I read a posting from an airman in Afghanistan this morning who signed up May 11 and said "no goods received as of now." But--his address has been requested 24 times! His name is John Chojnacki and he's not asking for anything unusual. I plan to send him a package and hope some of you will too!

Some units only get incoming mail once a month and it maybe that the posting and mail received just missed each other.  Or there could be route problems.

Hi libral40,

I saw that posting too and sent him 3 phone cards.  I'm hoping to get a package or 2 out to him. 

I've sent phone cards before and they arrived at my contact after about a month and they were addressed to me, not my contact!!!  Luckily, my contact has my e-mail address so he e-mailed me and asked if they were meant to go to him or if it was a mistake and they should have been mailed to me.

So, I think I'll write the airman a note and let him know that if/when they arrive, they are meant for them.  I don't know if it happens alot, or if it was a one time mistake.

Thanks for keeping your eye out for some that may have been overlooked.

Take care,

Maggie

I was just going to post about this contact, but you beat me to it!  I guess great minds think alike - LOL!  It seemed odd to me too - makes you wonder if packages might be getting diverted to the black market.

Pat

We have to consider that in settings like that of war zones that various things could happen to a package.  They could be blown up by an IED, just plain lost or misplaced, or, being that there are hundreds of thousands of troops, there are going to be some with coniving, criminal minds among them.  Charges have been brought against some of them both in the US and out of the country for criminal activity.  We just have to hope for the best every time we send a package, because odds are against them all hitting their mark with all the processes they must go through.

With the many packages we have shipped, I would be surprised actually if all of them had arrived safely at their destination - again, the odds are against it, but I don't think about it after it leaves because I hear from such a small percentage of all those.  Many contacts only send an acknowledgement when they are leaving or have gotten home.

Gran

Libral40...Thanks for letting us know...will pull together a box or two...the "store" is fully stocked, as my husband is taking some vacation so I have LOTS of help with shopping. 

Brenda

Thanks everybody! His number of address requests has gone up to 31 from 24, so I hope that means at least 7 boxes will be on the way soon!  Great news!   I'm a "grandma" again--one of my soldiers who had been in Afghanistan e-mailed today that his wife had their baby girl last Thurs.!  I also had a "grandson" born in April to another Afghanistan contact...so I have a baby package to mail out tomorrow, too!!

If you send him a pacakge, you might also consider mailing him a letter separately.  If there is a problem with packages getting through, perhaps letters will be more likely to make it.  The letters will at least let him know that we are trying to support him and his unit!

I try to send an "advance party" letter to let them know that a package is on the way. I remind them that they are not obligated to write me back in any shape or form. They may not have the time and I would rather they send their immediate family mail, imho.

I know that some of you planned to send something to this airman, John Chojnacki, when I posted on July 2nd that he hadn't received anything. Well...today I got back the box that I mailed to him, AND he was on today's Where to Send list with a change of address!!  Apparently the address changed awhile before today since my package was mailed right after the 4th and is already back from Afghanistan. This is the first box ever returned to me in 3 years! I always put on the customs form under "Sender's Instructions in Case of Nondelivery" to deliver to "Any Soldier, Same Address". I guess that there was nobody at that address anymore!  So, anybody who sent him a package might be getting it returned. Sorry!

I would guess this is the most common reason that a contact whose address has been requested a number of times isn't getting packages....their address changed and they forgot to update it.

Sometimes they close down a post office in an area, and from what I understand they assign them another zip code even though they haven't moved at all, they just receive their mail out of another post office. 

Also, I don't believe that once mail gets into the hands of the military that anyone ever looks at the customs forms because we have put 3-4 different things on how to handle them and it doesn't seem to matter - we still got 3 of them back that they couldn't locate the recipient for.

Gran

Regarding Michael M. Moore - he had only 6 requests for his address when we picked him up, but just recently posted and now still has only 12 (as of last night - didn't check yet this morning), but in his post he said that he is receiving packages.

Gran

Gran, FWIW, my favorite postal clerk said he'd heard that the military never looks at the customs forms.  Wouldn't surprise me.

Hi libral40,

I got my follow-up letter to Chojnacki returned today too.  His address is crossed out and "ANK" is written next to it.  I sent him some phone cards through the AAFES link on the website; haven't heard what happened to them yet...

Maggie