anyone know where i can find a list of do's and don'ts regarding what can be shipped to troops overseas and what can be shipped back home?

Try this web-site, they'll help ya out, or perhaps you can help them......

www.adoptasniper.org/index.html

Mike

thank you

www.anysoldier.us has a great FAQ.  I have used them many times.

Anysoldier.us

actually, that list pisses me off.  it's the same on the usps site.  

i'm wondering what troops can send back and how often they check smaller packages.

a young guy from my office, actually he works in a field crew, is heading off to the war in november.  he told me he'd send me anything he could.  a couple of people are joking about fingers, etc. but i'm wondering if wallets, id's, jewelry or currency can be sent back.  basically any valuables unique to some goddamn terrorist.  maybe even a watch or a turbin.  maybe a pair of sandals the dude was wearing when he got mowed down by a 249 like the guy in that video i saw holding an RPG one second and lying on the ground the next.

I'm not trying to be rude here, allen offered to send me stuff in return for things he might need or want outside the realm of actual necessities.

Quoted: i'm wondering what troops can send back and how often they check smaller packages.

Actually, they don't check the smaller packages as often as the larger ones.  If anything is going to happen to a smaller package, they just take the entire thing.

i'm wondering if wallets, id's, jewelry or currency can be sent back.  basically any valuables unique to some goddamn terrorist.  maybe even a watch or a turbin.  maybe a pair of sandals the dude was wearing when he got mowed down by a 249 like the guy in that video i saw holding an RPG one second and lying on the ground the next. I'm not trying to be rude here, allen offered to send me stuff in return for things he might need or want outside the realm of actual necessities.

When you do precision raids or the like anything like IDs, papers, or the like usually falls into a category we like to call "evidence"  The countries we are currently operating in Iraq and Afghanistan are being restabilized using the host nation's own security forces when possible.  These things usually get stolen or gathered as evidence by the police that are accompanying the U.S. troops on the operation.  It is highly unlikely that any papers or personal effects that are run across will not be turned in as a commander's intelligence requirement.

This is probably why you don't see a lot of personal effects come out of today's fights, we use everything as intelligence these days.

So, your friend has to get really, really lucky.  Here's what's got to happen to get this stuff that you're curious about:

1. They have to b e a part of a unit that will be in close proximity to a hostile force.

2. They have to actively engage (closely and often) with this hostile force, usually in a raid, ambush or cordon-and-search mission.

3. They have to be able to get their hands on a dead enemy soldier that hasn't been burnt or shot-up too badly.  Enemy prisoners are always searched and their possessions are always kept by the people doing the searching, unless it's useless crap (which is the same kind of stuff that you call useless crap too) and is just discarded.

4. Whatever dead enemy soldier they find cannot have been ransacked prior to their discovery.

5. Your friend has to want to send the items they found back to you.  After whatever fighting they had to go through to be in the position they were in when they got this crap they found on this dead guy.... they'll probably have some reasonable attachment to this stuff.


Kind of a bit of trouble, isn't it?  It's easier to barter with the locals for stuff that didn't come off a dead guy someplace.

Going thru the Army's last check point leaving Kuwait we couldn't have anything that goes bang or boom. You can have as souvineers, not on  your person but in your bags locked up in the cargo bay, baynets, Iraqi CBR suits, swords stuff like that. No body parts, that one is for all you Marines out there. Money is OK to bring back but only ~2000 Dinar. Not sure if you can mail it.

You can't mail anything militaryish from there to the US. Even a knife I bought at a PX, still in the plastic. If you've got a hook up great, just telling you what the mail weenies told me.

When sending friends and family care packeges, remember, Jim Beam is about the same color as apple juice.

There are many restricted items that one cannot send....although I have sent quite a few M9 Bayonets to quite a few guys out in the big sand box......Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and to Iraq.

I had quite a few call me with their prepaid calling cards......its just a matter of how you label them.

I labeled all the M9's "camping", or "survival", or "hunting".....or simply described them as they are in the Customs area of the declaration, "black nylon survival pouch with plastic sheath and sharpening stone w/metal can opener & steak blade."

To date, every GI received an M9, and not one problem with anything.


Keep packages small, list ALL the items as they are, and one should be okay.

BUT...mailing things back.....I think a few GI's got in trouble for mailing back US currency, and other items.  

Guess all the war trophies won't be quite the same, just as prior veterans of other wars

Quoted: Going thru the Army's last check point leaving Kuwait we couldn't have anything that goes bang or boom. You can have as souvineers, not on  your person but in your bags locked up in the cargo bay, baynets, Iraqi CBR suits, swords stuff like that. No body parts, that one is for all you Marines out there. Money is OK to bring back but only ~2000 Dinar. Not sure if you can mail it. You can't mail anything militaryish from there to the US. Even a knife I bought at a PX, still in the plastic. If you've got a hook up great, just telling you what the mail weenies told me. When sending friends and family care packeges, remember, Jim Beam is about the same color as apple juice.

hey thanks guys.  the reason i was asking about body parts was mainly because i thought that would be the very last thing that would be sent home and i figured you'd cover all of the bases up until that point.  

i guess i'm just gonna have to ask for tins of sand from the different areas, huh?

i thought urine was the same color as apple juice?  

So.....if you had the time and money for shipping....could you mail home a jeep one piece at a time?  And to avoid problems with stealing from the us .gov, assume its the iraqi version of a jeep.  

actually no sand and dirt. Don't want to bring back diseases. ahhh? oh yeah, it's called Gulf War Syndrome? we had to clean all the tents, 2 1/2 tons and HUMVEES. In reality they don't search everything, but they do a pretty good job. No real customs, just MP's. Let my non-Cuban cigars slide.