Holiday Messages to the Troops

Friday, November 30th, is your last day to send print Holiday Messages to the troops in the print editions of Stars and Stripes. You can choose which edition you want your message (European edition, Middle East edition, Pacific edition, or online only). You can submit a message with or without an image. Submissions will be printed in a Holiday Messages section of the daily newspaper over the holiday season, unless designated as "online only."

Stars and Stripes is a daily newspaper published for the U.S. military, DoD civilians, contractors, and their families. Unique among the many military publications, Stars and Stripes operates as a First Amendment newspaper, free of control and censorship. We have published continuously in Europe since 1942, and since 1945 in the Pacific. In those two theaters, our readers number over 100,000.*

Today, Stars and Stripes maintains news bureaus in Europe, Pacific and the Middle East to provide first-hand reporting on events in those theaters. In addition to news and sports, our daily paper contains all the elements of the hometown paper our service members left behind, from "Dear Abby" to coupons, comics and crossword puzzles. In all, we publish five daily editions: Mideast, Europe, Japan, Korea and Okinawa.

In 2004, Stars and Stripes created a website where family and friends could post text messages and photos, addressing them to U.S. service members all over the world. The messages are available online, and printed in a supplement of the daily newspaper during the holiday season. Last year nearly 6,000 messages from friends, family members, and supporters were printed and delivered to Service members in Iraq, Afghanistan, Europe, and the Pacific.