Last week, I was having sushi with my Tai Chi instructor and notice a guy in uniform eating by himself, so I call the owner's wife over and ask her to add his meal to my bill. My boost is I got to buy a serviceman his meal and thank him for his service. I was actually hoping we could leave before he finished his meal but the instructor was in a chatty mood so he was done before us. He came over and said thanks and I noticed that he is an Air Force Lt Col.

The bummer was that as he was saying thank you, he also said it doesn't happen very often. We should all try and do something, however little, when we see our service men and women, police, fire, etc. At the very least, just a thank you is often very appreciated. Whenever I see someone in a uniform service buying coffee, having lunch, etc, I do try to buy their meal or drink for them. I have had quite a few graciously decline and tell me that just having someone say thank you is enough for them. We also get the kids involved in the collecting and buying of items to ship overseas and my wife knits socks for soldiers. After spending way too much money on expensive shipping, someone told me to just arrange to drop off the stuff on base and it will get delivered. That saves me $50-100 a pop in shipping! So if you send stuff overseas to our troops, hopefully that little information can help you too.

I think an awful lot of veterans are getting dealt with very poorly by their own govt when they have been injured.
I think letters to congressmen and reps supporting better medical care, pensions and retraining bills are a good idea.

A story to illustrate my point.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/8475405

Maybe we should be giving the care packages to those who come back and including sterilization for hospital equipment as part of the package.
Honestly, this is the kind of a thing I would expect to be hearing from some third world medical system.
Certainly not from one as expensive as America's or from one serving veterans.

Support for our soldiers has to continue after the battles are fought.

Very nice, Aloha.

I guess I find it hard to understand folks who do not appreciate our armed forces and first responders et al. To me it's very very very simple...


Anyone who helps my family sleep in safety every night has at the very least earned my respect and thanks. Period.

My thoughts exactly MedB.

In my (very limited) experience of wearing a uniform (inactive reserve duty and in school only), the people who treat the wearers of military uniforms the best are those who once wore such uniforms.

I don't live in an area with many who wear a uniform, but when I know someone is, is going to or has recently been in uniform and in eating or drinking where I am, it's on me. It happens rarely but has aleays been a very pleasant experience. Do it once, and you'll want to do it again.

Not too surprising. It's been a long time since we had to fight for our survival. I'm not sure we would make it nowadays. Kinda tough asking the guy you spat on to help you get a thug's boot off your cheek.

I never wore the uniform, but my dad and grandfathers did. I certainly have a lot of respect for those who do. Then again, there are cases where those who wear it don't deserve my respect either, but those are less common.

I've had occassion to buy a round for a few service men here and there. Least I could do.

Random acts of kindness always feel nice. And somewhere along the line, what goes around comes around.

Yup... I'm a big believer in karma!

God bless you, and thank you, Aloha.

Great idea!

My youngest daughter is seeing a young man she dated in high school who became a Marine and was over in Iraq until just recently. For some reason his parents weren't real supportive of his endeavor, and didn't do much for him while he was in country. When I found out he was there, we started sending him care packages regularly. I've tried to do that for as many as I find on a personal level. I surely appreciated getting stuff from my family while I was over there, and I know this young Marine that is sweet on my daughter did as well. Now that he's back, they are dating and at one point she thought he might even propose to her, but before he could she told him not to because she was too young and not ready for such a committment. He accepted that well enough, but they are no doubt enamoured with each other, and I have no problem with that.

We had a seargent on the forum here for a while that was doing EOD in country a couple years ago. I sent him a few care packages and he appreciated that. Unfortunately he sort of disappeared and I haven't seen or heard from him since. I hope it was just cuz he moved on.

What seems to be the best supplies for care packages are things like beef jerky, pepperoni sticks, pickled vegetables (spicy stuff was always a big hit), canned tuna and chicken, candy that won't melt (runts, m&ms, reeses pieces, jelly beans), fancy mixed nuts, freeze dried meals like what Mountain House sells (a much appreciated alternative to MREs) etc. You can ship jars over, just wrap them in bubble wrap and only send jars that have lids like Mason jar lids. The standard type won't stay sealed. We ship everything USPS flat rate because for soldiers you are shipping to an FPO address so it is treated as domestic, and a flat rate box is around $10 and can hold up to 14 lbs of goodies, which is a pretty good deal. It takes a couple weeks for delivery, but that won't matter too much.

If you don't know of anyone that you can send stuff to, I suggest contacting the USO and/or local recruiters, who will be more than happy to give you blind FPO addresses for you to send general delivery parcels to. That way a unit can share whatever you send to them.

Don't try and send booze or OTC pharmaceuticals, and certainly nothing illegal. Nothing of significant value or it will disappear before it gets there. In the whole 9 months I was in Baghdad, I think I missed two packages out of maybe 30 that my wife sent.

If you want to send to someone serving and do not know who to send to, you an also go to anysoldier.com. Click on where to send to reach a searchable list of service men and women looking for things and what they can use. When I hae sent things, it has usually received a very positive response. Twice, I received no response.

One OTC pharmaceutical I've seen requested: stuff to fight foot fungus. I think it might make it through.

Yes, that and anti-monkey butt powder will get through.

anti monkey butt powder

I've had soldiers request slippers (flip flops) and kites to Afghanistan. The slippers were for the soldiers and kites for them to give to the kids.

Unfortunately, the boxes we sent were larger than the flat rate boxes. I think the last two boxes tallied about 50 pounds.

We usually ask returning soldiers what would have made a difference for them and send that stuff on for those who remain.

I still can't get over that special forces unit sending a group picture with unblurred faces. My wife has it up on a wall.

The work association that I am a member of had a Chaplin from the Canadian Forces deliver a terrific presentation at our annual meeting. She explained how good relations with the locals can be of real benefit to the military in the form of intelligence information. So our association donated $1000.00 to the Afganistan School Program run by the CF Chaplain, it was very much appreciated.

Mike