Cold tastes of home help deployed troops beat the summer heat

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  • By AAFES
DALLAS --  With temperatures soaring and personnel numbers surging, troops throughout Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom are reaching for cool drinks to beat the heat and keep up with the demanding pace of contingency operations.

"Deployed Soldiers, Airmen, Sailors and Marines need significantly more to drink than the traditional eight glasses of water a day," said Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) spokesperson Lt. Col. Dean Thurmond. "In fact, uniformed personnel serving in the Middle East may need to drink about 50 8-oz. glasses a day. Take it from me, drinking that much liquid in 24 hours can make even the most regimented person thirsty for some variety."

Deployed troops looking for a change last month made Monster and Red Bull Energy Drinks, two of the three most popular items at 51 BX/PXs scattered throughout Iraq, Afghanistan, Qatar, Kyrgyzstan, Djibouti, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Monster, which came in at number one with troops picking up 357,956 16-oz. cans, was followed by 248,267 bottles of Green Tea while Red Bull checked in at number three as 205,799 8.3-oz. metallic blue and silver cans were gulped down in just 30 days.

With average high temperatures already hovering between 98 and 105, Thurmond said demand for coffee remains surprisingly strong in exchanges in the Middle East. "Keep in mind, AAFES isn't sending your grandpa's steaming cup of instant 'joe' to the desert. Instead of brewing up pots of coffee, BX/PXs in Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom depend on large coolers to keep the java ice cold."

The exchange service's coolers earned their keep in April as BX/PXs downrange moved more than 25 thousand gallons of Starbucks Frappuccinos and Doubleshosts as troops "popped the top" on 131,353 9.5-oz. Vanilla Frappuccinos, 126,662 9.5-oz. Mocha Frappuccinos and 119,963 6.5-oz. Doubleshots.

Any American can send deployed troops a cool drink this summer, and skip the more than $30 postage needed to pack and send four 16-oz. cans to Iraq via Airmail Parcel Post, with a BX/PX gift certificate that can be redeemed at any AAFES exchange, including 26 facilities in Iraq alone.

"We've done the heavy lifting," said the AAFES' Chief of Contingency Planning Lt. Col. Steven Dean. "Other than homemade cookies and handwritten letters, almost anything you would want to pack up and send to a service member far from home is already on the ground and available at the exchange."

Started soon after programs that allowed the general public to send mail addressed to "Any Service Member" were cancelled due to security concerns and transportation constraints, AAFES' military gift certificate campaign allows anyone to make a direct and tangible contribution to military morale with a gift certificate that can be redeemed for nearly anything that a specific service member wants.

"Gifts from the Homefront" can be sent to troops deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere overseas by logging on to www.aafes.org or calling 877-770-4438. From there, "Gifts from the Homefront" are sent to individual service members (designated by the purchaser) or distributed to "any service member" through the Air Force Aid Society, American Red Cross, Coalition to Salute America's Heroes, Fisher House, Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society, Operation Homefront, Operation Interdependence® or USO.