Welcome to the Canteen, Khepri, where we honor our troops, our veterans, their families, and our allies every day. We are here 24(mostly)/7/365 to provide a place for our military to stop in, pull up a chair, and enjoy a joke, hear a song (requests taken), read some history, enjoy a cyber meal (no calories), hear about our families lives, join in the silliness, and just relax.
A ping is when you want someone else to see what you've typed, to direct them to you. You put their name into the TO box. It's sorta like jumping up and down, waving your arms and saying, "over here, over here!!"