From Bonnie Eilen
Parent of West Point Graduates
For all of you newly deployed parents, we have had a son-in-law in Afghanistan from August to January, he got back January 20 and our daughter was then deployed to the Middle East on February 11! We are experts now on boodle and such. It seems that it takes about 2 weeks to get a letter that a son or daughter writes to us and it takes a little over a week for them to get a package we send to them.
I know this list has gone around before, but the biggest thrills are baby wipes, teas (they put it in water and leave it out in the sun), crystal lite, vitamin pills, those pouches of tuna that you just slit open and eat (they come with salmon also), zip lock bags -the larger the better-, hand wipes (they don't have much water to wash with and what they wash with is undrinkable), sun block, skin cream, noodle soups in a bowl, and power bars (I don't send any that have chocolate coatings - it is 115 degrees there in the daytime). I haven't had the nerve to send anything homemade, a friend of ours sent chocolate chip cookies wrapped in layers and they got there ok and were edible. I send deodorant and toothbrushes and toothpaste and floss, feminine hygiene stuff too, I have sent over the counter meds like advil and tinactin, I have sent antibiotics to my daughter because 10 years ago, in Desert Storm, the biggest health hazard for women was bladder (urinary tract) infections. In places where the action is slower, I send magazines and books, photos of the family, stationary and pens and hand held travel games. I hear that beef jerky is a favorite too. Our house looks like a grocery store, we have names of about 40 soldiers that we send to and if you want to send us your son or daughter's address, we have 35 bags ready to go! Good luck to all, it is very hard - I deal by never watching the news or having the radio on, it is called the ostrich effect!
On the funny or not so funny side, our local Mail Boxes Etc gives us free boxes and 10% discount by now, we just bring bags full of stuff, fill out the address slips and leave them.
Sincerely, Bonnie Eilen
