When United States Postal Service employee Serrina Waters wantedto honor those serving in the military overseas in 2003, she workedwith her employees to develop a plan.

They encouraged community members to send care packages thatinclude a phone card and a letter to a serviceman or woman they didnot know. The idea was a huge success for the small town ofLiberty, where she then worked, and made an even larger impact onthe men and women in Iraq with whom they connected.

Waters, presently the station manager at the USPS on BrookhavenRoad, hopes the idea will impact the city of Brookhaven as much asit impacted Liberty.

The Brookhaven 0ffice of the USPS is sponsoring Operation PhoneCard and Operation Letters from Home. Similar to the program shedirected in Liberty, the dual emphasis program challengesBrookhaven residents to connect with U.S. soldiers serving overseasby giving them what is most important to them, contact with theirfamilies and support from their fellow countrymen.

Operation Phone Card calls for Brookhaven residents to purchase$10 phone cards for servicemen fighting overseas. The global phonecards can be purchased from the Brookhaven Post Office and providessoldiers with 18 minutes of phone contact with loved ones. Globalphone cards from other commercial businesses will also be accepted,but must use international minutes.

Operation Letters From Home encourages Brookhaven residents towrite a letter to a soldier. Waters has personally witnessed theimpact a letter writing program has on U.S. troops and believes thebenefit is immeasurable.

“It could change a soldier’s life,” Waters said.

As a former postmaster in Liberty, Waters and her employeessought out a plan to boost the morale of troops.

“My guys in Liberty wanted to do care packages for soldiers.Care packages led to phone cards and phone cards led to letters,”Waters said.

Although care package recipients were grateful for phone cards,Waters believed that letters written by citizens had a moreprofound impact.

“The troops were so appreciative of the correspondence frompeople here,” Waters said. “Some hadn’t received a letter in ayear.”

Servicemen living in close quarters often look forward to mailcall. But the daily routine may be dreaded by soldiers whose familymembers do not write.

“Your morale goes through the dirt if you don’t get any mail,”Waters said.

Many soldiers say personalized letters mean so much more thane-mail, Waters said.

“It made it so much more real for them,” Waters said.

Waters received hundreds of letters and emails in response fromappreciative soldiers. One letter, in particular, struck a chordwith Waters.

“One serviceman wrote, ‘This made a difference in my life,'”Waters said. “There is so much negative press about the war overthe TV and the radio, they rarely hear anything positive.”

Waters believes that, whatever one’s opinion is about the war,American citizens and Mississippians, specifically, should rise tothe occasion and express gratitude for their efforts to serveAmerica.

“As an American, I may not approve that you are over there orwhat you are fighting for,” Waters said. “But I care that you arethere and I care that you are an American.”

After the effort in Liberty, Waters received phone calls frompostal services around the country. A post office in Florida ran asimilar project. Similarly, an administrator at the national levelcontacted Waters about replicating the project on a nationallevel.

Nothing materialized nationally, but in 2006 district managersfrom USPS contacted Waters about a phone card project inMississippi.

The Mississippi District of the USPS is sponsoring One MillionMinutes, a statewide initiative challenging Mississippians to givetroops a total of one million minutes of prepaid, global phonecalls.

“I am in support of the phone cards because these men and womendon’t get to call home a lot.” Waters said. “Our soldiers aren’tthe only ones giving up so much. Their families are staying at homewondering what’s going to happen to their loved one. They’re givingup a lot too.”

Waters contacted district level marketing representatives forapproval of Operation Letters from Home.

“The two projects really go hand in hand,” Waters said.

She hopes the Brookhaven community will respond to the two-phaseprograms in support of US troops. Waters believes that the programwill work in Brookhaven.

“We sent 400 or 500 letters in Liberty. I’d love to send 50,000letters from Brookhaven,” Waters said.

Letters may be mailed to the Brookhaven Post Office and shouldbe addressed as follows:

American Soldier, C/O Station Manager, Brookhaven MS 39601.

Letters must have a return name and address on the outside ofthe envelope in order to be forwarded to Iraq for distribution.