Overseas Americans to greet folks back home for holidays

  • Published
  • By USAG Kaiserslautern PAO release
KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany --  The Hometown News Service Holiday Greetings Program is coming to the KMC, stopping at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, three locations in the USAG-K, the Vogelweh Commissary and the KMCC on Ramstein.

The team will be taping holiday greetings for broadcast on local stateside TV and radio stations in all 50 states and U.S. territories.

Active duty, government civilians and contractors, retirees, Department of Defense Dependent School teachers and staff, and their family members stationed in these areas and who will be in Germany during the holidays are eligible to send holiday greetings back home.

Holiday greetings must be sent to relatives. By the hometown news definition, a relative is by law and by blood. Fiancés are not relatives.

"A couple of million people a day see these greetings," said Erich Schwab, JHNS Chief of Radio Production, who will be this year's European team chief. "If you record a greeting, the chances are it's going to air."

Schwab offers the following tips on how to make the most of the holiday greetings taping:

What to wear?

Active-duty members must be in uniform. Civilians should be in appropriate attire. "If you're in Germany sending a holiday greeting back home, I wouldn't be in shorts and tank tops because you want it to look like it's almost fall here," said Grogan. "But if you want to wear something that screams your location or you are from Green Bay and want to wear your cheese hat - go for it." Schwab said "don't forget the props" Santa's hats, favorite college or professional team or Christmas attire, banners and even pets. Yes, the family pet can also be in the greeting.

What to bring?

Bringing an address book along is a safe bet, but as Schwab said, "All we really need to know is who you are, and who it is going to and their area code." If participants have the phone number, Schwab says it gives the TV and radio stations an opportunity to contact their family members to let them know when the greetings are going to be on the air.

What to say?

Participants need to say five things within the greeting: Who they are, where they are, who the greeting is going to, where they are and some sort of holiday message. There is not a maximum or minimum time length on greetings. However, the best greetings are about 10 to 15 seconds long, said Schwab.

Family members must be accompanied by their sponsors, unless he or she is deployed. A civilian family member, a husband or wife, can make a greeting if the military family member is deployed, TDY or in the hospital, but they have to mention the deployment of the active-duty member. Family members can also make a greeting to their military relative while on deployment, provided they are going to be there during the holidays.

When does it air?

Television and radio stations will normally begin running greetings on Thanksgiving Day and continue through New Year's Day. "Don't say "Happy Thanksgiving" in the greetings because it dates it right away, especially when it airs on Christmas Eve," said Schwab.

He added feel free to say Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy New Year or wish families members a happy birthday if it falls during the holiday season. "It's your greeting - make it to the point and meaningful. You can even try to make it special - we had a family with banjos one year," said Schwab, who also said that greetings will air multiple times during the holidays.

The process.

When customers come to do the tapings, they will fill out a form for every greeting they plan to do. A member of the hometown news crew verifies the information on the forms and gives them a small briefing.

When it's time, one of the crewmembers will escort participants to the camera, give them another quick brief and place microphones on them. The camera operator lines them up and records the greeting in "5, 4, 3, 2...."

Holiday Greetings European Team Schedule for Kaiserslautern:

9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 22 in front of the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center dining facility

8 to 10 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 23 at the Parade Field on Panzer Kaserne

11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 23 at the Kleber Dining Facility

4 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 23 at Java Café on Rhine Ordnance Barracks

10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 24 at the Vogelweh Commissary

10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sept. 25 and 27 at the Kaiserslautern Military Community Center on Ramstein Air Base

For more information, call the public affairs offices at 486-8144 or 06371-86-8144 for LRMC; 484-8104 or 0631-413-8104 for Kleber and Panzer; 493-4213 or 0631-3406-4213 for ROB and Vogelweh; and 480-2458 or 06371-47-2458 for Ramstein