This deployment I have continued to take on more responsibilities for the company. I just cannot stand incompetence and the more things I lead, the more things I know will get done right.

One thing that I have been doing steadily throughout the deployment has been taking care of the random care packages that come in the mail. We get...dozens per day. Just random care packages from people and organizations all over the country. Depending on the group, these care packages can be very beneficial to the company and as donations out in town. Some though, are garbage and literally piss me the fuck off. My question is. Do I have the right to get angry at this stuff?

All of these boxes contained an amazing amount of religious material. I'm sorry, but there's just no place for it. Half of each box contained old and new testaments in miniature forms, guide post magazine which might as well read evangelical magazine. All kinds of psalms, hymns, and prayer books. A company of 290 Marines, and I bet we got a couple thousand copies of the same prayer books. It upsets me, because to me, it appears as though this group from Texas was more intent on spreading their religion than actually sending us care packages.

The rest of the box wasn't much better. This group, and others, seem to think it's cool to go hotels, steal soaps, shampoos, and towels, and then MAIL the crap to us. They put it into handy little ziploc bags and send us Radisson brand shampoo and soap. WHY BOTHER! If you're gonna send us something, make it worthwhile, and please put a little heart into it.

Hand me down books huh? Gee... Thanks.

A readers digest from 1988. Awesome.

In fact, I have a whole freakin garbage can FULL of hand me down magazines and books.

CD's? Straight off the dollar rack at Wal*Mart. Almost all entirely gospel.

Basically how some of these organizations function, is that some group gets a warehouse and fills that warehouse with...mostly shit. And then they just keep sending out the stuff, and letters the get to send out over time. This last batch we got? All the letters and stuff were from 2004! Needless to say, all the food we got was bad.

The letters? Really sad. Here is how almost all of them read verbatum.

Hello Soldier,

Thanks for saving the world. We are all so very proud of you. Just remember that God loves. You wouldn't be over in Iraq if God didn't will it so. God is watching over you, and if you believe in him, I'm sure you will come home safe. If not, look for those IED's. We're proud of you!

<insert typical Texas name like Bo, or Gretchen, or Jesus here>

OH!! And there was the thousand or so little knitted crosses we got. Come on man...

It's really got me down. Should I be down? Or should I be greatful? I had a garbage can full of garbage. Three 55 gallon bags of religious garbage. And the useful stuff that I can take out to the local villages fit in about 4 medium sized boxes. A scant minority compared to the overwhelming pile of garbage.

Really kills my faith in America.

that sucks.

they should send four things...porn, drugs, food, and video games.

how would i go about sending care packages to soldiers abroad, out of curiosity?

I'm sure there are many programs and such, but here's one -

https://www.treatsfortroops.com/

anysoldier.com I think has a good program. It's like an adopt a serviceman deal.

What do you want? Post a list and how we can send stuff directly to you (if you're willing to post that). Maybe some of us can send some small packages.

Oh, and to answer your question. You're allowed to be pissed. Just to send back mean letters.

I used to think that devout christians were just misinformed and naive, now it appears they are scumbags as well.

I guess they think they are doing good by spreading the word, uggh, there are no more useless people in the world.

i'd like to say i'm surprised at all that, but i guess i am not.

i'd be pissed too. sorry man.



ditto

When I was a counselor, I got a few of my families adopted by companies, churches, etc ... The one kid, loved dragons and DragonBall Z. It was all he asked for. The kid was five and wrote DragonBall Z like 10 times. His mom had to include a list of items that he actually wanted, but most, if not all, were dragon themed.

The church that adopted them called me and asked me if I could find out other things he might like, because they didn't feel comfortable purchasing dragons. I convinced them to give me Wal-Mart gift cards and had to drive the mom to Wal-Mart during a school day so she could buy the fucking kid what he wanted.

That's some fucking bullshit. Spoil a five-year-old's CHRISTMAS because your brand of Christianity frowns on dragons.

You crack me up, LW.

Seriously, what is in teh ideal care package? I've heard that soap, socks, and other basic day-to-day stuff that we take for granted are greatly needed. Is that the kind of stuff you need?

We don't need anything. I mean, we have families and friends. Myself, when I came over this time, I shipped a gorilla case full of everything I'd need for a six month deployment. All my hygiene supplies, extra clothes and towels, my fishing tackle, my extra camera, plus other non-essential crap. So myself? I'm pretty much set except for my peanut butter Twix fix that mom takes care of.

Everyone else? They're pretty much covered to. We get all kinds of stuff from families and friends, and we really have no room or need for it. So we usually put the stuff in the "highway" of the tents. The tents are full of stuff.

I basically just collect it all so we can take it out to town. I rat fuck it all, take the good stuff to take out to the city and people I know out yonder.

It all just really burns my buttons. Why do these people give us stuff that they got for free anyway? Or stuff that they didn't want? If I don't want something because it's old and used, I strongly doubt anybody else is gonna want it either. Hotel shampoos? Hey, go to Wal*Mart, and get me a 2$ bottle of suave you frugle fuck. The little sample deoderant that old spice sent you in the mail...for free...is about as worthless to me, as it is to you. Don't send that.

I think one misconception about all this, is that people think we live in the stoneage.

This is the first time I'm noticing "Western New York" as your location, LW. Whereabouts?

I'm from Warsaw.

*refrains from making Polish joke*

My employer sends care packages. Most of the bags I helped prepare had DVDs, candy, popular fiction books. I guess people send what they can, but that God stuff is just silly. He should just smite the terrorists and get it over with. There is precedent in the area for such things...

Did my care package of Al Franken books, Dixie Chicks CDs, and Michael Moore DVDs get there yet?

You didn't get that thank you note from Osama and Hillary?

I got a "Fuck Our Troops" bumper sticker, but I didn't know who it was from.

Seriously, LittleWing, you don't want us to send porn or illegally ripped CDs or something to your unit in Djibouti?

We have...hundreds of gigs of porno collectively. And you wanna talk about pros at pirating music? One of our tech bubba's has a terabyte of music and movies a few tents over. No shortage of that.

Now, if you wanted to send me some boots from the last tour...

Today I got a care package from a law firm in Rochester. And these people just about had it right. Some Dorito's, Cheez-Its...pretzels and some starbursts, lots of double A batteries. It looked like they put some thought into it other than, "God wills me to send 500 prayer books to this soldier. I know God will will him to disperse the gospel amongst his fellow troops."

Sorry, I know this is getting pretty off topic, but how is your internet connection? Is it cable? Satellite? Are there enough computers to go around?