Christmas gift ideas for the deployed

Well, this is a relative new one: Fencersmother is stumped for a Christmas gift for son deployed (again) for Christmas. He's already homesick, missing the birth of his 2nd child so... and I don't want him to have to drag anything too big home in spring.

Ideas? Suggestions?

$$$$$$$$$ [emoji3][emoji3][emoji3] Merry Christmas to all you guys btw.

Now now, BTCS, Mama-bear doesn't want to send $$$ to her wee babe. But somehow, that Gameboy doesn't seem right anymore since his own second child is making her appearance soon.

Wife has sent deployed son in law packages with all sorts of snacks and goodies. The package included lots of letters from her 1st grade class. The squadron loved them. Check with a local grammar school for a class that might like to do it. Save them and his current and next child will love to read them down the road.

fencersmother said:

Well, this is a relative new one: Fencersmother is stumped for a Christmas gift for son deployed (again) for Christmas. He's already homesick, missing the birth of his 2nd child so... and I don't want him to have to drag anything too big home in spring.

Ideas? Suggestions?

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Kindle, loaded with a couple of books or a subscription to a decent Newspaper or News weekly. Amazon will not ship to certain countries, like Kuwait, but you can send it yourself.

Merry Christmas!

fencersmother said:

Well, this is a relative new one: Fencersmother is stumped for a Christmas gift for son deployed (again) for Christmas. He's already homesick, missing the birth of his 2nd child so... and I don't want him to have to drag anything too big home in spring.

Ideas? Suggestions?

Click to expand...

https://www.amazon.com/Disguised-Sm...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=6Q03YMHJSYC2H0YMPSG8

Fill all with vodka (unless the recipient is a gin drinker), carefully re-seal & ship out in the mail.

You can always use the tried-and-true method of buying mouthwash bottles, empty, fill with liquor & a dash of food coloring, too.

Nothing says "Merry Christmas" like 120 proof shampoo.

Day-Tripper said:

fencersmother said:

Well, this is a relative new one: Fencersmother is stumped for a Christmas gift for son deployed (again) for Christmas. He's already homesick, missing the birth of his 2nd child so... and I don't want him to have to drag anything too big home in spring.

Ideas? Suggestions?

Click to expand...

https://www.amazon.com/Disguised-Sm...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=6Q03YMHJSYC2H0YMPSG8

Fill all with vodka (unless the recipient is a gin drinker), carefully re-seal & ship out in the mail.

You can always use the tried-and-true method of buying mouthwash bottles, empty, fill with liquor & a dash of food coloring, too.

Nothing says "Merry Christmas" like 120 proof shampoo.

Click to expand...

I realize you are probably joking but there are a lot of cadets and candidates on this forum. The only thing this present will get the recipient is career termination for violating a 4 star directive in a combat theater and particularly as an officer on flying status.

emwvmi01 said:

Day-Tripper said:

fencersmother said:

Well, this is a relative new one: Fencersmother is stumped for a Christmas gift for son deployed (again) for Christmas. He's already homesick, missing the birth of his 2nd child so... and I don't want him to have to drag anything too big home in spring.

Ideas? Suggestions?

Click to expand...

https://www.amazon.com/Disguised-Sm...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=6Q03YMHJSYC2H0YMPSG8

Fill all with vodka (unless the recipient is a gin drinker), carefully re-seal & ship out in the mail.

You can always use the tried-and-true method of buying mouthwash bottles, empty, fill with liquor & a dash of food coloring, too.

Nothing says "Merry Christmas" like 120 proof shampoo.

Click to expand...

I realize you are probably joking but there are a lot of cadets and candidates on this forum. The only thing this present will get the recipient is career termination for violating a 4 star directive in a combat theater and particularly as an officer on flying status.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm aware of General Order #1 and can't say that I'm a fan. I'm also aware of it being as effective as prohibition was in 1920s Chicago. As for offending the sensibilities of the Moslems in nations where US troops are deployed, well the Australians, British, Canadians, Danes, Dutch, French, Georgians, Germans, Italians, New Zealanders, Poles, Ukrainians, etc. who were in Iraq and/or Afghanistan have had no such alcohol prohibition and it hasn't had negative effects on their military operations or made them any more (or less) hated by the locals.

American military personnel drank alcohol when off duty in WW1, WW2, Korea & Vietnam to no discernable negative impact. They should be able to do so now.

And I doubt I'm the first person to note that General Order #1 has been controversial. Maybe if limited drinking were permitted (off-duty) in theater, the widespread binge drinking upon return home might not be so widespread?

To paraphrase Homer J. Simpson, "Alcohol is the source of all of our problems. Also the solution."

Here's a link to an interesting read (five years old, but still relevant today) published in the NY Times regarding the US military & the booze issue:

https://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/23/when-booze-comes-off-the-battlefield/

Based on my son's interviews of Korean and Vietnam era veterans (8 from different commands), drugs and alcohol were a pervasive cultural problem, on-duty and off. Each veteran dependent of the others had tales of booze and drunken incidents that put other lives in the line.

Your comment of "no discernable impact" is a broad generalization without history to back it up.

-Alcohol is CURRENTLY a pervasive cultural problem in the military.
-Several locations in deployed/foreign environs allow consumption of alcohol in a controlled manner. The world has not yet imploded.

-While sending booze to someone deployed is definitely illegal, I totally would appreciate a bottle of Laphroig more than yet another box of Kind Bars, and there's no shame in admitting that.

You can keep your peaty scotch, I'll take the Highlands

Day-Tripper said:

American military personnel drank alcohol when off duty in WW1, WW2, Korea & Vietnam to no discernable negative impact.

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You can't be serious.


When I read this, I thought immediately about this story I watched on the 5:30 evening news.

I also specifically remember being in a GI bar in Stuttgart in the summer of 1976. Weed and beer were the least of it.

cb7893 said:

Day-Tripper said:

American military personnel drank alcohol when off duty in WW1, WW2, Korea & Vietnam to no discernable negative impact.

Click to expand...

You can't be serious.

When I read this, I thought immediately about this story I watched on the 5:30 evening news.

I also specifically remember being in a GI bar in Stuttgart in the summer of 1976. Weed and beer were the least of it.

Click to expand...

To quote yourself, "Weed and beer were the least of it." So why prohibit either?

The US (and its erstwhile allies, including a vodka-soaked Red Army & a not-too sober British Empire) conquered Germany, Italy & Japan in WW2, all the while having official "rations" of alcohol for our armed forces, i.e. liquor for officers, beer for enlisted men.

The morale problems in the US military in the Vietnam War were less related to drug-and-alcohol abuse than they were to the war itself. The video clip you referenced (I think it was from CBS News "A Day In The Life Of Charlie Company" from 1970-1971) was late in the war, when America, and its troops, were sick of the war.

Compare this to WW1, for example, when consumption of alcohol was prohibited for US troops (by America's puritanical society) in France. Our doughboys completely, totally ignored this regulation while imbibing vast amounts of French wine and beating the hell out of the Germans at the same time.

American troops marched across Europe in WW2 armed with M1 rifles and contraband Italian, French and German wines, beer and liquor. Remove the booze and morale would have suffered substantially. Same with GIs access to prostitutes - let's be honest. In the Pacific, officers conveniently overlooked GIs and Marines home-made stills made out of whatever was handy. This didn't stop the conquest of Saipan, Iwo Jima or Okinawa one bit.

Frankly, I don't think there has been an army in history that hasn't used (or tolerated) booze as a weapon in it's arsenal (OK, maybe ISIS).