Soldiers Care Package Suggestions.

[JohnO]

Looking for suggestions for items to ship to my son. He is an Infantryman deployed overseas to a remote camp/outpost. APO AE restrictions apply.

[Cory]

Dip
Cigerettes
Protein
Energy drinks
USB stick with movies, shows, etc
Solar charger thingy.
Batteries.
Candy / jerky / snacks.
Deck of cards.
Cleverly disguised alchohol.
A dildo. He'll be basically famous if you do this. Make sure it's suction cupable to surfaces.
30-35 matching shirts or hats (morale handout type stuff)
An intax camera and film for it. Just for goofy memories. The boys will have a ball if you do this with the dildo.

Most other stuff is provided. Mini binos or a range finder probably wont hurt if he doesnt have them.

[Flamingo]

Mostly for me, it was just getting something in the mail.

I liked to get beef jerky, bags of candy (not chocolate, except maybe this time of year), gun magazines. A box of protien bar is a great thing to get. I really like the Quest Apple Pie protien bars. One of the things that struck me the most was a star that was cut out of a retired US flag. I got that in a "To any Service Member" care packages. I still carry that star in my wallet to this day.

111599

[JohnO]

A dildo. He'll be basically famous if you do this. Make sure it's suction cupable to surfaces.
30-35 matching shirts or hats (morale handout type stuff)
An intax camera and film for it. Just for goofy memories. The boys will have a ball if you do this with the dildo.



I think he could use a few boxes of dildos for the POGs when they visit his camp.

[Cory]

I think he could use a few boxes of dildos for the POGs when they visit his camp.


A guy had something slightly different on my deployment. Many folks woke up next to it, and on some old camera somewhere there are pictures of folks sleeping next it. It was absolutely hilarious.

Maybe stuff like that isn't as funny as it used to be.

[The Rat]

Snacks, socks, dip (even if he doesn't, it's good barter material), an external hard drive full of movies and uh, other morale supporting materials.

[JohnO]

With the guys in his AO.

111600

[JRB]

Looking for suggestions for items to ship to my son. He is an Infantryman deployed overseas to a remote camp/outpost. APO AE restrictions apply.

If you have comms with him, just ask him what he needs.

Thanks to us POGs there's a ton of logistics pushed to some pretty surprisingly remote places, so often times the gift that really makes the difference is a particular flavor of something.
In my case on my last deployment, one of those simple flat rate boxes with 7-8 cans of Bang (Black Cherry Vanilla) padded with bags of Vigil's New Mexico Red Chile beef jerky was such a perfect care package that it damn near brought tears to my eyes.
Chances are good there's some kind of home-specific snack or treat that he's craving.

But I would be very careful about 2 things - USB drives and concealed alcohol. Since he's a grunt he's probably not going in and out of SCIF's all the time so the USB drive is probably okay. But concealed alcohol discovered by the wrong asshole leader on the wrong day is a proper clusterfuck, and simply not worth the risk.

Deployment dildoes are a thing. If you don't have at least one deployment dildo somewhere, and some commander or CSM gets a very public case of butthurt over it, you're doing it wrong.
Plus being 11BangBangs they're covered on the 'It's not gay, it's Infantry' rule for all things related to dicks, touching each other's asses, etc. :)

If they have any Arty Orcs or Combat Engineers in their footprint, chances are high that it'll turn into a back-and-forth game of hiding the dildo in each other's TOC's or hanging it from each other's guidons etc. Good times.

Sometimes I really miss being an E4. That shit was fun.


A guy had something slightly different on my deployment. Many folks woke up next to it, and on some old camera somewhere there are pictures of folks sleeping next it. It was absolutely hilarious.

Maybe stuff like that isn't as funny as it used to be.

Oh, it absolutely still is. The problem now is 4G/5G wifi pucks and these young ding dongs posting shit like that to social media without considering the background or other materials that may be visible in the picture. The Polaroid days were a lot more carefree, that's for sure.

