Thanks Shelley.  I will send each unit about 20 movies.  I've already sent them to Kane's unit.

Teresa

I'm sorry, but I haven't heard about Dawson.  Can you say what happened?

Teresa

Where do supporters get movies from? They seem so expensive.

Teresa Adkins:

I'm sorry, but I haven't heard about Dawson.  Can you say what happened?

Teresa

 

diggerdeb:

Where do supporters get movies from? They seem so expensive.

Blockbuster has already previewed movies that are usually fairly recent for 4 or 5 for $20.     We've never had a bad one.

 I posted at 6-4 CAV, but am spreading the word.

The balaclava are back on sale at Sportsmansguide.     Again, a limited number.   

 http://www.sportsmansguide.com/net/cb/cb.aspx?a=411854        $21.97

 Bob has sent 250 to 6-4 CAV, but I know many of you are involved with other units, too; or have family members.   

 I mentioned to LTC Phillips, former commander of FOB Salerno hospital, how great it was that so many were being sent, and he said, "Send as much as you can of all the winter clothes.   These guys are so remote everything gets so grungie and wears out so fast."   

The news of this sale comes from LTC's brother.    So, if anybody can use some more Balaclava, get them before they are gone.  

On a much less practical side, let's talk Girl Scout Cookies!!!!

I thought maybe we could quickly mention who we're sending them too so we can make sure to share the love around the valley!  My only KOP contact right now is Jonathan Kane, so does anyone else plan on sending the sweet goodness to him or the guys with him?  How about the other guys at the different posts?

I have some going out to Joshua Adams and Glenn Burkey.  Burkey actually dropped off the list but I plan on sending them anyway.  I made my little niece very, very happy...  A suggestion to include, the website for the girl scout cookies has a 'personality test' that takes your favorite cookie and translates that into what that says about your personality type...I'm putting that in, it's going to start some serious laughing and good-natured trash talking...

 I talked to my son Thursday night.  He said that he had not gotten several packages we sent.  One was from his girlfriend that was mailed the end of November!  I know he is waaaaaaaaaay out there but.  He  has not received the birthday package I sent from Hickory Farms.  Is anyone else having this problem?  He said not many birds were coming their way.

CJW,

One of my contacts out in that general vicinity just received a package today that I mailed 7 weeks ago.  Last winter, my packages to KOP vicinity were taking about 8 weeks or so to reach a contact I had semi-regular communication with (which I think means he was not way out there).

Basic supplies have to come before mail, and bad weather slows down everything.  FRB sized packages are rumoured to have the best chance of inclusion with a supply delivery. Mail delivery should return to whatever 'normal' is when they thaw out in the spring.

I've heard a new term I'm going to start using "Afghanisms" to explain THAT'S JUST HOW IT IS IN AFGHANISTAN.     And this is why the stop mail dates are longer than in Iraq, and indeed just in different AO's in Afghanistan.  Something to start considering.    7 to 8 week delivery to outliers.    Start thinking 1 to 2 month stop mail dates.

On the FRB's being included first.    I think you have all seen the pictures of the Chinook's with the pallet's hanging down below.    That is one pallet.  (Actually several combined, sometimes)   The FRB's are uniform size, and STACK better.    As the mail comes in, it is stacked on the pallets, not thrown in the back of a truck, or bin, or helicopter.     Most US post offices won't let the FRB's be packed so much that they bulge.   Consider the mail handlers.  The packages that stack AND STAY STACKED are handled first, and sent on down the pike.   So use that !   Don't pack those FRB's so much that they have a bulge, they will keep falling off the stack, and be put aside to be handled later.    The big boxes, unless prior arrangements have been made, or they are being delivered to a "more local" address to be broken down -- again, put aside to be handled later.    It's just like all of us.   We get the easy things done, and completed, and then take care of the things that need more "handling".     I know I'm "preaching to the choir", but maybe there are people checking the forum that are new, and all this just does not make any sense.  

In Hawaii, things ran on "Hawaiian time", slow and easy.   In Afghanistan, things run as Afghanisms, "that's just the way it is in Afghanistan.   

 Great information, thank you!

 I'm wondering about how to apply it to what I send - cards going to them to write home on. So we have to take into account not only the time to get there, but the time to return home. (Someone in Iraq told me mail takes 3 weeks to get home from there, yikes. Do you know what it takes from Afghanistan?)

I'd also love it if anyone has a list of which FOBs are the long-deadline ones; we might have to start sending generic-only cards to them so they don't get Easter cards for 4th of July, lol. Do you think that maybe as more folks are redeployed to Afghanistan that mail could improve? (More personnel to move the mail, safer conditions to do so, etc)?

I realise this is guessing at what the military will do, but I'm trying to plan for our mother's and father's day cards, and figure out when to push these out to the really remote folks.

Traditionally, around the holidays supporters send masses of support. In Afghanistan, especially "up north" where most is transported by helos, boxes get backed up. When my husband was first there last March, there were still pallets of unopened boxes waiting for transport to final destinations. They obviously don't have the luxury of mass transport that we have back here.

When the holiday rush of boxes back up, this comes at the same time as the bad weather, I guess. The helo flights are limited, and as always Troops and their military gear moving in and out take priority, and quite a bit of room in these helos. And yes, some of the guys are in more remote locations than others. And when they're busy, it's even harder to move the boxes in and out of the area.

I think in our area we had one church send almost 100 boxes of support around Thanksgiving. That take up a lot of room, and their boxes are delivered in the same way that my one box to my husband. Just because I'm married to the guy doesn't mean my box is going to get out any quicker to him than the 100 boxes from a very well meaning church group. So he's waited for quite a few things I've sent, too.

Hang in there, though! I know for a fact that getting boxes out to Soldiers is VERY important to the units there. The leaders know how much the support means to the guys. A box may be "late" in our terms, but it may be delivered at just the right time for the Soldier. Our cases of 600 filled Christmas Stockings got there the day after New Years (almost two months to deliver), but got there just when the guys were asking for snacks, and needed some cheer.

 --KLM