New requests from soldiers arriving in Afghanistan

This past week, Joanne, Amber, E.D., Sarah and Nancy worked for 2 days boxing up and mailing off initial boxes containing approximately 70 mattress pads, 30 or so sheet sets, dozens of throw blankets, blankets from the Carrollton Senior Center,  bed caddies and a couple boxes of fabric softener sheets.

As the remainder of the unit arrives, more of these items will be needed. We have been purchasing twin mattress pads at Target ($6.99) and WalMart ($6.96). Keep in mind the other items mentioned. In addition, we have been amassing pillows for Zach. We found pillows at WalMart for $2.50 each (standard, deep pocket).

Below are some comments from our contact (pertaining to the above shipment) who has just arrived in Afghanistan with a huge contingent of soldiers.

Nancy, You're awesome! No, we don't have the ability to do our own laundry, we have to turn it in in laundry bags and have the locals wash it. Therefore, Soldiers prior have said they just throw in the bag one of those washer/dryer sheets and their laundry comes back cleaner and smelling pretty :o)

I still haven't moved into my permanent quarters so I'm still unsure what my actual living area is going to be like, but I think the mattress pad and sheets will be a good start for me and all. Don't want any bugs regardless of where you're living!!! Oh, and the heater you mentioned would be great right now for my office. It gets so cold in here - brrrrrrrrrr! But luckily they said the weather should warm up by March :o)

Other things I noticed:

Our trailer PX sells no magazines so any 2012 magazines would be good: Shape, Redbook, Cosmo, GQ, Hunting & Fishing...

The locals have been hired to operate a small library so no books are needed because Soldiers have thousands readily available.

Our PX also sells no DVDs or CDs so any of those will be good in order to keep Soldiers occupied during their down time because this base is extremely small with little extra amenities.

Our PX also sells limited women's products like razors and deodorant so those items will be good.

Oh, and we are no longer permitted to use USB drives in our government computers ... however, we can use SD cards that are used in cameras so if you come across any of these, please send them so Soldiers can download and email pics home.

And if Soldiers choose to, they can use phone cards like AT&T. I say choose to because the locals have set up a sort of phone center here and you can pay cash and receive so many minutes on their phone lines calling back to the states. Also, Soldiers have the option to buy cell phones here, but I heard the minutes to operate them are very pricey.

The internet here is not so reliable so when it's working, I try to get as many emails as I can sent. Please tell everyone I said hi!