[JohnO]

If you have comms with him, just ask him what he needs.

Thanks to us POGs there's a ton of logistics pushed to some pretty surprisingly remote places,

I warned him that he can’t survive without logistics support.

[okie john]

Dip
Cigerettes
Protein
Energy drinks
USB stick with movies, shows, etc
Solar charger thingy.
Batteries.
Candy / jerky / snacks.
Deck of cards.
Cleverly disguised alchohol.
A dildo. He'll be basically famous if you do this. Make sure it's suction cupable to surfaces.
30-35 matching shirts or hats (morale handout type stuff)
An intax camera and film for it. Just for goofy memories. The boys will have a ball if you do this with the dildo.

Most other stuff is provided. Mini binos or a range finder probably wont hurt if he doesnt have them.

I'm Staff Sergeant Okie John and I endorse this message.


Okie John

[Blades]

It's been a few decades since I was deployed but I was happy just to receive boxes from home. Didn't have to be big boxes, just stuff showing up. The little USPS box can be stuffed full and you could send one every two weeks or so.

[Joe S]

I always sent nice socks they wouldn't bother to buy for themselves, a couple paperback fun reads, and nice soap/lotion for gals. Otherwise, the stuff everyone else said: chewing gum, beef jerky, nuts and protein bars.

[TOTS]

Dip
Cigerettes
Protein
Energy drinks
USB stick with movies, shows, etc
Solar charger thingy.
Batteries.
Candy / jerky / snacks.
Deck of cards.
Cleverly disguised alchohol.
A dildo. He'll be basically famous if you do this. Make sure it's suction cupable to surfaces.
30-35 matching shirts or hats (morale handout type stuff)
An intax camera and film for it. Just for goofy memories. The boys will have a ball if you do this with the dildo.

Most other stuff is provided. Mini binos or a range finder probably wont hurt if he doesnt have them.


I'm Staff Sergeant Okie John and I endorse this message.


Okie John
I rolled in here ready to drop some knowledge but…Cory pretty much ended the thread. 1000% agree and almost- in that order. The first four, think prison, are basically currency. Maybe the only things I could add are wool socks, baby wipes….

- re alcohol, we had good luck with camelbacks partially filled with bourbon, etc. if you have a group of older dudes chip in, having a mobile bar made of camelbacks makes memories.

[Lost River]

Don't forget some basics.

Weather is changing soon and high quality socks matter. Plus trying to keep your weapon even kind of clean is always a PITA and you never have enough of what you need. A few 5.56 bore snakes would come in handy. Good coffee, a good bar of soap versus the crap he probably is stuck with. Fresh razors. Some Q tips. Some new underwear. living in field conditions can suck and being able to toss your raggedy clothes and put on some new, fresh underwear after a shower instead of your threadbare crap makes a difference when you are living out of a ruck.

[Wake27]

I think he could use a few boxes of dildos for the POGs when they visit his camp.

Wow, way to sound like an 18yo that’s full of unqualified arrogance.

[Tabasco]

Cleverly disguised alchohol.


Many, many years ago, a SEAL on another forum recommended Captain Morgan in a Listerine bottle. Empty the Listerine, and replace with Capt. Morgans spiced rum.

[JohnO]

Many, many years ago, a SEAL on another forum recommended Captain Morgan in a Listerine bottle. Empty the Listerine, and replace with Capt. Morgans spiced rum.

Yes I may or may not have heard of booze + food coloring in a Scope bottle.

[Joe S]

Many, many years ago, a SEAL on another forum recommended Captain Morgan in a Listerine bottle. Empty the Listerine, and replace with Capt. Morgans spiced rum.

The problem with that is that Captain Morgan doesn't really look like Listerine. I can assure you, however, that good absinthe very much does.

[KneeShot]

Many, many years ago, a SEAL on another forum recommended Captain Morgan in a Listerine bottle. Empty the Listerine, and replace with Capt. Morgans spiced rum.

