Need help with care package ideas for my buddy...

[kellogg2185]

So one of my best buddies while I was in the Corps is a sniper nowadays, but is home in NC resting up from some bullet wounds he took on this last deployment. While I visited him in Bethesda, I overheard him talking to one of his oral surgeon doctors, and go figure, he was trying to get his hands on some dental picks to use as rifle cleaning gear. So I ordered a pretty decent kit online, and had it sent to the address his wife gave me. He called me today, saying how much it meant to him, but that it was his for his boys that are still there until Christmas of this year or so. This kit was a $12 kit from Ebay, but he spent 45 minutes telling me how much he appreciated it, and how he's going to make sure the guys in his unit knows that it's not just from him, but one of his best friends. So to get to my point, if something as simple as this $12 kit can be such a prize, what else can I get together, to just send straight to the guys overseas, that they will be able to appreciate/use as much? They get enough cookies/baby wipes from everybody in the world, I want to know what I can send that helps them with things that make sure they come "home" at the end of the day. Any ideas will be more than appreciated guys, especially from those in similar billets/currently deployed.

- Kellogg

 

[Bruiser_Joe]

Re: Need help with care package ideas for my buddy...

currently deployed- bore snakes, lense wipes, clif bars, 5 hour energy drinks.

you are right in that the candy, cookies, sweets thing is WAY overdone. apreciated but guys usually get on fitness kicks overseas and don't eat that stuff.

nice socks are always good like smartwool, new mechanics gloves, stuff that breaks/wears out.

and yes guys eat that shit up overseas, trust me you think its small but it can really make a guys day.

 

[RJW]

Re: Need help with care package ideas for my buddy...

Small paint brushes for cleaning. Really good cosmetic brushes work even better

 

[kraigWY]

Re: Need help with care package ideas for my buddy...

When my wife was deployed, one of the items I sent her, that was a big hit with her and her fellow soldiers & soldierettes was "Squirt Guns"

Ref: Dental Picks, they are used quite a bit by Bomb Techs, (EOD). We use to get them free from dentist. To dentist they are disposable items, if you have a ligit use, like a bomb tech, or your buddy, they will gladly give you all you can use.

 

[Krav69]

Re: Need help with care package ideas for my buddy...

Socks, sunflower seeds, beef jerky, and Gatorade powder for making drinks.

 

[aqualung]

Re: Need help with care package ideas for my buddy...

Baby wipes (Yeah, really!!) and hot sauce. You know the food tastes like crap!

Magazines, or how about a subscription to something? Might get a deal on that.

Socks

Grimlocks (?)

Just throwin' ideas out there.

Neil

 

[aqualung]

Re: Need help with care package ideas for my buddy...

Sorry, didn't fully read the OP. Scratch the Baby wipes!

How about bore solvents, small electrical type screwdrivers (to be used as a scraper)

DVD's

Lens pens/lens tissue or lens cloths

Phone cards(???)

Small webcam, and Skype credit(?)

Neil

 

[lexluther]

Re: Need help with care package ideas for my buddy...

I have heard that the single serving drink mixes are good, think dump in canteen of water and shake.

In the backpacks I am selling, I found several GI cleaning kits and from that I can tell you that the bore snake idea seems like a good one, but find something that they can keep it in as well to keep it clean. I suspect some kind of soft bag would be best to save space in their pack. Also a small QUALITY bottle for oil, there were several bags and most cleaning kits that looked like the oil dumped in them. The oil bottles they get issued in the kits look like crap, and I can just imagine what a pisser it is to have that oil dump on your few posessions that you have over there. Maybe more of them need the OTIS cleaning kit. I have seen them for sale either here on the hide, or on Calguns, I think someone who bought them surplus from Uncle Sam...

 

[Redmanss]

Re: Need help with care package ideas for my buddy...

Map Pens. They can be found at most office supply stores. I would also use the permanent fine tip Sharpie too and they're easier to find. They're always drying out or the tips are getting ruined.

Even better than a dental pic is a Dental Scaler like this one from Brownells. I've been using it for the last 10 years. The wider tip is better for getting the crud out than a round end pic.

If they're rolling around in vehicles, send a couple bottles of Rain-x. The rainy season starts up next month, and the mud is a bitch. Rain-x makes it so much easier to maintain visibility out the windows.

Final suggestion is some lens cleaning cloths. Not the paper type, but the small soft cloth ones. I usually pick them up at the Wally world optical dept. They're a lot better cleaning the shades than a skivvy shirt.

 

[UKDslayer]

Re: Need help with care package ideas for my buddy...

Expired defibrillator pads, Ascherman chest seals. Sucking chest wounds are the #2 cause of preventable soldier death.

 

[kellogg2185]

Re: Need help with care package ideas for my buddy...

Thanks a lot for all the ideas guys, will be getting a big package going for the guys in 2/6. From what I hear they've had a pretty rough month, just lost a few really good guys in the last week. Keep up any other ideas you may think of.

