Nuke, is this true?

[Texsox]

Dear Jim,

 

I hope this message finds you and your loved ones enjoying the holidays. I have been thinking a lot about what our johnkerry.com community can do to mark the end of what has been an extraordinary year. We have formed bonds of friendship and commitment that I know will extend far into the future.

 

So, in addition to thanking you once again for all you have done, I'm writing to invite your participation in one final 2004 act of collective generosity. As a soldier, I remember how much it meant to hear from loved ones - especially at the holidays. So, I thought you and I could work together to make it easier for our soldiers serving in Iraq to phone home and hear a friendly voice.

 

We've found a program that does just that. Operation Phone Home is run by the USO, which has been an extraordinary friend to American soldiers for decades. The USO buys phone cards at cost and provides them to our soldiers free of charge. You can help the USO help our troops this holiday season right here:

 

http://www.uso.org/carddonations

 

In January, I will go to Iraq to see the situation firsthand and personally visit with our courageous troops who are serving America so well. Nothing would please me more than telling them that hundreds of thousands of us have expressed our thanks to them in this concrete and personal way.

 

Your gift can help a soldier phone home.

 

http://www.uso.org/carddonations

 

In the New Year, I will be writing you about our 2005 projects and priorities. In the meantime, I hope you will enjoy this special time of year. Thanks so much for your constant acts of friendship and your special consideration of this request.

 

Sincerely,

 

John Kerry

 

P.S. There are 140,400 U.S. military members serving in Iraq. Any calls they make home to those anxiously awaiting their safe return are at their own expense. A gift of $100 will provide 20 soldiers with a 100-minute phone card. A $1,000 donation would do the same for 200 soldiers. Please help. A friendly and familiar voice can mean so much to a soldier serving America so far away from home.

 

http://www.uso.org/carddonations

 

My God, why don't we provide free calls home? I cannot believe we place our soldiers in harms way, and then they are charged to phone home?? That is about the stupidest policy I have ever heard.

[MurcieOne]

I cant imagine this to be true...

[Texsox]

I cant imagine this to be true...

I just did a little checking and basically it is.

 

So I wrote my Congressman, both Senators, and my local paper. I love cut and paste.

 

My understanding is it avoids long lines at the few phones, and they are worried that free calls could be abused with some soldiers spending hours and hours on the phone. :headshake

[Texsox]

USO.org link to phone page

 

USO Operation Phone Home

 

 

 

They have sons and daughters, brothers and sisters,

 

mothers and fathers, and friends who are with them in spirit and silently

 

supporting them from the other side of the world.

 

But it would mean so much to our service members to be able to

 

hear their voices.

 

Far from home and lonely, they are defending

 

our flag and our freedom.

 

The USO is working hard to bring home as close to them as possible.

 

Please join us in USO Operation Phone Home, a campaign created to make it

 

possible for Americans to extend this touch of home to

 

the men and women of our armed forces.

 

And we will continue this effort

 

until every one comes home.

 

 

 

There is an URGENT need for phone cards for those serving in forward deployed locations.  Please join us in supporting our men and women in uniform during this holiday season.

 

 

 

          How to Donate to USO Operation Phone Home:         

 

via the USO website:

 

Online donations page  (Click here)

 

 

 

via phone:

 

1-800-901-1501

 

 

 

or send a check with “O.P.H.” written

 

on the memo line to:

USO World Headquarters

PO Box 96860

 

Washington, DC  20090-6860

 

For more information, contact Lindsey Fischetti at

 

(703) 908-6484 or via e-mail at [email protected]

 

Attention Corporations:

 

If you are a corporation interested in making a large donation toward this campaign, logo branding on the phone cards is possible.  For more information, please contact Lindsey Fischetti at (703) 908-6484 or via e-mail at [email protected]

[Scwible]

wow, i wouldn't think this would be true but i guess it is. Maybe i shall donate some to the USO cause I'd just waste the money on something else.

