Care Packages and Wish Lists

I got a care package the other day from some kids at Armstrong Middle School in Flint, MI that My Heart Supports the Troops helped them send.

I really like getting the cards from the kids because they are often hilarious. One of them had a tree drawn on the front with two “somethings” sitting in the tree. On the inside there was a Ketchup bottle with a happy face and a mustard bottle with a sad face. It said, “Ketchup & Mustard sitting in a tree. K. I. Christmas!” You aren't going to get anything like that from Hallmark.

Some people have been asking what they can send to us or what we need here. The truth is we really don’t NEED anything here. As you might imagine the military gives us everything we NEED but not everything we WANT. Here are some things that I want:

Tuna Lunch-To-Go: They have packs with tuna, mayo, relish, and crackers that are great for being on the road. Often we aren’t able to get to chow halls while we are on missions and the MRE’s get old. Really any meal that is small to pack and doesn’t require heat would be good. I just can’t think of any others except for tuna.

Hand warmer packets or gloves: The Iraqi Police, Iraqi Army, and Sons of Iraq (IP, IA, and SOI) stand outside at checkpoints all along the roads here. They do have some cold weather gear but most of them don’t have gloves. They just stand around burning tires to keep warm so these would be helpful for them.

Baseball-sized balls that bounce: We don’t throw anything out of our trucks because we aren’t allowed to… But if we were to throw something out it would be nice to have balls that fit out our windows and bounce away from the trucks. “My friend” already got a shipment of these and the kids really like them.

Beanie Babies: See above. The Beanies Babies don’t bounce but they have the extra weight for throwing. And I think we can all admit that the Beanie Baby craze is over so they are probably just taking up room in your house.



My truck buddy and I also came up with some ideas for improvements to our truck. They are as follows:

Air-Ride Suspension: The roads here are really bad so air-ride would be nice.

Extended cab: With all the gear in our cab it gets pretty cramped so it would be nice to have an extended cab for storage.

All-steel fifth wheel: Our truck has a Teflon plate on the fifth wheel which is a good idea if your whole fleet is outfitted with them. We have both kinds here so the trailers get grease on them and the Teflon gets torn up.

Keyless entry: It would be nice. I’m not sure how it would unlock and remove the padlocks on the doors though.

Remote start: It probably comes with the keyless entry anyway. 24 volt please.

Flip-down DVD player: Hey, it gets boring driving out there.

Accelerator pedal: This one isn’t technically for our truck. It’s just that I think our gun trucks must be missing this item.


Thank you.