By: E&P Staff Star and Stripes, the daily for the U.S. military, will publish more than 100 pages of free holiday messages to troops stationed overseas in separate supplements on Dec. 17 and Dec. 20.
The 6,000 messages is quadruple the number sent to troops during last Christmas season, the paper said.
Due to limitations of space, Stars and Stripes Chief Operating Officer Max Lederer said the paper originally planned to print only some messages -- on a first-come, first-served basis -- because of space and cost considerations. The original plan was to publish the messages in its Dec. 17 editions published in Europe, the Pacific, and the Mideast.
But with so many messages coming in to its Web site, the paper decided to print them all, regardless of expense. Lederer said the paper got help with the publishing cost from a sponsorship by SemperComm Foundation, which describes its mission as boosting the morale of U.S. service members stationed at overseas remote bases.
"We had e-mails from families telling us that Stars and Stripes was the only way they could be sure of getting a message to their loved one for the holidays," Lederer said. "The mission of Stars and Stripes is to be of service to our military community. What better way to let them know they're appreciated?"
Since Nov. 1, family and friends of overseas service members have been able to post text messages and photos on a Stars and Stripes Web site for the special section.
The messages will be available for public viewing beginning Dec. 18 at
www.Stripes.com.
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