[SandRat]

women of our armed forces at home and abroad. Defend them day-by-day with your heavenly grace; strengthen them in their trials and temptations; give them courage to face the perils, which beset them; and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[HiJinx]

Shorty, a VFW color guard commander, will be at the airfield tomorrow handing out telephone calling cards to the deploying soldiers as part of the VFW's Operation Uplink.

Anyone who wants to help the VFW can go to www.operationuplink.org/ to see how the program works and to donate to this worthwhile cause.