I spoke to my son this morning. He's on his 4th - yes 4th - tour of the middle east. He's in Afganistan right now and will be there through the year.
When he was on his last tour in Iraq he was being charged $35 for either Internet or phone service (each). I thought that was outrageous at the time and did the sensible thing and wrote my congressman and senators. Got the ususal "thank you for writing...." response but no action.
My son, as well as almost anyone these days, communicates through social networking sites, Internet mail, and video conferencing. It's so comforting to them and to us, the families missing and worrying about them.
He told me he is being charged $100 a month for Internet service! $100 - this is through AAFES - which is now owned by private contractors. Boy, they must be raking it in! He also had to buy a sim card for his cell phone and is being charged $.50 a text and God knows how much a minute for calls.
As soon as I hung up from talking to him I wrote my congressmen and senators AGAIN. I also posted an email on whitehouse.gov.
Our families are risking their lives, every day, every stinking day and we can't even provide them a small comfort of communicating with their families without ripping them off! You can even buy dial-up here for less than $15 month.
Any suggestions on where to go from here?
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Thank you, everyone for the suggestions. I'm not going to let this go. I also understand that the military bigwigs get a couple of months combat pay by flying over (at our expense) and showing up on the 29th or 30th of the month and then staying for a couple of days - say through the 1st or 2nd. You know their pay is a hell of a lot more than what the actual fighters are getting!