Shipping care packages overseas to military

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Princess_Abby

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Anyone have any tips? This has been a big pain for us in sending stuff to my brother. I think I’ve sent boxes that are too big and they get delayed for so many days.

I just found out about flat rate shipping boxes, but they are so small.

Any ideas for how to pack sausages (yes, I know no pork for Iraq!) , cheeses and cookies so that they’ll keep? These are his big requests.

I know that people send sausage and cheese for holiday gifts sometimes, but where do I find sausage or cheese that doesn’t need to be refrigerated? He swears all his buddies out there are getting that stuff so he wants some too. 🙂

The toiletries and foot powder and stuff are easy enough to send, but sending food seems a little daunting.
 
Hickory Farms makes summer sausages that could survive a nuclear blast…LOL – you can find them online and probably have them ship a gift box to him so you’d just have to point and click and be done! Jerky is real popular too…so long as it’s shrink wrapped and doesn’t say “refridgerate” on the label, I’d think it’s fine, no?
 
Around the holiday season, in Canada, Hickory Farms hickoryfarms.ca/ carrys meat and cheese that does not need to be refrigerated of course it does have a shelf life. Maybe you can find something similar in the States. Good Luck with your search.
 
Wow Leaner, you and I must have been on the same wavelength to think of Hickory Farms.
 
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leaner:
Hickory Farms makes summer sausages that could survive a nuclear blast…LOL – you can find them online and probably have them ship a gift box to him so you’d just have to point and click and be done! Jerky is real popular too…so long as it’s shrink wrapped and doesn’t say “refridgerate” on the label, I’d think it’s fine, no?
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I did send him some beef jerky, but he called me and was like, “sis! where are the smoked sausages!”

So I guess I’ll take a look at Hickory Farms website… 🙂 Thanks!

(In case you can’t tell, I’m not a sausage fan personally, lol–hence the reason I have to ask where to go find it!) 🙂
 
Glad I could help – having been stationed overseas recently, I can sympathize with the “APO friendly” search…there are websites out there that list APO friendly companies – I can’t remember them exactly, but I’m sure you could google it…maybe you could send him something he’d never have expected!
 
Okay I just tried to order him something and got all the way to the shipping, where I fill out his FPO AE address but there isn’t enough room…so I don’t think it’ll work online. I wonder if I can try calling them…

Are Hickory Farms made out of pork? It says beef on the package, but I know customs people are throwing anything away with pork in it due to their beliefs…hopefully it’s just beef sausage.
 
Don’t forget calling cards… and a note attached saying to call through the operator. If they do so and say they are on a military base in Afghanistan/Iraq then they will be charged the rate of the card (1.8 cents or something like that is pretty common I think). If they call straight, they will be charged the “normal” rate of MUCH more.
 
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Forest-Pine:
Don’t forget calling cards… and a note attached saying to call through the operator. If they do so and say they are on a military base in Afghanistan/Iraq then they will be charged the rate of the card (1.8 cents or something like that is pretty common I think). If they call straight, they will be charged the “normal” rate of MUCH more.
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Hmmm this is interesting because my brother said that most phone cards that are sent over to Iraq from the States can’t be used in Iraq. But I did find a link on a website…I haven’t bought any phone cards for him because he doesn’t think he’ll be able to use them.
 
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Princess_Abby:
Hmmm this is interesting because my brother said that most phone cards that are sent over to Iraq from the States can’t be used in Iraq. But I did find a link on a website…I haven’t bought any phone cards for him because he doesn’t think he’ll be able to use them.
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AT&T has a contract with DOD to provide telephone service wherever U.S. military personnel are deployed. All phone cards work to make calls back to the U.S. Phone cards are among the best gifts to send deployed servicemen and women.
 
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Princess_Abby:
Are Hickory Farms made out of pork? It says beef on the package, but I know customs people are throwing anything away with pork in it due to their beliefs…hopefully it’s just beef sausage.
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they have beef summer sausage, turkey summer sausage, sausage bites, all will ship well and last indefinitely until they are unwrapped. they will ship them for you and tell you if they will be accepted by your destination. the websites above are good. Hickory Farms is a product of the great state of Ohio, heart of it all. During the Christmas season (which probably starts tomorrow) they have kiosks in most malls where you can fill out shipping forms.
 
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Princess_Abby:
Okay I just tried to order him something and got all the way to the shipping, where I fill out his FPO AE address but there isn’t enough room…so I don’t think it’ll work online. I wonder if I can try calling them…

Are Hickory Farms made out of pork? It says beef on the package, but I know customs people are throwing anything away with pork in it due to their beliefs…hopefully it’s just beef sausage.
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Call their 1-800 number and explain your situation – I’m sure they can hand-jam it in; if not, I always hand-jammed my APO address in and made it fit – so long as the zip code is in the right place, it will make it there – that’s the biggie, and they’re all standardized – the unit, company, squadron etc. can all be deciphered by the military postal handlers – they’ve seen it all, I assure you (from my mother alone…I think she finally got the hang of it by the beginning of our third year or so?? LOL!)
 
americasupportsyou.mil/americasupportsyou/support/help.html

asoldierswishlist.org/index_files/pwishlist.htm

And for any of you who would like to see what you can do, here are two links with great suggestions. I have contributed to several care package drives and the phone cards are VERY popular.