UKD - What would the old defibrillator pads be used for? For the SCW's? I just got my EMT cert, may be able to get some of the self-adhesive chest wound bandages from the hospital I did my rotations at.

 

[rdgshooteer]

Re: Need help with care package ideas for my buddy...

Microwavable meals and soups were always good to get in the mail. Calling cards were good for in transit or at the bigger areas like kaf that had call centers. Most of the mwrs are set up with a pay online voip provider that you had to set up an account. Cleaning kit wise I actually preferred the tubes the star clusters came in because if the clp did leak it was contained in there and they held everything you would need and were easy to store. Bore snakes and everything along those lines that has been mentioned will all fit into it.

 

[UKDslayer]

Re: Need help with care package ideas for my buddy...

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Kellogg</div><div class="ubbcode-body">

UKD - What would the old defibrillator pads be used for? For the SCW's? I just got my EMT cert, may be able to get some of the self-adhesive chest wound bandages from the hospital I did my rotations at.</div></div>

Yes, I have been asked for these specially because they have are "stickier" for transport than the SCW than the Ascherman's, (I purchase the Achermann's from Henry Schein for about $17/each), but if you have some EMT contacts - awesome. One handed tourniquets are also big, I have also sent in my "med kits" simple things like eye wash, ob-tampons (no applicators) + unscented pads that absorb better & cheaper than abdominal pads. Medi-rip or Coban wraps. I didn't "think" these up, they were actually in requests, perhaps some of the BTDT guys can comment if they were actually put to use or used more in practical jokes.

 

[sirhrmechanic]

Re: Need help with care package ideas for my buddy...

Ref Hot sauce in care packages...

I am friends with Tony Simmons, the #2 guy at Tobasco (technically, the McIlhenny Company). His grandfather was Marine Brig. General Walter S. McIlhenny, nicknamed "Tobasco Mac." A Marine Corps legend, Tobasco Mac made sure his Marines had Tobasco available in the field at all times, always free, shipped in at his family's expense.

To this day, any soldier, sailor, airman or Marine, anywhere in the world, who can't get his favorite flavor of Tobasco... merely has to write the McIlhenny Company and a case of sauce will be sent. Free.

Down on Avery Island, La., the company has a 'museum/shrine' containing Tobasco bottles sent in appreciation by troops all over the world. The bottles contain soil and sand from every battlefield where the US has fought for generations.

So if anyone deployed overseas needs hotsauce.... write Tobasco. The McIlhenny family LOVES to send stuff to those who serve.

Just thought I would pass that on. IMHO, they are a great company and a great family!

Cheers,

Sirhr

 

[emmagee]

Re: Need help with care package ideas for my buddy...

Good for you!

I sent a buddy of mine a care pkg several years ago when he was in Iraq. He requested a lot of coffee, which I gladly sent. I would have thought there would have been plenty of coffee over there, but I guess not.

 

[Minx]

Re: Need help with care package ideas for my buddy...

There are so many care-package threads, we ought to just make a sticky. Seriously, just ask your friend what they need. Since you're trying to make packages for his boys overseas, ask. He'll know what they like and what they need.

 

[Redmanss]

Re: Need help with care package ideas for my buddy...

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: emmagee</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Good for you!

I sent a buddy of mine a care pkg several years ago when he was in Iraq. He requested a lot of coffee, which I gladly sent. I would have thought there would have been plenty of coffee over there, but I guess not.</div></div> There's a big difference between the coffee here and GOOD coffee... Cheapest bidder there too.

 

[kyreb]

Re: Need help with care package ideas for my buddy...

Greetings! I just found this forum and signed up today. These support the troops posts always catch my eye.

I have been involved with care package drives through the AR15.com and "any soldier" web sites.

By far and away, the hottest item I have ever sent is American made dip (snuff). Skoal and Copenhagen are like gold to them. Even the cheaper brands..Grizzly.....etc...are much better than what they can pick up locally.

 

[christian77]

Re: Need help with care package ideas for my buddy...

UKDslayer sent the most practical care packages I have EVER received overseas, and they were put to use!

Medevac '08 - Afghanistan (2KIA/1WIA)

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: UKDslayer</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Yes, I have been asked for these specially because they have are "stickier" for transport than the SCW than the Ascherman's, (I purchase the Achermann's from Henry Schein for about $17/each), but if you have some EMT contacts - awesome. One handed tourniquets are also big, I have also sent in my "med kits" simple things like eye wash, ob-tampons (no applicators) + unscented pads that absorb better & cheaper than abdominal pads. Medi-rip or Coban wraps. I didn't "think" these up, they were actually in requests, perhaps some of the BTDT guys can comment if they were actually put to use or used more in practical jokes. </div></div>
Eye wash was used, unscented pads, Coban, IV kits, coldpacks, ace bandages and a lot of other stuff you sent was used on some fellas that hit a TM57 anti-tank mine.

*ob are great for GSWs

I sincerely appreciate you sending that package, because we were seriously suckin' out there!