VFW Operation Uplink™
 

<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD id=content></TD></TR><TR><TD id=content>A simple phone call home while deployed offers a vital link between service members and their families and provides an immeasurable boost in morale. Keeping in touch, however, can become quite costly.

As the largest organization of combat veterans, VFW knows the importance of keeping military families in touch. That’s why in 1996 VFW launched the VFW Operation Uplink™ program — the premiere calling program for deployed service members that provides free phone time to active-duty military personnel and hospitalized veterans.

VFW Operation Uplink™ initially provided calling cards to deployed and hospitalized troops, but on Mother’s Day 2006, due to the growing popularity of the program and thanks to the generosity of corporate donors like Sport Clips and United Auto Workers-General Motors, the program began hosting “Free Call Days.”

At least one designated day each month, deployed service members making calls to the U.S. from their local Morale Welfare & Recreation (MWR) center are greeted by a recording which states their call will be free courtesy of VFW Operation Uplink™. The program began working through 191 internet cafes abroad and is now offered through more than 866 locations.

CPT Shawn Bailey, Jalalabad, Afghanistan, FOB Fenty, says of the program, “I am so grateful for the ability to hear my wife and my 8-month-old over the phone. Your service is crucially important for the morale of the soldiers. You are doing your country an immeasurable service by ensuring the communication of military families!”

Members of VFW and Ladies Auxiliary VFW Posts, as well as other caring citizens generously support the program.

Free Call Days have provided more than 3 million free phone calls, equaling more than 37 million minutes in free talk time.

The VFW is proud of VFW Operation Uplink™ because it provides an easy way for individuals and organizations to make an immediate difference in the lives of active-duty military personnel.</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

http://www.operationuplink.org/