Gunner's Blog

DALLAS - Petty Officer 2^nd Class Miller Shield and his family got lucky this year. His R&R occurred in late November, just in time for Thanksgiving. "We had a great time," said his mother Deborah Carmon-Coleman. Just before he boarded a plane back to the Middle East earlier this month, Carmon-Coleman gave her son two Military Exchange Prepaid Phone cards for him to call home.

"Thanksgiving was great, but I knew Christmas would be tough," said Carmon-Coleman. "With both my son and my daughter-in-law deployed, we needed the most cost effective way for us to stay in touch."

As an employee of the Army & Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES), Petty Officer 2^nd Class Shield's mother is 'authorized' to shop in the same military exchanges he shops. The "PX/BX" is where Carmon-Coleman purchased the phone cards that will provide her son with more than four hours of phone calls between Bahrain and the United States.

Until the Department of Defense authorized exchanges to sell Military Exchange Global Prepaid Phone cards to 'non-authorized' exchange customers in April 2004, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents and neighbors were often forced to purchase phone cards designed for calls within the "Continental United States" because family members who do not work for the military (like Carmon-Coleman) or aren't married to an active-duty or retired military member are considered 'non-dependent' family members that do not qualify as 'authorized' exchange customers.

Now any American can "Help Our Troops Call Home" by sending Military Exchange Global Prepaid Phone cards to deployed servicemembers through www.aafes.org or 800-527-2345.

These phone cards deliver an instant morale boost with up to four and a half hours of talk time for calls placed from any overseas military installation worldwide to include 70 AAFES call centers in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan or Kuwait.

"I just worry about parents who are unaware of their ability to purchase these cards," said Carmon-Coleman. "Most phone cards are designed for calls between Boston and Philadelphia, not Baghdad to Poughkeepsie. Fortunately, when it comes to sending military exchange phone cards we are now all considered 'authorized.'"

Designed on a "global platform" for the specific needs of deployed troops, Military Exchange Global Prepaid Phone cards minutes never expire and no additional charges or connection fees are ever added to rates as low as .19 cents a minute to call home from Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom.

Carmon-Coleman and her son won't be the only ones on the phone before the New Year. In fact, troops deployed to Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom logged more than fifteen million minutes in calls last December. This year AAFES estimates troops in contingency locations will spend more than 20 million minutes on the phone in December alone.

Military Exchange Global Prepaid Phone cards purchased through www.aafes.org or 800-527-2345 can be sent to individual Soldiers, Airmen, Sailors or Marines (designated by the purchaser) or distributed to "any service member" through the American Red Cross, Air Force Aid Society, Fisher House, USO, Coalition to Salute America's Heroes, Operation Homefront or Operation Interdependence®.

The Army & Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) is a joint command of the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force, and is directed by a Board of Directors who is responsible to the Secretaries of the Army and the Air Force through the Service Chiefs of Staff. AAFES has the dual mission of providing authorized patrons with articles of merchandise and services and of generating non-appropriated fund earnings as a supplemental source of funding for military Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) programs. To find out more about AAFES' history and mission or to view recent press releases please visit our Web site at http://www.aafes.com/pa/default.asp.

~G: Fantastic - Now ANYONE can purchase and send our troops Telephone Calling Cards. If you have a few dollars to spare, this is a good way to spend them. Go to https://thor.aafes.com/scs/default.aspx or call 800-527-2345 right now! It will improve their morale, as well as yours.