Memorial Day - May we Never Forget

Memorial Day seeks to stir the patriotic feelings of every American citizen and remind them that they owe their
freedom and liberty to the finest of young men and women who laid down their lives for them. For all the soldiers
who are currently serving our country, for those who are now retired and to our fallen heroes we at Friendoozle thank
you for protecting our country and the freedom that we sometimes take for granted.

Memorial Day is also the time to think about and give aid to the families, widows and orphans of the war dead.
The memorial sites are strewn all over America and it is our duty to honor the memories of these unknown and
distinguished soldiers. We regard your service as nothing short of heroism and will celebrate this day with the
greatest respect for our soldiers in service current, past and future. The cost of freedom is great and the sacrifices
made by our military everyday to ensure our way of life is certainly not taken in vain.

Now here we are years into the war and the media and public grow skeptical of the reasons why the United States
declared war on terror. It is responsible to examine the reasons why we are there, however, through all of this we
have to remember our troops. Our troops are putting their lives on the line day in and day out defending the fundamental
rights that our country was founded on. With deployments getting longer military families are being torn apart and the
divorce rates in the military are higher than those of non-military families. Military families are slipping behind in
finances as their military benefits shrink. Our troops and their families need our help and support.

This conflict that our country is so deeply bound to brings questions to those who question our need to be involved.
There are those who oppose the war but remember it is the war that we oppose not our soldiers. We will never forget
those placed in harms way protecting this country. It is those who wear the uniform and fight for the ideals of this
great country and her citizenship that we honor on this day. This day of Memorial of this year 2008 may we all come
together as a unified people in prayer for the wisdom of our leaders in providing a safe end as soon as politically and
humanly possible and that this might be accomplished without any additional harm to our troops or civilians.

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Should We Be in Iraq?

ConnectFriend Support Our Troops at All Costs

As the political arena heats up with conjecture pro and con on the war in Iraq we are reminded not to forget the victims of the conflict. Early in the beginning there were stories circulating in the media about weapons of mass destruction being moved from Iraq to Syria to hide them from the NATO inspections. President George W. Bush and Vice President Cheney informed us of Sadam's stockpiles of nuclear and bioligical weapons and how we needed to stop him from using them against the U.S. or Israel. There is no doubt that Sadam committed crimes against his people and needed to be removed from power in order to stop him. Now years into the war the media grows skeptical of the reasons why the United States declared war on terror. Through all of this hype we have to remember our troops.

Our troops are putting their lives on the line day in and day out defending the fundemental rights that our country was founded on. With deployments getting longer families are being torn apart and the divorce rates in the military are higher than those of non-military families. Military familes are slipping behind in financial ruin as benefits dwindle. Our troops and their families need help. There are many foundations and causes that attempt to offset some of the stresses that todays military familes are faced with. That is why it is so important to ConnectFriend to give back. Each dollar that our users spend on services here go toward covering the operating expenses associated with providing free video conferencing for active military.

We all have to put our political feelings aside and do what is right for our country. It is counter productive to point the finger. Rather, we need to put on our humanitarian hats and remember what our soldiers who are so far away face an enemy without question so that we can enjoy our freedom. Being able to see and hear their loved ones is a blessing. We have created a family portal that gives them the ability to see pictures from home, watch videos and listen to audio clips from loved ones, chat live in private text chatrooms and use webcams to see and hear their families live over the internet. Won't you join us to help keep this service free for our troops.

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Iraq Conflict Could Linger for a Decade or More

Military Familes Faced with Longer Deployments!

Well the cat is out of the bag as we discovered that the President of the United States expects the conflict to potentially be passed on to more than the next administration. It is a valiant gesture that our fighting men and women give to our nation in their service. Without their sacrifices we might have had to face the terrorist at home, on American soil, in our towns and neighborhoods.

Fighting terrorism is unlike any conflict that we have faced as a nation to date. As the conflict wages on the total size of our military deployment coupled with the potential term of conflict resolution increases our troop tours of duty. Military families are forced to bear the high cost of emotional and financial challenges.

Our sons, daughters, wives, fathers and mothers will be deployed for increasingly extended tours. Divorce rates among our troops is astronomically higher than the civilian divorce rate. It is the extended assignments, financial burdens of military spouses, and the distance, the overwhelming distance between families and the deployed soldiers.

