Okay, I knew it wouldn't take long before a part two. Here is another list of what NOT to send. Again, this is a generalized statement. If you have specific soldiers who have asked for these items, then of course they need them. I am mainly posting this for the benefit of the individuals that want to send care packages because we have so many large groups that send these items.
1. Chap stick - Though it is always great to have lips that glitter and smell like Cherry Tarts while you are spot correcting one of your soldiers, we are stock full of this stuff. I admit we don't use it near enough and there are thousands of soldiers running around fighting bad guys with chapped lips. Fortunately, the sun is not as hot these days and we could survive with less than 22.5 sticks per soldier.
2. Sun Block - Sun Block is awesome, especially the waterproof, bulletproof kind. However, like anything else, in excess it is well... excess. Danny and I recently conducted an experiment and found that one 1.8 gallon tube of 80 SPF Sun Block lotion will "liberally cover" 76,834 square inches of human flesh! Since we must remain fully clothed (with gloves on) while we fight bad guys, only about 4 square inches of skin is exposed while we are out on missions. So, we have enough Sun Block to keep our cheeks sunburn free for the next 3,756 years. We believe we may still have troops here.
3. Hard Candy - In the past couple of days, we have given out .24 pounds of the 150 pounds of hard candy in stock. Luckily, we just received an emergency shipment of 26.3 pounds of Butterscotch hard candy. Our supply is now back up to operating levels, so PLEASE do not send hard candy!
4. White Socks - Why do we need 13 cases of white tube socks in Iraq? I'm not sure. We are not allowed to wear civilian clothes in the war zone. We only wear white socks in our physical training uniforms and we can only wear that uniform when we are exercising. Two or three pairs of white socks is good for a couple months. Don't get me wrong, they ARE comfortable, but we just can't use that many.
5. Civilian Clothes - Again, just absolutely no need for civilian clothes in combat as they are completely prohibited. We CAN wear them in our room technically, but must change into our uniform to walk to the bathroom or go take a shower. I do have an Austin Texas Fire Fighters t-shirt I wear in my room on occasion and I have seen Danny sneaking to the bathroom in his red, Budweiser Dale Earnhardt Jr t-shirt, but those are rare occasions.
While some of these items are useful and appreciated, we end up getting so many at once, that we run out of places to store them. Thank you for all the support, we REALLY do appreciate it.