soldier update

I received an overwhelming response to my earlier post this week from my friend GRS in Afghanistan. A lot of you asked where you could send him toilet paper and other supplies. While I know that he would appreciate it, for security reasons, I am not comfortable giving out my friend's name, rank, and current address/duty station to people that I have not met. Overseas, there is no cost to mail things between two bases (from one APO address to another) so TLS and I have sent him some cards and packages with more on the way. If anyone would like to send care packages/cards over to the company, please email me at whaleflipflops {@} gmail {.} com and I will give you our address to send it and we'll gladly forward stuff along. I would love to put together a package of just cards and notes for the company as a morale booster since not all of the guys receive as much mail as GRS does. If any of you would like to send cards, please once again email me and I willl also give you the company name to use in the card.

Regarding what to send:
In addition to the items in his email, in the past, he has asked for beef jerky, baby wipes (over there they don't get to shower as often as they'd like and they go through packs of baby wipes way too quickly), and those powdered drink mix packets (all that they have to drink over there is water and they tend to get tired of it rather quickly. Also books and dvds (even girl stuff). He said that on his last deployment he and his men got so bored that they managed to either read or watch every girl book or movie out there. The desert is the place they get in touch with their feminine sides.

What not to send:
Any pork products (stuff such as fried pork rinds are a no go), any alcohol products, any "adult" stuff (no Maxim magazine or anything worse than that). Also, they are not allowed to accept opened or homemade food from people that they do not know. (If I mail GRS cookies and he shares them with his squadron it's ok because he knows who I am and can vouch for me, but if a third party does that, they will unfortunately have to be thrown out as a security measure.)