It’s an easy way for people who have supported the Army to receive thanks. Yet the Freedom Team Salute program is not having the success organizers hoped when the Pentagon launched it three years ago.

So program officials were at Fort Lewis – part of a tour of the Army’s 10 largest installations – last week to spark interest among active-duty soldiers in the program.

The program honors recipients – which can be a veteran, family member or other supporter – with a certificate of appreciation, personalized recognition letter, quarterly newsletter, lapel pin and decal. Nominators need to only submit the name and address for themselves and the honoree. The program costs nothing to honor someone; it’s funded through the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs.

Anyone can honor Army veterans or supporters; active-duty soldiers can also honor their spouses and parents.

“This has never been done before – something to just say thank you,” said Michael Nadonley, the soldier outreach manager for Freedom Team Salute.

The program was created in 2005, but Nadonley said it’s having trouble gaining traction among active-duty soldiers. More than 1.4 million people have been honored so far; about 1 million of those have been veterans. Less than 200,000 parents and less than 75,000 spouses have received the packets.

=> Read more!

Feroze Khan was working Sunday morning when the calls began. Friends and family members were watching Colin Powell’s appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” when something unexpected happened.

The retired general and former secretary of state spoke of a moving photo of a mother grieving over her son’s headstone at Arlington National Cemetery.

The deceased was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, a 20-year-old corporal who was deployed with a Fort Lewis-based Stryker brigade when he died last year.

Powell’s words caught Feroze Khan, Kareem’s father, by total surprise.

“I knew nothing about it at the time,” the New Jersey resident told The News Tribune on Monday. “But I’m quite grateful to Gen. Powell about what he said about my son. Now I’m sure a lot more people are aware of the sacrifice Kareem made.”

Powell appeared on the television program to formally endorse Democratic candidate Barack Obama for president.

Powell said he was concerned about the decision of some in the Republican Party to smear Obama by saying he was a Muslim. And, Powell asked anchor Tom Brokaw, should it matter if Obama or any other presidential candidate was a Muslim?

That’s when he mentioned a photo essay in an issue of the New Yorker last month. The final image was one of Elsheba Khan, Kareem’s mother.

=> Read more!