Use a sturdy, box and cover all previous labels and markings with a heavy black marker or adhesive labels. (They can confuse and slow down processing). Fill all extra space with foam peanuts, newspaper, bubble wrap or popcorn. Double tape all seams with strong packing tape.

Send in easy to handle boxes (say under 10 pounds). Big, heavy boxes are just asking for trouble. The larger the box, the more it will cost you to ship it. Use heavy packing tape on all corners of the box, and wrap the tape so it goes all the way around every direction of the box. Packages must weigh less than 70lbs and be smaller than 130 inches in total length and girth.

I suggest using the USPS Flat Rate boxes. No matter which Flat Rate Box you choose, the postage is $8.95, regardless of weight or destination. This is anywhere in the U.S., and DOES include any APO/FPO mailing address as well.

The Post Office also offers a Priority Mail APO/FPO Flat Rate Box. These boxes are 50% larger than the $8.95 boxes and they only cost $10.95 to ship to military personnel serving overseas. Pick them up at your local Post Office or order the flat rate boxes on the USPS Website in packs of 10 or 25. There is no charge. Order boxes by clicking here.

Delivery Confirmation
When you ship a package, ask your postal worker about Deliver Confirmation. Effective August 19, 2006, Delivery Confirmation is available to most APO/FPO destinations and to some Pacific islands.

Verify delivery with Delivery Confirmation. The low cost Delivery Confirmation service gives you the date, ZIP Code™ and the time your article was delivered. If delivery was attempted you will get the date and time of attempted delivery.

You can also track the status of your package online. Click here to track.

If you are a Church, School or other group that wants to send many packages:
Please send no more than about 5 boxes to any single address at one time. Most units simply can't handle a deluge of packages, and it is especially hard on the soldiers to hand out more than this at a time. If you have a really large effort, spread out shipping over about 5-7 days at a time, about 5 packages to each address.

Insured and Registered?
If you send insured or registered, Soldiers have to go to their base camp to get these items and they may not go there very often at all, but this depends on the unit. This is a difficult call, however. Before you send something expensive, we recommend that you ask the folks you are sending to what they suggest. Every unit faces a different situation. However, if it is expensive, insure it!

Mail Your Package
Take your package to the post office and fill out a customs declaration and dispatch note. Postal services form 2976-A (Customs Form) is required for all mail weighing 16 ounces or more. In addition, mailers must properly complete required customs documentation on any potentially dutiable mail addressed to an APO or FPO regardless of weight. If you need help with the customs form, click here to read my tips.

Note that packages addressed to APO AE and FPO AE only go to New York and packages addressed to APO AP and FPO AP only go to San Francisco. So you don't pay postage all the way to Iraq/Afghanistan. Once mail reaches these stateside military installations, all mail is then taken over by the Armed Forces.

You might consider picking contacts closer to your mailing area to help cut the cost of mailing. If you live on the East Coast, pick "AE", West Coast, pick "AP", Midwest… you decide.

Mail addressed to “Any Service Member” or similar wording such as “Any Soldier”, “Sailor”, “Airman”, and “Marine” or “Military Mail”, etc., is prohibited. Mail must be addressed to an individual or job title such as “Commander”, “Commanding Officer”.

In the upper left corner, write your complete return address (packages without return addresses might be discarded).

On the bottom right hand side, you will see “Senders Instructions in Case of Nondelivery.” You can check Return To Sender. Or you can write "Chaplain at Same" and if your care package cannot be delivered to your troop, the package will go to the Chaplain who will give it to someone who doesn't get mail or care packages.

APO AE, FPO AE and APO AP, FPO AP?
APO = Army Post Office
FPO = Fleet Post Office
AE = Europe
AP = Pacific

DO NOT SEND pressurized or aerosol items (such as shaving cream), chocolates (they'll be soup in the desert), pornographic materials, alcohol, bulk religious materials or pork or items with pork by-products.

Also, people have written and asked about sending silly string to the troops so they can spray it into a room and detect trip wires. Since the silly string comes in an aerosol can, it is considered a hazardous material, meaning the Postal Service will not ship it by air.

Liquid Hand Sanitizer is refused. Prohibited for International Military mail for it consists of flammable alcohol prooperties.

Batteries - Lithium is restricted in International mail so you must identify what type of batteries you are sending (ie Alkaline AA batteries, AAA nickel Cadmium batteries (Ni-Cd), AA Nickel Metal Hudride (NiMH) batteries, etc.

Sunscreen must be marked non aerosol. If it is a product that is possibly aerosol, it will be refused.

Postage for letters - When you send a letter to an APO or FPO address, the US Postal Service only transports that letter from where you've dropped it off, to the APO or FPO locations stateside. Once your letter reaches a stateside military installation, all mail handling is taken over by the US armed forces. This means that you do not have to pay postage from the US to Kuwait or Iraq, but you only have to pay postage for sending a letter from one place in the continental United States to another. 41 cents should cover the cost of a letter shipped overseas. But, you can always check with your local post office to make sure.

It is recommended that you stop sending packages to your troop one month before the are expected home. Military bases usually stop all mail one month before redeployment.