Posted on 11/21/2007, 11:04:00 AM by Former Military Chick
ARLINGTON, Va. — More than 48,000 people have sent text messages since Saturday as part of an effort to show their support for U.S. troops this Thanksgiving, said Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of Defense for internal communications and public liaison.
The effort is run by America Supports You, a Defense Department program that gives publicity to nonprofit groups that support U.S. troops, which falls under Barber’s purview.
Under the “Giving Thanks” campaign, people can send their text messages thanking the troops by texting 89279, she said.
The messages will be tallied on the America Supports You Web site and shown on a crawl on the Pentagon Channel on Thanksgiving, Barber said.
Beginning on Thanksgiving and running through the Monday football games, American Forces Network also will run commercials saying how many text messages have been sent, she said.
The program is not a joint effort with Stars and Stripes, but it is covered under an America Supports You contract that is held by Stars and Stripes.
The Defense Department Inspector General’s Office is conducting an audit of Stripes expenditures for America Supports You.
The newspaper was not involved with funding the “Giving Thanks” campaign, Barber said Tuesday.
For more information on the "Giving Thanks" campaign, go to: www.americasupportsyou.mil.
For those interested, the following link helped introduce it to Free Republic members.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1928558/posts
I texted the soldiers. I encourage everyone else to do so, too. If you don’t know how to do so on your phone, the cell phone company may have a way for you to do it free on their TXT web page. I know Verizon Wireless does.
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
Just tried to send a message, but couldn’t. I just moved into this area and I am on a prepaid T-Mobile plan. I received a message that this service wasn’t enabled under the plan.
If you get the chance you might want to read my salute to on Veterans Day, it was also printed in the WND. One salute to veterans is the gift of some time
There must be a way to solve it, let me review the site and see and perhaps you can call your provider, a previous poster ConservativeMind offered his insight in post #3.
It rejected my message. (I mentioned I was a veteran...)
Ideas?
Verizon Wireless TXTs (FREE):
https://text.vzw.com/customer_site/jsp/messaging_lo.jsp
I checked T-Mobile, Cingular, and Sprint and they don’t seem to offer the same service online.
Thanks!
I have T-Mobile prepaid as well. Text and email are not included in the standard prepaid plan, it’s an additional option.
Just tried that one. It replied that the recipient number was not correct. Did anyone else have this problem?
Thanks.
I used my phone to TXT it, and my phone does allow TXT messaging.
Sorry, guys!
You can try this one
http://textforfree.net/sprintpcs/
It sent a message to my phone, so it seems to work.
Thanks sent.
Great, thanks!
I sent one last night.
Sent! Thanks for the help.
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