Chances are you've been on the busy end of a holiday season. Packages sent, packages received, lost, damaged, and worried about. While reliability has gotten better and better over the years, sending and receiving anything can often seem like a bit of a gamble. However, packaging is much more than the cardboard boxes used to mail jewelry, books, movies, and any number of necessities that you can now have shipped directly to your door. You might not realize it, but packaging goes far beyond simply getting a product from a warehouse to your doorstep. In fact, it makes a major difference when it comes to the military. If you're at all interested in the way the military works, how it operates, and how it works to operate as a finely tuned machine, read on, because military packaging can often play a major role.

The military, in many ways, is an entire world in and of itself. Just like it has its own guidelines, laws, and traditions, like the rest of the world it also has its everyday necessities. While these necessities are similar to what we typically think of, they're also slightly different. Consider military packaging for example.

When it comes to the military, packaging isn't as simple as throwing a few items in a box with some bubble wrap, adding a packaging slip, slapping on some postage, and calling it a day. In fact, military packaging standards demand a fair amount of attention, and have continually evolved over the years.

As the Defense Logistics Agency describes, "Military Packaging exists based upon the lessons learned (and often not learned) when improper packaging failed to protect materiel in combat logistics support missions." For the layman, that means that packaging failed, and soldiers didn't get the supplies they needed – whether "supplies" refers to bullets, bandages, or anything in between.

The basic standard for military packaging is that all packages must effectively protect items to provide safe transit to the most distant locations while also withstanding long-term storage in extreme conditions – whether that means dry and sandy, wet and humid, or freezing cold. At the heart of this necessity is the motivation to encourage what the Defense Logistics Agency refers to as "combat readiness" at all times.

In our daily lives, if a package is exposed to the elements or compromised in any way, the worst that can happen is an insurance claim or short wait for a replacement shipment. However, when it comes to the military, direct exposure to the elements can quite literally mean the difference between life and death. If crucial supplies don't reach a base or post in proper condition, every effort to get them there could be in vain, and everyone relying on them could be in danger. For this very reason, DOD packaging specialists have come into existence everywhere to design and manufacture packaging solutions catered to the demanding specifications required by the military.

So when you think about the military relying on a wide variety of supplies around the world. Think about how those supplies get there. Because of this necessity, entire businesses have been created to make military packaging more effective. While it might seem like a very small consideration, it has an undeniably real impact on the lives of soldiers working and living abroad. So think about it. How might the world be different if militaries working everywhere couldn't get the supplies they need?