|
 Thousands
of Americans are asking what they can do to show their support for service
members, especially those serving overseas in this time of war. Below
are Web sites for several organizations that are sponsoring programs for
members of the Armed Forces overseas. Service members do value and appreciate
such expressions of support:
Donate
a calling card
to help keep service members in touch with their families at Operation
Uplink at http://www.operationuplink.org
Send
a greeting via e-mail through Operation
Dear Abby at http://anyservicemember.navy.mil/
or www.OperationDearAbby.net
Sign
a virtual thank you card
at the Defend America Web site at http://www.defendamerica.mil/nmam.html
Volunteer
at a VA Hospital
to honor veterans who bore the lamp of freedom in past conflicts.
Reach
out to military families
in your community, especially those with a loved one overseas.
Please do not
flood the military mail system with letters, cards, and gifts. Due to
security concerns and transportation constraints, the Department cannot
accept items to be mailed to " Any Service member ." Some people
have tried to avoid this prohibition by sending large numbers of packages
to an individual service member's address, which however well intentioned,
clogs the mail and causes unnecessary delays.
The support and generosity
of the American people has touched the lives of many service members,
over 300,000 of whom are deployed overseas.
Donate
to Fisher House
 Fisher
House is a private nonprofit 503(c)(3) organization, that supports America's
military in their time of need. The program recognizes the special sacrifices
of our men and women in uniform and the hardships of military service
by meeting a humanitarian need beyond that normally provided by the Departments
of Defense and Veterans Affairs.
Because members of
the military and their families are stationed worldwide and must often
travel great distances for specialized medical care, Fisher House Foundation
donates "comfort homes," built on the grounds of major military
and VA medical centers. These homes enable family members to be close
to a loved one at the most stressful times - during the hospitalization
for an unexpected illness, disease, or injury.
Once donated, the
houses are government property and the managers are government employees
(nonappropriated fund employees in most cases). With the opening of a
second Fisher House at Landstuhl in December, there are a total of 19
rooms available for families of service members with a loved one in the
hospital there. Up until hostilities began, the majority of the guests
were young service couples with premature babies, but that is now quickly
changing to families of Operation Iraqi Freedom combat casualties.
For more information
go to http://www.fisherhouse.org
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