Turns out my brother is a point of contact in the Any Soldier program. He was an active duty engineer officer for several years, and during the drawdown he was given a cash buyout to resign from active duty. With the need for engineers to clear IEDs and whatnot in Iraq, he found himself once again an active duty officer at the age of 41.

In addition to being a point of contact, he's tasked to post messages to the Any Soldier site describing the particular needs and wants of his unit.

Think about shipping some items to one unit or another. Remember that you only have to pay postage as far as NY (the military takes over from there through the APO system). He notes that they like "freeze pops". I can practically buy those things by the pallet at the local discount club and even regular grocery stores, so I'm sure that you can, too. They're dirt cheap. He notes that snack foods are a popular item as they often miss meals while on patrol. Big bags of trail mix and that sort of thing aren't that expensive. I think I'll send a couple of bulk bags along with some boxes of ziplock sandwich bags so they can portion it out.

I was going to copy his posts to the Any Soldier site and put them here, but there are warnings all over the site to the effect that EVERYTHING is copywrited. They tell you not to even print a page. I can't imagine why I couldn't post his messages here, so I'll try and work that out.