A friend of mine is in Fort Bliss doing her 6 weeks before being deployed to Iraq. I have been looking online for package ideas (I will post later when she gets there) and I keep hearing about items being stolen. One site warns of customs stealing. Another site says to put socks on the custom package slip instead of cookies. I never would have thought that stealing would be a problem. It was private individuals who said this on message boards, not an official statement from a site. Is it possible the packages got lost and not stolen? Have you heard of this?

I hadn't heard of that. I suppose it's possible. Awful, just awful.
I was checking out the Any Soldier site a few weeks ago, though, and they have good tips -as well as pre-prepared packages- for sending stuff overseas.

It is sad. But not unique. A Czech man who had been a little kid in Germany after World War II told me that the CARE packages they received had always been stripped of the more marketable items such as sugar and coffee. Sometimes there would be just the box, with a small package of flour inside. And these recipients were practically starving. Very sad.

The Post Office is supposed to be on the watch for employees who pilfer. Maybe no one has specifically complained about targeting shipments to soldiers.

Or are all such shipments to soldiers in Iraq handled by the military?

Or would Iraqis be working for the military in Iraq? This might well be the case, because it would be a waste to use trained military staff to handle packages.

Babs,

Fantastic question. All mail gets sent to one location here and shipped out. I'm not sure what happens when it gets there. I always thought it was sent on an American plane. I will ask at work and find out.

The site Elexina posted says this:

quote:

"As you might know, on occasion the Iraqi's have no problem supplying movie DVD's at a fraction of the cost back home. What you are not aware of is the fact that those movies are stolen off the bases and sold back to the soldiers. I recommend that when you supply that information to those who send packages and to the soldiers/Marines whom apply for items to be sent in, that they mark the movies to prevent unscrupulous individuals from benefiting from the unwary." Colonel, USMC.
We strongly suggest that if you send any CDs or DVDs, use a permanent magic marker and simply put "AnySoldier.com" on both the cover and CD/DVD. It won't take long before these won't be a target anymore... -Marty

Clare, I have to say, all the packages I sent to my father arrived there safe and sound. Then again, I did write spam on the customs slip. (It really was spam.) My father says that he gets approximately to crates of mail every two weeks (he has his mail forwarded from the states) and has not yet had a problem with items not arriving on time, though they often take a long time to arrive.

Leppi

You did NOT send your father trafe did ya?


trafe= not kosher

'Since 2002 KBR has held what is known as the LOGCAP III contract, which stands for Logistics Civil Augmentation Program. Under that contract it provides support services for the Army ranging from serving meals to delivering fuel, washing laundry and delivering mail, duties that used to be handled by the Army itself.' www.thenation.com

KBR is a former Halliburton subsidiary. It's making millions, of course, from the war. The people handling US army mail in Iraq might not be Iraqis; they might, for example, have been flown in from Africa, and be on fifty cents a day, or maybe they're from the former Yugoslavia.

quote:

Originally posted by clarebear:
Leppi

You did NOT send your father trafe did ya?


trafe= not kosher

clare, sorry only saw your post now..... I sent him something called luf, which is the kosher version of spam......

quote:

Originally posted by Leppi:
clare, sorry only saw your post now..... I sent him something called luf, which is the kosher version of spam......

Intriguing ! Why would you send luf (or spam) ?Is that something which he cannot readily get but misses?

There's whole lot of odd stuff which people find impossible to obtain abroad but which is readily available at home and which they suddenly feel an urge to have. Britons find it impossible to get either marmalade or bacon, for example.And the standard French bread is a baguette or one of its variants (ficelle, restaurant etc) so the regular, brown, tin loaf is usually unobtainable. That's no good for toast (Don't ask why someone in , say, the South of France wants a cooked breakfast in the heat, or at all when a French breakfast is available, but that's the way it is )) So much is this so that in Antibes there is a supermarket that sells amost nothing but British foodstuffs It's by the harbour, to cater for the yachties.

What do other Answerpudlians miss, of this kind, abroad?

My father was having problems getting kosher food for passover. Technically he could still eat salad and rice, but the big problem was we thought there was going to be a whole week in which he wouldn't get any protein. This way he would have meat (protein for the week of passover....) I could of sent him a slice of beef..... but it would have spoiled in the 3 weeks it took until he got the package. This way, he got something that wasn't spoiled.