Support to American Military
Personnel
Thousands of Americans are asking what they can do
to show their support for service members, especially those serving
overseas. In addition to the efforts of your own veterans service
organizations here are several other from several organizations that
are sponsoring programs for members of the Armed Forces overseas.
You may donate to the Michigan National Guard Family Fund. One
hundred percent of this not-for-profit fund goes to financially
struggling families of deployed Michigan National Guard members.
Send your check or money order to Michigan National Guard Family
Fund, 2500 S. Washington Ave., Lansing MI 48913.
Please do not flood the military mail system with letters, cards,
and gifts. Due to security concerns and transportation constraints,
the Armed Forces will no longer accept items 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.
Log on to the following Web sites to show 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
Send a virtual thank you card at the Defend America Web site at
http://www.defendamerica.mil/nmam.html
Make a donation to one of the military relief societies:
Army Emergency Relief at
http://www.aerhq.org/
Navy/Marine Relief Society at
http://www.nmcrs.org/
Air Force Aid Society at
http://www.afas.org/
Coast Guard Mutual Assistance at
http://www.cgmahq.org/
Donate to "Operation USO Care Package" at
http://www.usometrodc.org/care.html
Support the American Red Cross Armed Forces Emergency Services at
http://www.redcross.org/services/afes/
You can send a gift certificate to military troops deployed in
support of Operation Enduring Freedom or Iraqi Freedom by visiting
http://www.aafes.com/docs/homefront.htm. The American Red Cross
will distribute these certificates for use at forward deployed
Post/Base Exchanges.
One of the newest ways of helping is to donate frequent flyer
miles for the use of troops returning from Iraqi on R & R. You may
visit
http://www.heromiles.org/donate.html to learn about this
program.
You can donate gift certificates for military personnel to use at
commissaries by visiting
http://www.commissaries.com/certificheck/index.htm
There are other ideas at
www.defendamerica.mil/support_troops.html
http://www.usocares.org/home.htm
http://www.army.mil/operations/iraq/faq.html
