How Can I Communicate With The Soldier I Love?
May 11, 2006
Using your soldier’s military email address is the best way to get in touch because your soldier will be able to access his or her military email account from any computer on base, whereas he will only be able to access Hotmail or Yahoo mail from his personal computer or at an internet café. The lines at cafes are sometimes long lines and limit the amount of time a soldier can spend on the Internet.
Before your soldier leaves, make sure they set up an AKO (Army Knowledge Online). Accounts can also be set up for family members. This will allow you to check and send email through the AKO website and, if your soldier is online at the same time as you, instant message or chat through the AKO website. You do not need an AKO account just to send email to a military address, but it cuts down on the chances that your email will be filtered as spam.
Veterans of Vietnam or Korea, who had to depend on “snail mail” for communication, marvel at the new technology. One soldier noted that his father, who is a Vietnam veteran, still has trouble believing it. “He continually expresses gratitude and amazement. The soldiers deployed to Vietnam were not afforded this level of frequency of communication with friends and family. It’s like the difference between daylight and dark.”
Ask any soldier who spends the day dodging bullets in a hot, dusty country with unfamiliar food and they will tell you that email from home boosts them and keeps them going. Military psychologists confirm that the will to live is directly influenced by a person’s belief that he or she is loved and cared about. The good morale related to frequent communication increases a soldier’s will to survive.
Unfortunately, the dangers of war cannot be erased by technology. But the Internet can help maintain lines of communication, love and support - and that can make all the difference when somebody you love is half a world away.
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