E-mail connects soldiers to home

BANGOR – The message “You’ve got mail” takes on new meaning when you’re a soldier serving in a foreign country a world away from friends and family.

“Every e-mail I received from my wife was golden,” said 1st Sgt. Steven Craig of Etna, who returned to Maine in December after 51/2 months of service in Afghanistan. “And I jumped on any chance to e-mail the people in my family or my friends that everything was OK.”

Craig serves with Echo Company of the 120th Aviation Air Traffic Services, Maine Army National Guard based in Bangor. He also served for six months in Kuwait for Operation Southern Watch in 1999 and for 81/2 months in Bosnia in 2002-2003.

Handwritten letters and packages filled with Mom’s homemade cookies and other hometown goodies have been the traditional ways military members have kept in touch with loved ones.

Although these methods still are employed, nowadays soldiers also can use the Internet, e-mail and cell phones to keep in touch, said Maj. Peter Rogers, director of public affairs for the Maine Army National Guard in Augusta.

Every soldier serving in the army has an e-mail address through Army Knowledge Online.

“Through the AKO, they can get pay statements, updates; they can check e-mail and get online to check personal records. It really is a great method of keeping them informed,” Rogers said. “There are a number of different ways to contact the soldier. We started to get into it fairly actively about a year ago. It’s a real good method of communications.”

The other branches of the military have similar services. Rogers said the only real drawback is that most soldiers overseas are limited to five to 10 minutes online.

Even with the limited access, what time the soldiers do get is “definitely a morale booster.”

E-mail may be an excellent tool, Craig said, but “there was nothing like getting a letter or package during mail call.”