A quote from Marty Horn, father of Brian Horn, on the idea for anysoldier.com: "You can't have an army fight something as ugly as this and have bad morale -- anything that improves morale is going to get these folks back home."
Here's a great article from cnn that explains a bit more about this VERY COOL program. AnySoldier.com lets everyone help the troops. Their site is currently getting hit by a LOT of people, so it's a bit spotty getting through, but bookmark it and once it's not on cnn's front page, it'll be easier to get in, check back if you can't get in there, it's a good thing.
Back during the Gulf War, I was a young sorority girl in Emporia, KS. A few of the girls in my house had boyfriends overseas in the war, and always talked about what a difference it made in the unit when they got letters. We wrote letters to "any soldier that doesn't get mail" and it really made a difference. About 4 guys wrote me for over 6 months. One even stopped by and took me to dinner on his way across the country to his new base in Nevada once he got back to the US. It was very cool. With today's security, you can't just send letters to any soldier, you need an actual name and service #, so this family of a returned soldier have made contacts with thousands of servicemen and servicewomen who will receive packages or mail for their units. They ask for simple things like letters, toys to give Iraqui children, snacks, food, toilet paper, baby wipes (many are on the front lines without running water), etc. Think of being a woman out there, needing extra sanitary supplies. Not good. The family also has pre-packaged boxes of supplies to send and you can just click and donate.
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