this is what i tried to write/post yesterday. or as best as i can recreate it:

for some reason, i've been designated the person to write emails to companies on behalf of the guys here when something breaks. so because of this i've gotten very involved with some of the customer service departments and wanted to take a few minutes to put a thanks out there into the internet of the companies that served us well. And I'd also like to give a nod to the companies that just made their products right the first time so we didn't need the warranty service.

gerber knife and tool... this is a mixed review. i think things went downhill with them for awhile after they were bought out/joined with fiskars. they dropped alot of their better tactical knives, classics that had been around for decades (and for a good reason), and i think their overall quality slipped a little. not a huge amount, but enough to be noticable. i especially hate their multi-tools. for the last decade i've seen joes buy their pliers and watched them break within the year. they've always had a problem with their jaws, but they've never seemed to address that. i've tried to steer people away from them. however, three of their pliers broke within a week here and when i emailed them about it they sent a nice apologetic email and got three pliers in the mail almost immediately. we had those within a week. in their defense, in the last two or three years, they've started to come out with some great looking knew products and it seems like someone has finally gotten the idea that when lives depend on it, quality isn't an option.

leatherman tools... this is the counterpoint to the gerber thing. their products are wonderful. and when i say that, you have to understand that i used to hate them with a passion. they seemed so clunky compared to the gracefulness of a swiss army knife. big, bulky, uncomfortable. but they were the first to market with the multi-tool, and they've never slowed down to give the competition a chance to catch up. they've continued to innovate. when i sent my complaint email to gerber, i cc'd leatherman and sog tools because i praised their tools, leatherman said "thanks" and they sent me a t-shirt. a friend gave me a charge ti the christmas before i came here and that thing has been heavily used and abused while we've been here. it's been on my hip everyday and served me well.

sam's club... they've taken care of me not once, but twice. the first time i was mobilized back in 2001, i had a laptop i'd bought from sam's. i was using it for college and it stopped working. i contacted the manufacturer and they told me that i could lose the laptop for 2-4 weeks while it was being repaired or i could pay them for a new laptop and when they received my old one, they'd reimburse me. neither one of those sounded good to me, so i emailed sam's and they replaced it that same day. this time i had a different laptop i'd bought from them, and when i went home in october for my sister's funeral, my laptop failed on me. i took it to sam's club and they said it was so old that if i turned it in to them, they'd lose money on it. so i went out to the parking lot and called the manufacturer. they said they could and would fix it under warranty, but they refused to send it back to me in iraq, even though it was an apoae address. i went back into sam's and they told me to pick up a new laptop off the shelf. in both cases, amazing service. i can't tell you how much i needed the laptops in both cases, for school, to stay in touch with home, for the photos... everything.

ka-bar knives... i've had the same usmc kabar for ten years. i've beat the hell out of it and i trust that with my life in the right situation. they've made a newer model that's out of a more brittle metal. it's a give and take that they knew when they created the knife. although the metal was more brittle and couldn't be used as a hammer or prybar like my old one could, it holds the edge better and can be honed to a sharper edge. anyways, two of the newer models broke here. not necessarily because of abuse, but just a mixture of things. kabar immediately sent out 3 knives to replace the broken two. and one of them was an incredibly more expensive version. i can't ding them for quality. our guys were too dumb to pay attention to the different models and to see what they were using. but as soon as there was a problem, ka-bar took care it without question. awesome guys.

inova lights/emmissive energy... these guys make some of the most awesome flashlights ever. people here love the surefires and pelicans and i can't speak badly of those. but the inova xo3 model light is bright, it's an l.e.d. which lasts for ever and it's a clean, white light. i had a problem with the cheesy sheath they sent over here. i emailed and they replaced immediately. they sent me two tactical versions that were made by a DIFFERENT company. expensive sheaths. you can't speak highly enough about that kind of service.

sportsman's warehouse... these guys are great. around christmas, i realized some of our guys weren't getting mail and started talking to friends back home about it. sportsman's warehouse adopted our unit and sent tons of presents and packages to my guys. good stuff! not cheesy things we didn't need or want, knives, weapons cleaning kits, knife sharpeners, cameras... good, usable stuff that made a difference over here. guys from my company adopted some of my guys on an individual basis, and i thank them, but i don't like putting real names on this stuff.

underarmour... i thought it was hype, could you really tell the difference between one type of t-shirt and another when it's over 130 degrees? hot is hot, right? well, you can. these guys make an awesome product that holds up well and feels great against your skin. even better? the head of marine forces in iraq has forbidden his guys to wear underarmor shirts off base on combat operations. they're made of synthetic materials and when they catch fire, they flare. rather than bitch about this like some companies would, underarmor supports him 100% and states that their main concern is the safety of the soldiers. while i do think they charge way too much for their product, i do think it's a great item.

starbucks/dunkin donuts... both of these companies have sent tons of coffee over here for the soldiers. i'm not a drinker, but i know the difference having a good cup of quality coffee can make in one's outlook.

oakley sunglasses... these guys make great products. i've watched people abuse their oakleys and the frames just suck up the abuse. i've never seen a plastic frame break over here, and i've rarely seen the lenses get damaged other than scratching. and they have special discounted rates for soldiers on certain products that we need over here. i wear prescription sunglasses and they made me a set that still meets safety glass ratings for half the price i would've paid back home for that.

london bridge trading company... these guys hand make most of their tactical nylon bags. i've had mine for a year over here and i've abused it. it's been thrown on and off helicopters and trucks. it's been dragged across the parking lot when someone set it close to a humvee and a strap caught on the truck, it's been way overstuffed everytime i've taken it on a long trip and yet no seam has torn and it still looks brand-new.

camelbak... these guys are making high quality tactical bags. you hear about companies like blackhawk and eagle alot, but camelbak has quietly been making these great bags that are often a much more finished product than the competitors'. we bought a bunch of these bags for our guys and have not had a single warranty issue with any of them. and they've got more organizer pockets, etc. that make sense than alot of the other guys. we were issued some cheaper model camelbaks when we came into country and some of those leaked. i emailed the company and they sent me cases of bladders. way more than we needed as replacements. awesome products, awesome service.

garmin gps products. let me preface this by saying that i've never used a magellan product. i'm not bashing their company, but i've now owned four different garmin products and all four are still going strong. they've been abused, dunked underwater, one skittered off the top of a humvee, hit the ground, bounced a little and still worked when i picked it up. they're very easy to use if you take the time to read the manual and the preface to the gps system. i can honestly say that these things add a level of confidence when you're leaving the wire to go into dangerous areas. it's nice knowing if your truck gets shot out from under you, you know how to make it home. and there have been times when we've been out traveling, a road has been closed and we've been forced to divert on the fly, and we've been happy to have those suckers along for the ride.

that's all i can think of for now. i'm sure there are more, so i apologize but there might be a "part II". i know this is boring reading, but it's something i needed to do.

of course, i must once again say how much some companies, like APPLE suck. their products haven't stood up well over here at all, and their service is appalling.