Operation Dear Abby Hits The Internet

By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Dec. 2, 2004 -- In 1967 a servicemember wrote
advice columnist
"Dear Abby" requesting "just a letter from home" for
deployed troops serving
during the Vietnam War.

The famous columnist, known by her pseudonym Abigail Van
Buren, responded, and
the "Operation Dear Abby" mail program was born. Through
the ensuing years,
hundreds of thousands of U.S. servicemembers received
letters of support from
Dear Abby readers during the Thanksgiving, Christmas and
New Year holiday
seasons.

Shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the
United States, the
Defense Department shut down Operation Dear Abby due to
concerns of potential
anthrax attacks through regular postal mail.

In November 2001, Dear Abby and the U.S. Navy teamed up to
resurrect the
letter-writing operation using e-mail as the conduit, noted
Bill Hendrix,
director of the Navy's Lifelines quality-of-life program.

Hendrix said the Internet-enabled Operation Dear Abby
system experienced 22
million hits during its first month of operation. "We like
to say that was just
an outpouring of the (U.S.) population to thank the troops
for what they were
doing," Hendrix remarked.

"It was just an overwhelming surge" of support, he said.

Today, Jeanne Phillips, the daughter of Dear Abby founder
Pauline Phillips,
writes the advice column, which reaches more than 100
million readers.

And with U.S. troops deployed worldwide in support of the
global war against
terrorism, Operation Dear Abby's messages of support are as
important as ever,
Hendrix said. The Navy-run operation supports all the
services.

According to the operation's Web site, the general public
can send messages to
servicemembers. Servicemembers, in turn, with Internet
access can read those
messages. Troops without Internet access can still read
them by having others,
such as their commanders, download and distribute messages.

Hendrix said the e-mail servers "start to buzz" each time
Operation Dear Abby
is discussed in the Dear Abby column. "It goes right up to
the 3- to 4-million-
hit range every time she does it," he said.
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