Comments

William Mooney, Jr. knows all too well how hard it is to call home from Iraq. He served as a Line Medic in Iraq for 12 months, often times in the "middle of nowhere." Reaching his fiancée more than 8,000 miles away was not easy. Thanks to

"If it weren’t for the phone cards that I received from supporters such as yourself, Iraq would have been a long, lonely tour," says Mooney.

Mooney is back home now, working as a Medical Support Assistant at the Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center in Syracuse, N.Y. He works on a rehabilitation floor, where many patients come in from the emergency department, or get admitted because they need physical or occupational rehab.

"Many times, the patients try to make phone calls to loved ones and friends, however, the phones in the patient rooms do not access cell phones for whatever reason, so we are constantly using your cards for our patients who really need to contact family," he says.

Mooney thanks the VFW for helping him call home to his loved ones while he was deployed, and also for currently helping his patients at the VA Medical Center.

VFW Operation Uplink "Free Call Day" program also offers a vital link between service members and their families. At least one designated day each month, deployed service members making calls to the U.S. from their local Morale Welfare & Recreation (MWR) center are greeted by a recording which states their call will be free courtesy of VFW Operation Uplink. Free Call Days have provided more than 3 million free connections, totaling more than 37 million minutes in free talk time.