I've often contributed to care packages for our troops in Aghanistan and Iraq, especially when it's a group effort so I don't have to bear the brunt of the postage by myself. I was pleased to see an announcement at our local drug store saying that a VFW hall would be taking donations for the next couple of months.

Having an Afghan war vet in the family helps, too, since he could give me some ideas about what to buy. (Of course, the drug store has lists of things, because they want people to buy their pre-made bags of personal hygiene items taken from the store.) I gave Chris the list of suggestions and asked him to add to it based on his experience.

He said that baby wipes were always needed since there weren't always showers available. So I went to buy baby wipes, but couldn't find any that I could afford to buy in bulk at the drug store. The next time we were at Costco, I got a huge Costco-sized box of baby wipes that are broken down into individual 88-count re-sealable packages.

The girl who showed me where they were told me that she had a friend in the military in Iraq and they always sent him baby wipes and SillyString!

When I asked her why SillyString, she said the men spray it over a suspected IED in order to find the trip wire.

If any of you are in a position wherein you can contribute to troop care packages, please keep baby wipes and SillyString in mind. Think of the comfort you can bring with no-alcohol, hypo-allergenic cotton baby wipes and the lives you may save with SillyString.

True story. Some 80,000 cans have been shipped so far.

Since 2006, Silly String (or Crazy String) has been known to have military use in detecting trip wires in booby traps; and yet, it isn't standard military issue. Why not, if it can save lives?

In the meantime, because it comes in aerosole cans, it's increasingly difficult to ship. Because its propellent might deplete the ozone layer by a tiny fraction with each squirt, the Military has apparently decided that it isn't 'green.'

But what does it mean to the Military to lose a few innocent American lives? It happens every day, doesn't it?

Can't deplete the ozone, but using depleted uranium in weapons is ok? If that is the official military position, then I can't find a logical reason for it. If it helps the troops stay alive, send lots of silly string.

That is pathetic, Liz. You yourself suggested it was better to lose a few innocent Americans to Iranian aggression rather than fight back and have a war with Iran. You snide little snipe at the military is pathetic and you ought to be ashamed...but then as a leftist I doubt you are familiar with the idea of shame...

As for what to send in care packages...

Baby wipes are, as mentioned, popular...especially the smaller packages that a Soldier can slip into his pocket. They are used not just for showers but in the place of toilet paper...

Beef Jerky and trail mix are also extremely popular items. basically, any small, compact, and easily transported food items. Stuff like energy bars, individual servings of the pull top canned items, and the small tubes of drink mix for putting in a water bottle are all extremely popular. In short, anything a Soldier can slip in his pocket and take on a mission and use compeltely when he has a minute or two to do so.

Batteries are also popular items...most common are AA and AAA. However, also very popular, and hard to get, are the 3 or 3.5 volt lithium camera batteries. Soldiers use them in their SureFire flash lights and they can literally be life savers. Batteries are of course expensive...

Paperback books are also popular, as are DVDs, CDs, and cards. You can sometimes find battery powered push lights...sort of like a dome light from a car. Camping stores have them. They are popular because military vehicles seldom have much in the way of interior lights and they are more useful than a flash light in that regard. Similarly, the headlamps you see are popular, you know, the kind that you wear on a strap around your head. They are used when moving around on the FOBs during the night...for obvious reasons the FOBs are not normally well lit.

Silly string is a niche item...the average Soldier is not going to use it for anything other than spraying his friends. It is useful for certain things, like raiding a building. The strings are shot into rooms in several directions and they reveal the presence of any trip wires along the floors and in doorways. However, this is not something that most Soldiers will do in iraq. As for the comments...the military, specifically the Marine Corp, had tons of the stuff shipped to theater. The military did not ban the shipping or the using of the stuff. The postal service, because of its own rules, has restricted the shipping of aerosal cans. Why the rush to castigate the military? Merely on the basis of Liz's unsupported--and untrue--allegation?

Silly String has not been tested by the US military for combat use. Therefore, they cannot make it standard issue. It is also flammable. The string itself is flammable and the contents of the can, under pressure as they are, are explosive.

I'm not saying troops shouldn't be allowed to be field expedient. Adapt, improvise and overcome, they say. I'm just giving two good reasons why Silly String isn't issued with a new pair of boots.

Your suggestions are very good, Law, and mirror Chris's in many ways. Chris was in Afghanistan and the troops got very little; for example, it took Chris 3 mo. after his deployment to get body armor and even longer before they got anything to use to armor their humvees.

But that's beside the point. My point with this thread is, just because we have an election coming up, we still have troops in the field and they still need to be reminded that we know they're there.

You mention things that can be slipped into a soldier's pocket when he goes on a mission and use completely when he has the time. Without revealing too much, can you tell me what the average time is for a mission. In other words, does everything sent need to be wrapped in individual packages?--or can we send Zip-Lock sandwich bags so the soldier can take what he needs, slip it into his pocket and go?

There are a lot of things such as the pull-top food items--oftentimes fruit (so they fit into your kids' lunch boxes) that are sold in bulk at places such as Costco. Should we buy the Costco-sized box and send that, or should we break the box down into the individual servings?

I guess I'm asking if things are sent to individual soldiers or if they're sent to a unit so that the individual soldier can draw from them, as needed. After all, not all soldier's need acne medication, do they?

Finally, dear Law, didn't you realize that my last sentence wasn't anything other than a snide comment against your using your bastardized quote of something I said when you suggested an attack against Iran after Iran harrased an American war ship in the Straights of Hormuz. You used that bastardized quote for months--as your signature.

I'll save what the military expects--and counts into its projected outcome of a given military excercize--for another thread.

And yet Law says

SillyString comes in an aerosol can with a propellant that the government determined could deplete the ozone layer. Why do you think there are no more aerosol spray deodorants or hair sprays?

The USPS has gone along with the government and will no longer air-ship anything in an aerosol can.

So is there anything else we could send to the troops that could provide the same protections against booby traps?

I don't think that the ozone depletion is the reason why they don't officially back the string Liz; the military uses much more environmentally unfriendly devices in their work.