Addresses for two new contacts have been requested less often than most:

Munoz, posted June 6, address requested only 4 times.
Ochoa  posted June 8, address requested only 3 times.

If you are ready to take on a new contact, you might give these guys a look.

 

If you are able to take on an additional contact, please consider one of these soldiers.  For whatever reason, very few people have requested their addresses, even though they were added a month or more ago.

SPC Alfredo Velasques, Added March 21, 10 Requests

SPC Soukanh S. Sapradit, Added April 27, 9 Requests

SPC Raymond A. DeLaBruere, Added May 05, 10 Requests

PV2 Michael B. Marshall, Added May 06, 13 Requests

Sgt Mario R. Vargas, Added May 07, 13 Requests

SPC Pedro J. Colon, Added May 09, 9 Requests

Nathan Hargrafen, Added May 09, 10 Requests

Felipe R. Ciprian, Added May 10, 10 Requests

SPC Luis Santillan, Added May 11, 10 Requests

SSG Anthony M. Hamm, Added May 11, 10 Requests

SGT Daniel L. Goodsell, Added May 13, 10 Requests

Aracelis Saladin, Added May 14, 9 Requests

SSG Enrico Leak, Added May 16, 10 Requests

Salvador M. Solis, Added May 17, 9 Requests

Matthew A. Kaczkowski, Added May 17, 13 Requests

PFC Isaiah D. Ringfield, Added May 22, 9 Requests

SGT Felipe Rodriguez, Added May 22, 9 Requests

SFC Uriah S. Popp, Added May 22, 10 Requests

I did not list several others who had similarly low request rates and have not posted their second update, perhaps because they were discouraged by the low response to their first post.

I am sure there are others, but I have not figured out any way to find these under-requested contacts except to click through the list one by one, which is very time-consuming.

 

 

I also noted that the Munoz address (from first post)  has still been requested only 4 times.

We are taking on U.S.Popp's platoon (even though my family may send me to have my head examined for taking on another one).

Gran

Thanks for the heads up! I had no idea that there were still so many without contacts. I wish that these would show up under the "# of times requested" even if the post isn't from within the last three days. Is there any way to find these contacts without having to go through entire lists?

There is currently no way to find these under-requested contacts that I know of, except to click through the list one-by-one.

Marty et al apparently keep an eye out for soldiers who post that they haved received nothing, out of concern that there has been some type of technical glitch (eg, their address is wrong).  But this is a different problem.

These are, I believe, just contacts who, by the luck of the draw, didn't get requested very often. They don't post that they didn't get anything, because they probably get something...a letter or two or maybe a package, so they have no reason to think anything is wrong.  From their perspective AnySoldier just doesn't seem like a very effective program, I would guess.

Personally, I felt like I had gotten a stab in the "gut" when a couple of contacts posted that they wanted to be dropped because they hadn't gotten anything in a couple of months, and had only gotten two packages before that.  I feel a great responsibility for all those contacts, and find it hard to shake those messages from my mind.  It hurts my heart to feel like we let them down.

Gran

One contact from Washington, SPC Alex T. Skidmore, posts on May 20 that (despite showing at this time 18 address requests) they have only received a couple of letters since signing up March 31.  Of course, we have no way of knowing right now if he has received more since his posting from some of those 18 add. req. since that was over a month ago.

Gran

Gran, I feel the same way. 

I don't know why some contacts get overlooked.  Some, yes.  I can see reasons that their posts might not have attracted as much attention as others.  But some...just bad luck, as far as I can tell.  Nonetheless, I still feel like we let them down somehow.

Marty posted elsewhere that their rule of thumb is that anything 5 requests or less may in fact be no support at all, so 15 requests might translate into as little as 3 responses.

Hi my name is Caroline my friend told me about this site and asked if i could help.I would love to help out .I may live in the UK but would love to help i think your are all doing a greate job.If i can help in any way let me know.

caroline_nunnprice@yahoo.com

Oh Caroline- What a sweetheart you are!  I'd imagine that postage from the UK would be awful for you if you were to send packages.  I bet a letter from you would be like gold though.

 If you did want to send material things- you could probably set up to ship a premade package from http://www.treatanysoldier.com/ 

or you could deal with a vendor who would ship direct from the USA to the APO addresses- for example-   http://www.lapolicegear.com/anysopr.html  LA Police gear offers discounts for purchases for soldiers and will include a note from you in the package.

Don't underestimate the value of a simple hand written note though.  It would be a precious gift to send from your heart.

Caroline, how nice of you to ask!  Sarah has some excellent suggestions.  I would add a few:

A contribution to AnySoldier.com would be a big help.

Many, many online retailers will ship to APO addresses, even some that don't make a point of advertising it. 

Soccer is hugely popular among the Iraqi children. As you may know, it is not as big a sport here as it is in the UK.  The soldiers love to give the kids soccer balls, but I think that would be a bit of a problem for you to mail.  However, I think "anything soccer" would probably be a hit, so you might have some soccer-related kid's t-shirts or caps or something similar that you could stick in a bubble mailer for not too much postage. 

Finally...you might give a call to the US embassy there.  Perhaps there is a more cost-effective way for you to send something to the troops than to mail it to an APO address here.

Thanks again for your support!  You are terrific!

 

Hi Caroline -

Two ideas that might help.

You might consider calling the public relations office of one of the US bases there in England and see if they have any suggestions.

You might also consider visiting one of the US stores(online) that have branches over there and see if they ship to APO's.  You could check out the merchandise in the local store, then order online from the US store and have it shipped to the US APO address.  (hope that's not too confusing).    Also consider the name of the store in England might be slightly different than it is in the US plus the sizes(ie:clothing etc) in  your stores will be different so shipping from the US branch will conform to US sizes. 

Hope this helps.

ann

Here are a couple that slipped under my radar.  I hope some of you picked up on Schoneweis.  Both are contacts for 20 males and 5 females.  I don't do movies normally, so I didn't pick up his name.

Trent C. Schoneweis posted on 26 Jun 2007:
It has been a long time since we last got a care package . We are still hoping for movies mostly.

SGT Edward R. Jackson posted on 8 June 2007 and had only had 10 requests until I got it. 

Gran

Gran, just wanted to thank you for picking up Uriah Popp, too.  He just posted the other day that he is going home at the end of August.  He thanks everyone for all the "great" support, even though his info was requested only 11 times since he first posted on May 22.  I guess he was lucky and got some dedicated supporters among those 11.