Supporting Our Troops Overseas

My husband, daughter and I decided to send care packages to some troops overseas.  In the past we sent packages to family members and friends but not to strangers.  Since you can’t send packages addressed to anonymous soldiers, I did a little research to find out how to go about this task.  I found a website, Any Soldier, that provides information and instructions for sending packages to our deployed soldiers.

My Unit

Most of the profiles I looked at were for soldiers who asked for items for their unit.  I chose a unit that has 25 men and 10 women stationed somewhere in Afghanistan living in tents.  All of the profiles I saw asked for snacks.  This one had a variety of things requested so I decided to do several mailings:  snacks, general toiletries, feminine hygiene products and books.

Purchasing Tips

A lot of soldiers asked for crossword puzzle books, sudoku books and find a word books.  You can find these almost anyplace but at the Dollar Tree, they cost $1.00.  I also purchased Q-tips, tooth paste and Wylers drink mix from Dollar Tree. I didn’t try Dollar General because a lot of their items are more than $1.  Just about everything else I purchased from Costco.  Since I am sending items for the unit to share, I didn’t purchase a lot of small packages.  If I was sending to individual soldiers, I would have sent smaller, individual sized items.  For the large items that I did send, I also sent a box of quart size zip lock bags that can be used for the soldiers to divvy up the loot.

Packing It Up

Since I’ve had over 400 sales on e-bay and I have an online store, I’ve learned a few things about packaging items for shipment.

1. It is best to use a new box.  Even used boxes that are in good shape have lost some of their strength.  If your items are going overseas they are going to get thrown around and banged around a lot.
2. Use flat rate APO/FPO Priority Mail boxes for heavy items.  These boxes are strictly for shipping to military posts.  They are the same size as other Priority Mail flat rate boxes (12″x12″x6″) but they are $2 cheaper to mail.  Whatever you can fit in these boxes ships for $11.95.  I used them to ship shampoo, conditioner, body wash . . . The weight of this box was 15 pounds and would have cost $14.77 to mail parcel post.
3. Use larger boxes (not flat rate) for items that don’t weight much.  The snacks we sent were mailed in a 12″x12″x18″ box
4. Ship books media rate, it’s much cheaper.  The brown box in the photo is 10″x10″x9″ and is filled with novels and puzzle books.  It weighs 14 lbs.  Medial mail price to ship is $7.45, parcel post cost is $14.40. These boxes have restrictions, items must be books, CDs, DVDs, magazines.
5. Use a good quality packing tape.  Scotch brand and Duck brand (the clear not the one we use to fix everything) are both good quality.  I have used a store brand but ended up throwing it away because it didn’t hold up well.
6. Don’t wrap your box in paper.
7. Don’t secure your package with string.
8. If you ship candy, send hard candy.  Chocolate and soft candies will melt in the desert heat.
9. Check the shelf life of any food product you ship, it takes a long time to travel to the middle east.  If the expiration date is within the month, you might not want to send it.
10. Use an appropriate size box.  If your items are moving around, fill up the empty space with some type of filler.
11. Tape all four corners of the box with packing tape.
12. Put a strip of packing tape over your address label or written address to make sure it doesn’t get washed off.
13. When sending items to the desert, either vacuum wrap or put items in zip lock bags, to keep the sand out. The soldiers can be reuse the zip lock bags for other things. Zip lock bags are also useful in case items leak.
14. Remove excess packaging to help control shipping weight.  For instance, if you note the ChapSticks and drink mix in the photo, they have a lot of packaging.  I removed the drink mix from the boxes and put the little tubes of drink mix into zip lock bags.  I did the same with the ChapStick.  This may sound like overkill but if your package weighs 10 pounds, 1 ounce, you will be charged for 11 pounds.

Mailing

• There is a Customs Form 2976 or 2976A that has to be filled out.  You can fill it out and print it online at http://webapps.usps.com/customsforms/ or you can get it from the Post Office.
• If you are mailing multiple packages to the same person, you might want to stagger your mailings so they don’t arrive at the same time.  The soldiers have to carry their packages; multiple packages are difficult to handle.
• Make sure to follow all the military instructions given about mailing packages.

I mailed our snack box yesterday via parcel post.  Tomorrow I will mail the books.  Since the books are going media rate, they may not arrive until a week or more after the snack box.  I will also mail one of the flat rate APO/FPO boxes tomorrow.  It should arrive first.

If you have never done so, I hope you will send someone or some unit a care package.  Some of the troops receive packages from home quite frequently; but some of them rarely or never receive any packages.  One of the things I sent that I didn’t mention was bubbles.  You know, the bottle of bubbles with a little wand that children play with, that’s what I sent – 12 bottles.  A few years ago, I sent bubbles to my nephew who was stationed in Africa, he said one of the women in his unit got a kick out of them.  He gave the other bottles to some local children.

Think of our troops, send a care package.  Include something fun!

Related Article:  How To Ship Food Packages To Military Overseas