Make sure you clean out the listerine bottle w/ boiling water once or twice before transferring anything into it, or it’s headacheville.

I highly recommend a few rolls of Zyn or other flavored nicotine pouches, very popular now a days vs Copenhagen or Skoal.

Throwing in a classic book is always good too (warrior/leadership/adventure) one of them will read it. Gates of Fire / The Misssion, the men and me / Endurance / Empire of the summer moon / The things they carried / etc…

[Tabasco]

The problem with that is that Captain Morgan doesn't really look like Listerine. I can assure you, however, that good absinthe very much does.

Old school Listerine was brown caramel colored. The new minty stuff is green. I'd rather have good Absinth anyway.

[scjbash]

I went through an adopt a soldier program and helped some guys at a remote outpost. A lot of the stuff they liked has already been mentioned. Some food stuff I'd add is anything spicy: hot sauces, seasonings, etc. And individual packets of water flavoring, with and without caffeine.

Hygiene products of all kinds were the most requested items. Wet wipes, castile soap towelettes, high quality razors, deodorant, chapstick, lotion, body wash, etc. And anything that smells good. The men's collection at Bath and Body Works is actually pretty awesome. The scented pocket sized hand sanitizers they have now are great, and most importantly, never open and leak like some others I've carried.

If you're using a flat rate box don't let any space go to waste. You can fill voids in the box with small loose things like cough drops and hard candy.

You definitely won't hear complaints if you can get your local Little Debbie guy to donate a few cases and ship those over.

[FrankinCA]

I have never served, so I would send books (topics that interest him), board games, toiletries, batteries or whatever is hard to acquire. Thank you and your son for the service. Prayers sent for safe return an deployment.

[Outpost75]

Many, many years ago, a SEAL on another forum recommended Captain Morgan in a Listerine bottle. Empty the Listerine, and replace with Capt. Morgans spiced rum.

You can do the same with Bourbon. Mom used to send heavily spiked fruit cake on holidays and also boozed oatmeal cookies in this.

[Chance]

Trashy reality TV was popular back when I was sending care packages. A Shot of Love with Tila Tequila (https://www.amazon.com/Shot-Love-Tila-Tequila-Uncensored/dp/B0012Z36EY/), Rock of Love with Bret Michaels (https://www.amazon.com/Rock-Love-Season-Bret-Michaels/dp/B0013D8M0I/), Flavor of Love (https://www.amazon.com/Flavor-Love-Complete-First-Season/dp/B000GG4Y0U/)... anything with slutty women exercising poor judgement.

High quality basic kit was also appreciated at the time. Good holsters, in particular, were hard to come by (hopefully that's not the case anymore).

[Cory]

JohnO what did you end up sending, did he get it yet? Holidays downrange suck.

Hope all is well.

[JohnO]

JohnO what did you end up sending, did he get it yet? Holidays downrange suck.

Hope all is well.

He received a package between Thanksgiving and Christmas that was filled with snack items, protein bars, peanut butter and a bunch of notes from family members. I can't remember if this was before or after a 4 day R & R trip to Greece with 3 buddies.

We started putting together a Christmas package with wrapped gifts. Unfortunately I was not able to get it out in time for a Christmas arrival. I told him that mom and his sisters were waiting on things to arrive. I know my wife found a place that had a unique selection of beef jerky and that was in the box. His sisters gave me wrapped items and I don't know what they were.
I got and wrapped this for him. https://watson-knives.com/products/mildagger-blkout

I didn't want to go toward any of the gag style gifts. I didn't want my wife to give me grief and the customs forms was the bigger reason.

So his Christmas package is at his base Dec 31. He left on Dec 30 for 9 days of R & R in Italy. He will have a nice package to open when he get back next week.

This is his Unit.

https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/military-christmas-wish-deployed-us-army-unit-calls-rescue-puppies-cat-freezing-weather

He told me no more packages. He was told that because his deployment is due to end late Feb early March and leadership said to hold off deliveries.