I well remember as a young Navy Seabee, tossing by seabag on the truck, and climbing into the plane for my first overeseas deployment. Granted, it was during peacetime, but the anxiety and anticipation of venturing to another country for the first time was very real. Soon enough I was on the ground at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for a 9 month deployment. I soon found that the only way to keep in touch with friends and family back home was either via US Mail, or making a very expensive phone call on the weekends. I don not remember the exact amount, but seems to me it was well over a buck a minute. That was in 1982. So, a monthly call home to Mom and Dad was about it for phone calls.
I don’t remember ever seeing pre-paid phone cards in those days. No cell phones either. Al Gore had not invented the internet yet . The highlight of the week was mail call. We would all gather around anxiously waiting to see if we had any letters from home. Girlfriends and wives would season their letters with perfume, and guys would retreat to a quiet place to read and smell thier mail. Care packages were ripped open with the delight of a small child on Christmas morning. Phone calls and mail call. That was it.
Thank God, today things are different for our armed forces. While my good friend Jameson has been deployed, I have corresponded with him in so many differnet formats its mind boggling. first, I learned i could send an email, it would be downloaded and printed and delivered to him within a day or two. He has called a few times, as they have much better access to phones that we ever did. Now he can email via hotmail, yahoo or whatever server he chooses. Instant messenger too. I was driving home from work just the other day, and my cell phone beeped to signal a text message. I figured it would be my wife telling me to pick a jug of millk up on my way home. NO- it was Jameson. texting me via hotmail from Afghanistan! His message? Hey- I need some more Copenhagen, can you send me some??? Unreal.
Your chew will be in the mail tommorrow Bro.
Yeah, he can read my blog over there too.