[Texsox]

Received today from my Senator

Thank you for contacting me about telephone and Internet service for our

men and women in uniform.  I appreciate having the benefit of your comments

on this important matter.

 

As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I am dedicated to

ensuring affordable and accessible communications between service members

and their families and friends.  As the son of a thirty-one year air force

veteran, I know firsthand what an important role regular contact plays in

maintaining the welfare and morale of military members and their families.

 

I look forward to further expanding of the ability of our men and women in

uniform to communicate with their loved ones at home.  You may be

interested in knowing that U.S. Central Command—that branch of the military

responsible for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan—provides service members

up to two calls per week using official phone lines.  (Though the frequency

and duration of these calls are determined by commanders in order to

prevent interference with operations.)  In fact, troops place a daily

average of 72,990 calls.

 

Additionally, unofficial telecommunications, provided by the Armed Services

Exchanges, are also available in 60 call centers and 593 satellite phones

located in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait.  Service members have free

Internet access at 32 fixed site Internet cafes and 146 military

unit-operated mobile Internet cafes in Iraq.  I also applaud the generosity

of Americans who have donated prepaid phone cards worth millions of dollars

through the “Help Our Troops Call Home” program and through nongovernmental

service organizations.

 

I appreciate having the opportunity to represent the interests of Texans in

the United States Senate, and you may be certain that I will keep your

comments in mind as relevant legislation is considered.  Thank you for

taking the time to contact me.

 

Sincerely,

 

JOHN CORNYN

United States Senator

[mreye]

Received today from my Senator

You may be

interested in knowing that U.S. Central Command—that branch of the military

responsible for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan—provides service members

up to two calls per week using official phone lines.  (Though the frequency

and duration of these calls are determined by commanders in order to

prevent interference with operations.)  In fact, troops place a daily

average of 72,990 calls.

 

No comment, Tex?

[Texsox]

No comment, Tex?

 

I still think it is ridiculous that soldiers rely on gifts and charity for a lot of their calls home. It is also up to their CO to determine if they even get those two. We are asking a whole lot of these people, and I believe close to unlimited calls home is the least we could do.

 

Bush just asked for $80 Billion more, aren't are service men and women worth a few million in phone calls.

[mreye]

I still think it is ridiculous that soldiers rely on gifts and charity for a lot of their calls home. It is also up to their CO to determine if they even get those two. We are asking a whole lot of these people, and I believe close to unlimited calls home is the least we could do.

 

Bush just asked for $80 Billion more, aren't are service men and women worth a few million in phone calls.

While I agree with you, I also see the miltary's point. Think about the costs. I know that the cost shouldn't really matter when it comes to the troops, but in reality, it does.

[Texsox]

While I agree with you, I also see the miltary's point. Think about the costs. I know that the cost shouldn't really matter when it comes to the troops, but in reality, it does.

 

Look at the budget to rebuild Iraq. I know there must be some accountability, but begging phone cards from US citizens isn't how I think our Troops should be treated. I want Nuke to have internet access to argue with me

[mreye]

Look at the budget to rebuild Iraq. I know there must be some accountability, but begging phone cards from US citizens isn't how I think our Troops should be treated. I want Nuke to have internet access to argue with me 

And I want Nuke to have internet access to agree with me.

[Rex Kickass]

We also make injured soldiers receiving on campus treatment in military hospitals pay for their own food. They are given an allowance of about 215 dollars a week for this, officers about 30 or 40 less. The cost to a soldier to eat 3 a day at Walter Reed? About 400-450.

[mreye]

We also make injured soldiers receiving on campus treatment in military hospitals pay for their own food. They are given an allowance of about 215 dollars a week for this, officers about 30 or 40 less. The cost to a soldier to eat 3 a day at Walter Reed? About 400-450.

Now, this is something to get pissed about. Phone calls? Whatever. But this, utter BS!

[NUKE_CLEVELAND]

I got a story for ya.

