Senator Marty Golden Urges Community To Help U.s. Troops Phone Home For The Holidays

Brooklyn- State Senator Martin J. Golden (R-C-I, 22nd District), a member of the State Senate Committee on Veterans, Military Affairs, and Homeland Security, today is encouraging local residents to support members of the United States Military by supporting the U.S.O.’s Operation Phone Home, a program to give prepaid phone cards to those serving in forward-deployed locations.

The United Service’s Organization, incorporated in New York in 1941, has provided America’s men and women in uniform with a sense of home away from home for more than six decades. Since its inception in April 2003, Operation Phone Home has distributed more than a million phone cards. The U.S.O. plans to distribute many more over the holiday season to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and to those recuperating from injuries in the United States and abroad.

Senator Marty Golden stated, "What better way to say thank you to those brave men and women that are currently serving in the Armed Forces by making sure that this holiday season, they are able to call home and talk to their families and loved ones. May we continue to remember that it is our military who has allowed us to live in freedom and to celebrate our holidays amongst family and friends."

Golden continued, "The troops of the United States have devoted their life and their career to the protection of our nation. I trust that this community will come together and will show their gratitude to our American heroes by donating to support the purchase of phone cards for our American heroes."

Donations can be made online at www.uso.org/donate/default.cfm, or over the phone at 1-800-876-7469, or send a check made out to the USO and with "O.P.H." written on the memo line, to: USO World Headquarters, PO Box 96860, Washington, D.C. 20090-6860.