  Since my husband was sparse with the details.&nbsp; Books: Make sure you send paperbacks.&nbsp; Most likely he will leave the books in Iraq for the next set of soldiers and he feels less guilty about doing that with paperbacks than hardbacks.&nbsp; He likes pretty much anything sci-fi related, military history/fiction, authors like Morgan Llywelyn and Harry Turtledove are good as well.
Comfort Items:&nbsp; Gee, he couldn't be any vaguer there, could he.&nbsp; Things like CDs (country or classical), magazines, and whatnot.&nbsp; Once again, keep in mind that these are things that may never make it back.&nbsp; The desert sand is supposed to be very hard on electrical equipment.&nbsp; If you feel so inclined, he has a Gameboy Advance there.&nbsp; No DVD player because he doesn't want to spend $100 on something that might not last a year there. A few things he didn't mention: Single serving packs of food that he can take on guard with him.&nbsp; He likes any type of fruit, but not pudding. Hard candy is better than chocolate, which melts in the heat. He likes Little Debbie Star Crunches (which, I know, I said no chocolate...).
Toys for the local kids are good for relations.&nbsp; Not anything fancy; buy a bucket of cheap dinos at the store and seperate it into individual bags so that he can just reach in his pocket and give out a few to each kid.&nbsp; No toy soldiers or guns or anything like that.&nbsp; Cheap toy cars maybe?&nbsp; You get the idea. Packages take about a month to reach him, so don't send anything that might mold before then.&nbsp; Check out the Oconus site ( urlLink http://www.oconus.com/main/carepackages.asp ) for more care package ideas.&nbsp; Though, if anyone sends him "motivational pair of panties" we're likely to have words.&nbsp; =-) I can't think of anything else right now.&nbsp; I'm sure Nora will add to the list when she wakes up and drinks some coffee. 
