[Elfsea] FYI Shipping care packages to Iraq

[Shari Burnham]

Greetings Everyone:
With it starting to be the holiday season, its time to think about care packages overseas. Just as a reminder, if you have family or friends who are serving overseas in the Middle East, the absolutely LAST day to Ship for the shipments to be guaranteed arrival before Christmas is DEC 4. They are asking the following items NOT be sent:
Perishable foods (cookies, holiday breads are ok, but no meats that are not smoked)
No Pork or Pork by products
no items which may cause a delay (candles, liquids, etc)
no bulk religious items (bible given for personal use is ok)
no pornographic materials, including personal pictures.
no alcoholic beverages.

they encourage you to PRINT on your package, your name and address CLEARLY in the upper left corner of the package, and the receivers name and address CLEARLY in the center right of the package. Use brown boxes, remove any markings if you are reusing a box, and TAPE the box shut with clear or brown packing tape ONLY. And as always, correct postage.They would also like to remind you that all packages are subject to inspection. (duh)

that being said, there are also alot of soldiers who do not have families, and many Red Cross and VFW groups sponser packages and donations for these groups, as well as donations for families of soldiers who are hard hit. We have several through MWR at NAS in Fort Worth. :) If anyone is interested, I will happily send you more info.

This public service announcement brought to you by your resident Naval Pirate. Please return to your regular medieval discussion.
Lady Elisabeth of Pendarvis