Keeping in touch with military personnel

AIM THIS PAGE

Readers and viewers tend to view global events in a detached manner until they affect someone or something they know.

How, then, can we show the ways in which a community is connected to international military conflicts?

Here are a few ways to start:

1. Sponsor an in-paper coupon program in which readers provide information about relatives serving in the military. Get name, rank, branch of service, and military unit (ship). Do not ask for the unit location. Create a database of these names.

2. Create a weekly package (a quarter to a full page) with information about the local service members. Also offer telephone numbers and URLs of sites that support families with service members. One good example is the site sponsored by military mothers: http://www.militarymoms.net

3. Set up your own URL and a special e-mail address for communication with local service members. Almost all members of the military now have access to the Internet in their stations and camps. Provide members' families with an e-mail address (and a URL if you create a specific page) for them to send you information about what is happening to their kin. If a war begins, these probably will stop coming.

4. Offer special promotions for families with military members. Create community awareness about military families who live in the area by persuading local businesses to offer incentives and discounts on products.

5. Contact the Hometown News Release Center, run jointly by the Army and Air Force (http://hn.afnews.af.mil). Let them know you are looking for news releases on any service member within a specified radius of your community.

6. Research businesses in your area to find out if any supply goods, services, or equipment to the military. (Examples: A small company in Eaton, Maryland, is involved in portions of the unmanned drone program; a number of companies in the greater Chicago area provide foods for soldiers' MREs-Meals, Ready to Eat. Write or broadcast stories about these businesses.

pnesbitt@verizon.net