Sending Presents to a Hospital in Iraq

In the P&R forum, I mentioned that my wife and I decided to send some presents to the troops in Iraq instead of the usual gifts to family members. Basically, my kids are grown and already have more stuff than the law should allow.

My initial reason for posting in P&R was to solicit ideas as to what to send and to whom. Among the responses were several requests to let everybody know what we decided to do.

This is why I’m making this post here. THIS IS NOT A POLITICAL OR RELIGIOUS ISSUE. Our only goal is to brighten the day for some of our neighbors who are far from home over the holidays. Who knows? You might be helping out the kid who used to live next door.

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After discussing with our very own F-Chat hero (Russ), we decided to send our presents directly to the field hospital where Russ recently practiced.

When considering what to send, Russ said to keep this in mind: You are 19-26. You are in Iraq. You just have been wounded. You are lying in bed for two to three days waiting for your ride back to the free world. You have none of your personal effects, and you are bored.

Our first thought was to send AT&T phone cards. However, Russ said that hospital doesn’t have phone up-links, so we dropped that idea.

But if you would like to send phones cards to the troops in the field, the best bet is deal directly through the DOD PX. Here is the link:

https://thor.aafes.com/scs/default.aspx

The DOD will even ship the cards directly if you prefer.

For our hospital guys and gals, Russ recommended any kind of entertainment such as books, magazines, radios, CD players, and games. (In fact, they get a number of Iraqi children coming through the hospital. Thus, even simple games will be appreciated.)

So here is what we decided to do:

1. I’m going to pack up all my car and motorcycle mags and ship them over. I’m not sure how well Cavallino will be received by the “Fast and Furious” crowd, but something is better than nothing.

2. To the delight of my wife, I’m also going to ship over my paperback collection of books by John D. MacDonald, Louie L Amour, and others.

3. We are going to buy 30 portable CD/Radio players and ship them over.

4. BROTHER BRUCE has agreed to donate the batteries. I’m trying to get him to at least charge wholesale, but he is a hard-headed (but soft-hearted) Yankee.

About the mechanics, if you call the Postal Service at 1-800-610-8734 and ask for the CAREKIT04, they will send you a whole bunch of shipping stuff for free.

The postal service recommends that you don’t ship boxes weighing more than 30 pounds.

You need to allow 3 weeks for the packages to get there.

According to the Postal Service, the package must be addressed to an individual service member. If you put, “Any Soldier,” the package may end up in a dead letter box.

Also don’t send any food or other similar items.

For security reasons, I am going to put a note in my packages that explains who I am, gives my address, and explains the purpose of the gifts. However, I will ask that the gifts be distributed anonymously.

Per Russ, the address we should use to reach the hospital is:

Hospital Chaplin
332 Air Force Theater Hospital
332 AEW/EMDG
APO AE 09315

Feel free to do you own thing. Another item that Russ suggested is, hang on to your hats, galoshes. It turns out that the latrine is outside the medical tent, and you have to walk through quicksand to get there.

Also, may I suggest that you send some CDs? Russ said that the Armed Forces Radio is pretty good. But I haven’t a clue what a young soldier would like to hear on a CD. If it was up to me, I’d just send some Allman Brothers. I still think of U2 as one of those new-age punk bands that sounds like someone stepped on a cat's tail.

If you would rather send money, it looks like the best bet is to go to this web site:

http://americasupportsyou.mil/americasupportsyou/index.aspx

There are a ton of groups that are set up to accept money and send gifts to the troops. However, I don’t have the time to do my normal due diligence on any of them (i.e., getting a copy of their most recent Form 990 tax filings), but they do look legitimate. However, you’re on your own here if you prefer just to send money.

I hope all this helps. I also hope that it motivates one or two of you to think about making the world a little bit brighter for some young folks who are far from home during this holiday season.

Dale

 

Well, any recommendations as to music CDs?

Dale

 

Again, what Russ told me was that this hospital handles the pretty serious cases. Most of those who make it, get shipped back to the world.

At anyrate, I'd love to send iPods or MP3 players (whatever those are), but unfortunately, my heart may be bigger than my wallet. When I checked at Sams, they had personal radio/CD players for $30. Because there are roughly about 30 patients at any one time who could use these players, my thought was that sending 30 units would provide enough to cover everybody in this unit. (I was also going to recommend that the patients leave them there when they ship out.)

Because $1,000 is pretty much my budget limit, hopefully,this explains why I was going to go with the radio/CD players. But if these will not work, maybe I need to reconsider.

Do any of you have any connections in the electronic world? I thought iPods were around $300 bucks a piece. How much are MP3 players? I'd really like to send something useful, but I don't know squat about this stuff. I'm still trying to stuff my 8 track tapes into my CD player.

Dale

 

HOLD YOUR FIRE BROTHER BRUCE. LET ME GET THE DETAILS SQUARED AWAY FIRST. BUT YES, THIS STUFF NEEDS TO GO VIA USPO.

THX, DALE

 

I'll check into it. I'd prefer to use a private shipper. My experiences with the USPO haven't been the best.

However, I have been told that there are some security issues involved. That is, when you mail to a APO address, the specific location of the soldier is not disclosed.

Dale

 

Okay, I can use a little help here. To repeat, I'm planning on sending some portable music devices to one of our hospitals in Iraq.

For price considerations, I initially considered portable radio/CD players. However, it was pointed out to me that they don't work well in Iraq due to the sand.

I then looked at MP3 players. While I still don't understand them, the flaw, in this case, is that you have to download music from the Internet. You need to understand that this unit is not a stateside hospital. It is MASH! The patients stay there for two or three days until they move on.

So I'm back to just a radio. Russ told me that Armed Forces Radio ain't bad. Plus, when you're stuck in a bed, what options do you have?

Thus, I'd like some feedback on the quality of two types of radios, both offered by Radio Shack:

1. $44.99 - The GE® SUPERADIO offers long-range AM/FM reception, so you can tune in distant strong-signal stations and have music, news, weather and sports wherever you go. Portable AM/FM radio with long-range performance.Switchable AM tuning for adjacent stations or improved audio response of strong-signal stations.

2. $24.95 -- This Panasonic® RF-2400 portable radio features a large radio dial panel with LED for easy tuning. Separate dial scale for FM and AM. The 4" dynamic speaker packs plenty of sound. Large radio dial panel with separate dial scale for FM and AM. Large band indicator with tuning LED. 4" dynamic speaker.

In other words, is the first radio worth the additional $20? Does anybody have any experience with Armed Services Radio. Is it pretty easy to get a signal?

Any and all thoughts will be greatly appreciated.

Dale

 

For this situation, i.e., the MASH hospital, I'd say yes. I can ask Russ, but my quess is that Internet access is limited.

Dale

 

That would be great, Brian. Although, I hope you realize that any contribution will not be tax deductible because I'm not doing this through a charity.

What are your thoughts on radios over MP3 players?

Dale

 

Thanks, I'm going to call Wal-Mart and Radio Shack to see what kind of deal I can get.

Over and out!!!!

Dale

 

Update, I just talked with Russ, and he said that the MP3 would be problematic because the troops would have no way of downloading in the field hospital.

So, it looks like radios will be it. I'm calling various place to see what kind of deal I can get.

Dale

 

No, the more the merrier. It just looks like radios are going to be the ticket versus MP3.

All of you should also keep in mind that any kind of reading material will be much appreciated. Instead of throwing out to the recycle box, just send to the address given earlier.

Dale