11
2010
Does your company support our troops?
1998 Texas Air Force Base
Today is veterans day (See me in my Air Force blues; circa 1998) . It is fashionable for a company to claim that they support our troops or that they support veterans but how many really do? Without knowing some companies actually do not support our troops and those who support there efforts overseas even when they could have. This issue has been on my chest now for about 4 years.
It all started when I served with the US Air force as a support contractor in the desert about 4 years ago, this is a couple of years after my enlistment. When you wanted to shop online, it was then you discovered that very few companies will ship to military bases overseas even though it would have cost them the same thing as shipping to any stateside by Priority mail. US bases overseas use what is called APO or FPO zip codes. When I was there, I had to take my hats off for Amazon and DrugStore.com this two stores will ship most of the stuff they sell to military bases overseas. You never know how much you love Irish Spring soap until you are far away from home where all you see are brands you do not want to use.
Some of the reasons a merchant might not ship overseas could be because of the added risk, and the fact that it takes longer to get there so some merchants might find it harder closing there books on a particular sale. The reason I blog this today is that some of you are going to become big webmasters in future, when God blesses you, remember there are many ways you can show appreciation to our troops, one of them is making sure they can get what they need when they need it. At the time of this writing, I discovered oconus.com an overseas military portal featuring store that offer APO/FPO shipping. I have never used this service before and hence the mention in this article does not constitute an endorsement.
Happy Veterans Day! HurraHH!!
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I am an active duty member(Navy)with 18 years in. While stationed overseas I found ShipItApo.com to be handy in getting items shipped overseas.
I have a question and you are probably the perfect person to ask. I have another business that I wanted to give a freebie to women veterans or wives of veterans or current enlisted. What can I do to prove that they are for real ?
Meaning if I say for Veterans Day we are giving away 100 free headbands. How can I be sure the person is in or married to someone in the military and not lying to get a freebie ?
Thank you and Thank you for your effort in the military.
RH,
You can never be perfectly sure just like CorelDraw can never be perfectly sure that its student edition is bought by students only. However you can do the basics such as ask for a copy of military ID. When people have to prove stuff, they realize that a lie is a lie.
However, on a larger scale, you could promote it via the military bases or some kind of military organization such as enlisted wives association, officers wives association and so on.