Servicemembers around the Pacific can send live greetings to friends and families at home with a Holiday Greeting from Hometown News.
The Hometown News Service from San Antonio records messages from servicemembers stationed overseas to air on radio and television stations in the servicemembers’ hometowns.
Thousands of servicemembers in Asia, the Pacific and Europe will blow kisses and dangle babies before film crews over the next several weeks, said Staff Sgt. Jerry Malec, team chief of the Pacific Hometown News Greetings Team.
Three teams of three fan out across the globe to collect the greetings in the fall before returning to the States for editing, so the finished messages can be released well before the holidays.
The Holiday Greeting program has been around for about 20 years. Last year, the teams put together 13,000 greetings.
Any servicemember can tape a message but the crew only visits Air Force and Army bases.
The program is very popular with servicemembers, according to Malec, who participated when he was stationed in South Korea in 1992.
For information and to set up an appointment, contact base public affairs offices.
The schedule ...
Here are the locations and dates for taping holiday greetings this year:
Japan
Sept. 11-12: Misawa Air Base
Sept. 15: Yokota Air Base
Sept. 16: Camp Zama
Okinawa
Sept. 18-19: Kadena Air Base
South Korea
Sept. 22: Camp Greaves, 8-11:30 a.m.; Camp Bonifas, 1-4:30 p.m.
Sept. 23: Camp Stanley and Camp Red Cloud
Sept. 24: Tongducheon, near Camp Casey.
Sept. 25 to 26: Kunsan
Sept. 27: Pusan, 8-11 a.m.; Camp Walker, 2-5:30 p.m.
Sept. 29: Camp Henry
Sept. 30: Camp Humphreys
Oct. 1-2: Osan. Taping Oct. 2 ends at 11:30 a.m.
Oct. 2: Dragon Hill Lodge, Yongsan, 2-7 p.m.
Oct. 3: Camp Eagle
Oct 4. Dragon Hill Lodge, Yongsan
Oct. 6: Yongsan Main Post Office
