Individuals and families all across the nation - in schools, and churches, with campus groups, youth organizations, veterans groups and auxiliaries, and many other kinds of groups (including on military bases), are already writing fan mail to American troops at home and abroad for the Christmas 2001 Military Mail campaign.

Mail from all over the nation is sent to Friends of Our Troops headquarters, where it is thoroughly mixed. It is then made up into well over 1,000 packages of mail to be sent out, ranging in size from just a handful for small units up to several thousand for an entire base or one of the Navy's large ships.

"This helps to get an appropriate amount of fan mail to all those places," said G.B. Wiser, executive director.

As the continuation of the Vietnam Mail Call program established in 1965, there have now been 35 years of service to and support of military personnel. Special thanks to VFW Auxiliary 412 of Rochester, which participated in the most recent campaign.

To learn how to help boost morale by writing fan mail for U.S. troops across the U.S. and around the world, sent your name and address to Friends of Our Troops, P.O. Box 65408, Fayetteville, NC 28306. Visit the on-line photo album at http://www.troopfanmail.net/album.htm