Another very popular item for a soldier who wears glasses are eyeglass lens cleaners. There is a great deal of sand and dirt with which to contend.

Good luck! Prayers will go up for your brother and his unit!
 
He is supposed to call me again this weekend so I will tell him we can purchase cards here in the US for him after all. He’s been buying them on base for $20/30 minutes, and I don’t think he calls through the operator, either. It’s been frustrating for him but I know he’s told me that friends of his have received cards in the mail that didn’t work.

I wonder if the Sam’s Club AT&T cards would work. They have 1,000 minutes for only $40. If he called through the operator and got charged the actual talk time, he could talk for soooooooo long. That would be so good for him.

Maybe I should just call AT&T…I would love for him to have more time than what he’s been getting. He calls one of us nearly every day, so he’s spending like $20/a day or so on phone time.

ALSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO:

Does anyone know where I can buy bulk latex or vinyl gloves that go up to the shoulder? Preferrably the medical kind that also have double reinforcement in the fingers.

My brother is a marine who though he’s trained as a nuclear biological chemical specialist…they didn’t have need of his MOS in Iraq, so one of his jobs is the search, recovery and identification of fallen soldiers. (He’s the gunner on top of the tank who convoys out to claim fallen soldiers, then takes them back to base and prepares their bodies for sending back to the US.) Basically, mortician work that he spent six weeks in training for before leaving. However, they are also doing the bodies of Iraqi insurgents. Disease is a big worry, and they only have the latex gloves that hit the wrist. All of his boys are writing to us and calling, asking us to please please please send these gloves in any quantity we can send. It’s so sad to me that they don’t even have the supplies they need to assure their own health and safety while being surrounded by bloody bodies.

The only thing I could find that was even remotely similar were veterinary gloves at Tractor Supply. But they are $16 for only a few pairs. Does anyone have any better ideas? I don’t even know what to call the gloves, so every google search I’ve done hasn’t called up much info.
 
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Princess_Abby:
He is supposed to call me again this weekend so I will tell him we can purchase cards here in the US for him after all. He’s been buying them on base for $20/30 minutes, and I don’t think he calls through the operator, either. It’s been frustrating for him but I know he’s told me that friends of his have received cards in the mail that didn’t work.

I wonder if the Sam’s Club AT&T cards would work. They have 1,000 minutes for only $40. If he called through the operator and got charged the actual talk time, he could talk for soooooooo long. That would be so good for him.

Maybe I should just call AT&T…I would love for him to have more time than what he’s been getting. He calls one of us nearly every day, so he’s spending like $20/a day or so on phone time.
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Check out the link:
thor.aafes.com/scs/default.aspx
It explains that other phone cards work but often are not as good a deal as the AT&T military phone cards. The AT&T military phone cards may be purchased by non-military people through AAFES (the BX/PX) on-line.
 
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Princess_Abby:
He is supposed to call me again this weekend so I will tell him we can purchase cards here in the US for him after all. He’s been buying them on base for $20/30 minutes, and I don’t think he calls through the operator, either. It’s been frustrating for him but I know he’s told me that friends of his have received cards in the mail that didn’t work.

I wonder if the Sam’s Club AT&T cards would work. They have 1,000 minutes for only $40. If he called through the operator and got charged the actual talk time, he could talk for soooooooo long. That would be so good for him.

Maybe I should just call AT&T…I would love for him to have more time than what he’s been getting. He calls one of us nearly every day, so he’s spending like $20/a day or so on phone time.

ALSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO:

Does anyone know where I can buy bulk latex or vinyl gloves that go up to the shoulder? Preferrably the medical kind that also have double reinforcement in the fingers.

My brother is a marine who though he’s trained as a nuclear biological chemical specialist…they didn’t have need of his MOS in Iraq, so one of his jobs is the search, recovery and identification of fallen soldiers. (He’s the gunner on top of the tank who convoys out to claim fallen soldiers, then takes them back to base and prepares their bodies for sending back to the US.) Basically, mortician work that he spent six weeks in training for before leaving. However, they are also doing the bodies of Iraqi insurgents. Disease is a big worry, and they only have the latex gloves that hit the wrist. All of his boys are writing to us and calling, asking us to please please please send these gloves in any quantity we can send. It’s so sad to me that they don’t even have the supplies they need to assure their own health and safety while being surrounded by bloody bodies.

The only thing I could find that was even remotely similar were veterinary gloves at Tractor Supply. But they are $16 for only a few pairs. Does anyone have any better ideas? I don’t even know what to call the gloves, so every google search I’ve done hasn’t called up much info.
Click to expand...
You could call your local hospital and ask to speak with someone in the morgue – you could try a local funeral home and ask, or maybe the coroners office in your county? Maybe the EMTs know where to get them? Medical supply stores online? ummm…let me think some more…
 
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