APO Military Care Package Ideas

Military care package ideas are actually easy to come up with. The trick is to ask people who are actually stationed or working in combat zones, or in general deployed overseas (Germany is still considered a forward-deployed area, for example; same for Korea).

I received a lot of snail-mail letters when I was in the field - and lots of care packages when I was deployed because I took paper, envelopes and stamps with me and wrote a lot of people. But communication was a lot slower in the early 2000s than it is now.

Fast Internet connections and social media make it much easier to stay in touch these days - which means you can forward this list in an email message or Facebook update to confirm or deny what people on the ground down-range want or need in the way of care packages, aye:

• Letters! A paper letter in an envelope sent to an APO or FPO address will definitely brighten someone's day. Yeah, yeah, there are multiple ways to communicate with people down-range now - Skype through Blackberries - and there are probably a few people who carry Dick Tracy video phone watches that ring in stealth mode (an inherently unsafe distraction). All that aside, letters are cool, I guess because they're old school. You can even get a bunch of local school kids together to practice their penmanship as they write to entire units to show their support. All you need is a bunch of accurate APO or FPO addresses.
• Games. Decks of regular playing cards (most service members play Spades, for example; keep in mind that gambling is illegal). Travel board games. Crossword, Suduko, word-search puzzles. Video games (TigerDirect and J&R Music ship computer games to APO FPO and DPO addresses). Nerf footballs, Frisbees, volleyballs and nets, and any sort of sport equipment.
• Personal hygiene items. Rubber shower shoes (women's small sizes through men's largest sizes), quality disposable razors, quality toothbrushes (dentists recommend "Soft" grade toothbrushes), toothpaste, deodorant stick (not spray), eye drops, contact lube, baby wipes, and zip-lock bags.
• Digits. Digital camera memory sticks, flash memory drives, blank CDs and DVDs (burnable variety), and AT&T long-distance telephone cards. If you really want to splurge, you can buy inexpensive (less than $50) digital cameras these days, and really make a service member's day - the one they brought with them is probably filled up with dust by now. They can always use batteries - AA batteries being the most popular.

• Pogey Bait. The first light infantry unit I served in didn't allow anything other than C rations in rucksacks. Times have changed quite a bit since then, and now it's OK to send troops cool stuff to eat. Most popular include: Beef jerky, Slim Jims, nuts, and sunflower seeds. If you have an APO or FPO address handy, the fastest way to ship some chow over to a loved one is to search for "military care package" in Amazon's Grocery section.

Feel free to use your own creativity, too, but check with your local Post Office, or ask someone who is actually down range to make sure you don't send prohibited items.