 

This involved the brigade I was in which was the Engineer Brigade of the 3d ID. In June of 2003 we were set up at a base camp east of Fallujah. During that time our Brigade's HQ had a sattelite phone that anyone was allowed to use for nothing, except for the time spent in line. That lasted till the end of the month when the bill came........800 GRAND! I s*** you not.

 

I never had to spend a dime on phone calls because there were literally boxes of phone cards that were sitting around mostly unused. Soldiers can call home for nothing in a variety of different ways. They can call back to their home base in the US or wherever through the Army's tactical network and have their call transferred to their home, as I said earlier there are stacks and stacks of phone cards donated by organizations like the USO and private groups.

 

I don't think anyones bank is being broken calling home to check on wifey.

[Steff]

That lasted till the end of the month when the bill came........800 GRAND!  I s*** you not.

 

 

Why the hell does it cost so much to make a damn phone call...??

[NUKE_CLEVELAND]

We also make injured soldiers receiving on campus treatment in military hospitals pay for their own food. They are given an allowance of about 215 dollars a week for this, officers about 30 or 40 less. The cost to a soldier to eat 3 a day at Walter Reed? About 400-450.

 

 

I highly doubt the authenticity of that number. Military dining facility rates are pretty much uniform throughout the world. I think it's 1.60 for breakfast and 3.50 for lunch and dinner. Total cost per day..... 8.60 Month (assume 30 days )......258. Soldiers in that situation are paid like 260something a month to cover food costs. Yeah they are paying but they are also getting extra cash from the government to cover it. If they want to have something delivered though, that's on them.

[Rex Kickass]

From the Salon.com article by Mark Benjamin:

 

But here's how the new rules drain hundreds of dollars a month from the pockets of soldiers: Enlisted soldiers get an extra $267.18 every month in their paychecks for food. So before this month, all soldiers at Walter Reed got free food at the chow hall and extra cash. Soldiers say they received that extra food money while they were serving in Iraq, too, and they just let their families spend it on groceries. Now, though, the outpatient soldiers forced to buy meals at Walter Reed say they could spend around $15 a day if they eat three square meals at the dining hall -- about $3 for breakfast and around $6 each for lunch and dinner. That adds up to $450 a month, $183 more than soldiers' food allowance from the military. (The situation is even worse for officers, who get only $183.99 extra each month for a food allowance.) The soldiers at Walter Reed point out that that they don't have the option of eating at home to save money because they are stuck at the hospital. Vandrey said spending $6 for lunch and dinner sounds excessive. "I eat breakfast and lunch there every day and I never spend more than $5 a meal," he said.

 

It still sucks. Paying for food at the army hospital you're being treated at for injuries from the line of duty should never happen.

[mreye]

From the Salon.com article by Mark Benjamin:

It still sucks. Paying for food at the army hospital you're being treated at for injuries from the line of duty should never happen.

No, it should not.

[southsider2k5]

Why the hell does it cost so much to make a damn phone call...?? 

 

And its the exact reason that satillite phones have never taken off, and Iridium went bankrupt. Those phones work ANYWHERE in the world, and they are not dependant on towers and antennas. That's why they were the only phone network not to crash on 9-11. But the problem is they had to put up a bunch of satillites (I don't remember the exact number but it seems like it was 50+) in order to support the network. It is ultraexpensive to maintain and upkeep.

Edited January 28, 2005 by southsider2k5

[Texsox]

And its the exact reason that satillite phones have never taken off, and Iridium went bankrupt.  Those phones work ANYWHERE in the world, and they are dependant on towers and antennas.  That's why they were the only phone network not to crash on 9-11.  But the problem is they had to put up a bunch of satillites (I don't remember the exact number but it seems like it was 50+) in order to support the network.  It is ultraexpensive to maintain and upkeep.

 

I believe you meant to say they are *not* dependent on towers and antennas.

[southsider2k5]

I believe you meant to say they are *not* dependent on towers and antennas.

 

Yeah, it should have been "not"...