other items such as sunscreen and lotion and wrap around sunglasses are vitally important as many troops are stationed in very hot areas. Other hygiene items such as toothpaste, toothbrushes, deodorant, shampoo, Band-Aids.

Entertainment is a luxury that troops need. Send items such as movies DVDs and music CDs, magazines, handheld electronic games, and playing cards.

But most of all, send cash. In this post-911 world some items may have difficulty getting through and the military's supply system is already overloaded. Sending cash, while less personal, is often quicker and more practical. A quick Internet search will bring up websites with lots of information on how to send cash or packages to troops overseas.

Dylan Miles, journalist, and website builder, lives in Texas. He is the owner and co-editor of http://www.militarylife.info on which you will find a longer, more detailed version of this article.

Simple Ways To Support Our Troops

Are you looking for simple yet meaningful ways to support our troops? Below are 4 low cost ways to do just that.

Sending Gift Cards
Sending Care Packages
Sending Calling Cards
Being A Pen Pal

Sending Gift Cards - You could also show your support by sending gift cards.

Sending Care Packages - If you choose to support our troops by sending care packages, be sure you know what to put in them. Iraq is an extremely hot country so don't send anything that will melt (i.e. chocolate). Soldiers have access to just about all the cheap snacks they could ever want at the Post Exchange.

So what could you put in the care packages? Think entertainment. Soldiers love watching movies and playing video games in their off time. In most circumstances a Soldier would be delighted to receive a new release movie as opposed to melted candy, foot powder, etc. Movies are also supplied at the Post Exchange but the selection is often limited.

Sending Calling Cards - You could also show your support by sending quality phone cards. The calling cards offered to our troops often times have hidden fees. This means Soldiers may pay for a four hundred minute phone card but their minutes get cut in half by hidden charges. Find a quality phone card to send to a Soldier and he or she would be extremely grateful.

Being A Pen Pal - Another great way to support our troops is to become a pen pal. As much as care packages are appreciated, it is only logical to conclude that a personal note that you took the time to write from your heart would be equally (if not more) treasured.

A quick internet search led to to penpalsforsoldiers.org. Check them out or conduct your own search to find Soldiers wanting pen pals.

Ten Ways to Support our Troops Overseas

You know the situation our troops face everyday. We live in dangerous times and our soldiers are laying down their lives to keep all of us, you and me, safe and secure at home.

Maybe you know someone in the military. Perhaps you son is in the Army, your brother is a Marine, your niece is in the Air Force or your neighbor serves in the Navy. You may even have been in the National Guard at one point.

Yet even if no one you know is in the military service, you understand a soldier's duty and sacrifice. And you can't just sit idly by and do nothing.

Right at this moment, this country is engaged in a supreme struggle to secure our future. Whether you agree or disagree with our reasons for going to war in Iraq, you have to acknowledge that we are in it for the long haul. In the United States, we don't "cut and run," when things get difficult. And so, our fighting men and women sacrifice themselves, literally, ever day so that we, you and I, can live the life we so much enjoy in America.

These brave young people in the armed services recognize their duty to stand up against threats to our way of life. They have volunteered to go into harm's way on our behalf. Imagine the courage and strength of character required to do that for people, most of whom they'll never know personally. Indeed, we owe a debt of gratitude to them for what they're doing for us.

Most of us, unless we've also been in the service during a war, will never know what our soldiers do every day while overseas. Many people don't really want to know – it's too agonizing to envision. Yet the fight is not only the troops' alone. We too have responsibilities even as we live comfortably with our families at home.

Here's how to support our troops overseas: We need to know what's going on, know why, contact our representatives to let them know how we feel, know who is over there, write them, send them pictures from home, chat with them on-line, send them a gift or care package, prepare for their return home, and pray for their safety and well-being.

Paul Stober