Adopt-a-Soldier Web site gains popularity

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

Forwarded from: William Knowles <wk () c4i org>

http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/794552p-5674955c.html

[ http://groups.msn.com/hugstokuwaitadoptasoldier
  http://www.operationmilitarypride.org/    - WK]


By ELLIOTT MINOR, Associated Press

FORT BENNING, Ga. (March 6, 2003 9:53 a.m. EST) - Pamela Bates worried 
about getting depressed after her husband shipped out to Kuwait for 
the possible war with Iraq. 

Her solution was a project that keeps her busy 16 hours a day and 
lifts the spirits of thousands of soldiers living in tent cities in 
the Kuwaiti desert. 

Her Adopt-A-Soldier Web site - Hugs to Kuwait - was originally 
intended to serve only members of her husband's unit, the First 
Battalion of the 10th Artillery Regiment from Fort Benning. But the 
overwhelming response from soldiers, military families and other 
supporters led her to expand it to all branches of the military and 
even to a British unit. 

"I don't have a guarantee that my husband will return," she said. "I 
pray for his safety and I have to support those who watch his back 
everyday." 

Bates launched the Web site on Jan. 4, two days before her husband, 
Sgt. Daniel Bates, boarded a plane for the Middle East. He is an 
artilleryman in the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, which would likely 
take the lead in an invasion of Iraq. 

So far Bates has arranged the adoption of more than 9,800 troops, and 
18,000 people from every state and 11 countries have applied. She and 
a group of volunteers screen the applicants and then link them with 
troops who agree to be adopted. 

Mitch Dunn, a disabled Vietnam veteran, and his wife, Sandy, of Fort 
Dodge, Iowa, have adopted two sailors aboard the USS Constellation, an 
aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf region, and three soldiers from 
Sgt. Bates' battalion. 

"Every letter I write, I say, 'I hope the good Lord brings you home 
safely,'" said Dunn, who was wounded in Vietnam while serving aboard a 
Navy river patrol boat. "You know those kids have to be scared. If 
you're not scared, there's something wrong with you. 

"It really means a lot to get support from people back home," he said. 

Sandy Dunn has become one of the four assistant managers who help with 
Hugs to Kuwait, which has also linked churches, civic groups, scout 
troops and veterans' organizations with the troops who soon may face 
combat. 

"I was determined that I was going to do something for the guys in his 
unit," said Bates. "It never was supposed to get this big." 

Her Web site also offers chat rooms that provide support for military 
spouses, tips on what to include in care packages for soldiers and 
soldiers' pictures from the desert. 

It has a link to another group, Operation Military Pride, which works 
to boost the morale of troops based overseas through cards, letters 
and care packages. Operation Military Pride plans a Washington rally 
on Armed Forces Day, May 17, to show support for the military. 

"We've created a community, and it's been a godsend for me," said 
Bates, who has two teenagers. "I don't sit around feeling sorry for 
myself. As a spouse, you can get the blahs when your husband is 
deployed. You don't want to get out of bed." 

She runs the Web site from a laptop while seated on a sofa in the 
living room of her home in a military housing development. She 
receives more than 100 e-mails a day and her coffee table is piled 
high with printouts. She also gets a flood of regular mail from people 
who want to apply, or to offer their thanks and support. 

"When I get down in the dumps, I read the letters that people send to 
me thanking me for setting up the program, and it always picks me back 
up," she said. "I support my husband 100 percent and what the military 
does, 150 percent. I have to be strong for him and for my kids." 

Bates, who had little experience with Web sites, built the site on her 
own. 

"We're home. We feel safe and comfortable with our families and 
friends," Bates said. "They don't have that. What they are doing is 
what they have been ordered to do, what they took an oath to do. If we 
can make one soldier smile, then we're happy." 


 
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