Andy Khouri and Mark Sable asked me on Twitter yesterday to remind them how you go about doing that.  Good news: it’s pretty easy.  You’re going to be out the price of postage, but it’s worth it.

Here’s how it works:

1. Go to anysoldier.com.
2. Click on WHERE TO SEND.
3. Click on ANY SOLDIER SEARCH TOOL.
4. Leaving everything else blank, put either COMICS or COMIC BOOKS into the REQUESTS AND EMAIL CONTENTS field.  (As I write this, COMICS returns 8 units requesting comics–7 Army, 1 Air Force; 5 in Iraq, 1 in Qatar, 1 in Afghanistan and 1 in the Philippines.)
5. Click on one of the soldiers names and read their email, making sure what they want is actually what you’ve got.  Often they’re specific — they want funny comics, or newspaper comics, or Marvel comics, or they may even request a particular hero.
6. Once you find someone who either wants what you’ve got or is just generally requesting comics, click where it says CLICK HERE TO REQUEST THE COMPLETE ADDRESS.

Now, it’s been a while since I’ve done this and I can’t proceed any further right now because I don’t actually have any comics to send, but if I recall correctly, you fill out a short form and then you’re emailed the soldier’s address.  I believe you can request up to 2 addresses per day.  (While you’re at it, you might look at what else your soldier is requesting–sometimes it’s something as simple as cotton swabs.  Surely you can throw a package of q-tips in the box.)

The postage fees you pay to an APO or FPO address are NOT international shipping rates.  You pay domestic rates, so while you are picking up a bill, it’s pretty small considering the effect.  And it’s worth mentioning that our local UPS store in KC used to pack up any donations for troops overseas for free.  They’ve since changed ownership and we’ve since moved, so I have no idea if that’s common practice or not, but it’s certainly worth asking.

Good luck!