The Kindle is a perfect item for the men and women who serve us in the military. Our son in law is in Iraq, and talked about how intense the boredom can become, since so much time is spent waiting for things to happen on duty, or off duty. Many carry books and magazines, but with body armor, a 70 pound pack, etc, you can’t carry much. His unit swaps books around as they read them, but it often means he (a fan of histories and biographies) is reading romance novels or auto repair books because that’s what someone was willing to swap.We got him a Kindle, gave him a nice starting account credit, and he’s now got bunches of histories and biographies, more than he’d be willing to carry as books, along with a couple magazines and a hometown newspaper. Whispernet doesn’t work in remote Iraq ( ;-o ) but he can download every week or two when they come onto a base and he can link through his computer. He’s got a dozen books for the weight of less than one. His biggest problem now is everyone wants to borrow his Kindle when they’re on patrol.I wonder who at Amazon I could contact to encourage them to create a military discount for the Kindle? $365 is a lot of money for an enlisted soldier. For all the things they go through on our behalf, I think it’d be great for Amazon to offer them a Kindle at cost – you KNOW they’re going to be buying books and subscriptions. And for Amazon, it’ll build a loyal following when the troops return into civilian life – they’ll have the Kindle habit.

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