Operation Dear Abby uses e-mail Published Dec. 3, 2004 By Gerry J. Gilmore American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- In 1967, a servicemember wrote advice columnist "Dear Abby" requesting "just a letter from home" for deployed troops serving during the Vietnam War.The famous columnist, known by her pseudonym, Abigail Van Buren, responded, and the Operation Dear Abby mail program was born. Through the ensuing years, hundreds of thousands of U.S. servicemembers received letters of support from Dear Abby readers during the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year holiday seasons.Shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, Defense Department officials shut down the program because of concerns about potential anthrax attacks through regular postal mail.In November 2001, Dear Abby and Navy officials teamed up to resurrect the letter-writing operation using e-mail as the conduit, said Bill Hendrix, director of the Navy's Lifelines quality-of-life program. The Navy-run program supports all the services. It can be found at anyservicemember.navy.mil. Mr. Hendrix said the Internet-enabled Operation Dear Abby system experienced 22 million hits during its first month of operation. "We like to say that was just an outpouring of (Americans thanking) the troops for what they were doing," he said.And with U.S. troops deployed worldwide supporting the war against terrorism, the operation's messages of support are as important as ever, Hendrix said.According to the operation's Web site, the general public can send messages to servicemembers. Servicemembers with Internet access can read those messages. Troops without Internet access can still read them by having others, such as their commanders, download and distribute messages.Hendrix said the e-mail servers "start to buzz" each time Operation Dear Abby is discussed in the Dear Abby column. "It goes right up to the 3- to 4-million-hit range every time she does it," he said.Today, Jeanne Phillips, the daughter of Dear Abby founder Pauline Phillips, writes the advice column, which reaches more than 100 million readers.