Simple day to day tasks that we as civilians take for granted require unimaginable forethought and planning within families separated by the conflict in Iraq. Days and even weeks pass between communications between military families. Phone calls are expensive and letters are delayed. There is simply no effective immediate communication for these families.

ConnectFriend was designed as a portal for these types of hurdles. Most military installations are afforded Internet access. Within the portal families have the ability to send email messages, post pictures from home, record and upload video and audio clips for the troops to access when they have time. Our video conferencing system, which requires no software installation, can be used 24 hours a day seven days a week. There are no restrictions or weeks of preplanning required for access to the system. It is available as the soldier's time permits. For the times between the other services onsite provide for immediate contact through our text chat rooms and private text chat system.

All the services offered on ConnectFriend.com are free to active military, whether deployed abroad or domestically. Non-military users may use the services and their monthly fees go to offset the costs of providing the free military accounts. If you or your family would like to do something to support our troops please consider signing up at ConnectFriend and you will have a value service with video conferencing while helping our troops stay in touch with their families.

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Dad Stays in Touch While On Business

I travel quite a lot for my company. My business takes me to several cities all over the US and having a cell phone is great but being able to see my 5 year old son and wife while we talk is super.

We have tried to use our favorite messenger but some of the hotels and offices that I am in have firewalls to deal with.

I read an article on the internet about connectfriend and thought I’d give it a try. Connectfriend has turned out to be a really convenient service for me and my family because I can post messages for my wife to pick up at her convenience. I carry a laptop with a headset and a laptop Logitech webcamera with built in wireless. At home we have a wireless router, a desktop PC and a laptop set up the same as my company laptop. My wife usually uses the laptop because she can move from room to room or even outside while we talk. I was really surprised at how well the connectfriend video messenger works even on wireless connections. I can hear and see my family in almost real time video.

As an added bonus I am very pleased that the two accounts that I pay for on here enable four free troop accounts. I was one of those guys that wanted to do something to support the troops but hadn’t decided what to do or how to proceed. Connectfriend allows me to have access to a good service while supporting our soldiers.


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My Father's First Internet Video Chat Experience

I got a call from my mother, who lives three thousand miles from me, telling me that my father wasn't doing well after a bout with pneumonia and she needed a little help. I would do anything for my mother and father so I got the house in order and left my husband and son with a refrigerator full of frozen dinners for my parent's house. It isn't really any big deal because we're only five hours apart by air so off I went to help with my father.

When I got there everything was fine and Pop was feeling better, seems I'd rushed out a little prematurely, but it was great to see everyone. I had told my husband that we would call around the same time every day to keep each other updated. On my first call home my husband asked, "doesn't your sister still have her computer?" I told him that yes indeed she still had it and it worked. He then suggested that I download a copy of the "WebPhone" and we could talk over the net instead of using the phone. So I downloaded the software while my husband (my personal tech-support guy) led me through the installation procedure. I had forgotten about the "WebPhone". We used it to talk to my mother-in-law all the time. We got a free trial copy of it when we bought a new sound card for our computer and thought for its day (mid 1990's) it was fantastic. It even had video capabilities over dial-up and it worked surprisingly well. After the install we connected to each other and there were the familiar faces that I missed starring at me in the video window. I could see them very clearly as long as they didn't move too much in the picture. That was quite a feat as my son was 5 at the time. We called my father over and sat him down in front of the computer and he was speechless. He had never seen anything like this before. It wasn't long until he was pacing, waiting for each video call. He was totally awestruck with the video and the idea of being able to see his grandson on a daily basis. A couple of years later the company that provided the Webphone system stopped supporting the software and we had to return to the telephone.

A year ago we found the service offered by ConnectFriend. We were touched by their program to support our troops and decided to sign up and give it a try. With the new higher speed connections and the list of services they provide family users we quickly got all of our family members to sign up on the service. It has been the best for all of us. Everyone uses the service almost every day. I recommend that if you are looking for a way to stay in touch with your family and help support the troops ConnectFriend is definitely worth a try.

In closing I would like to say thank you ConnectFriend for bringing my family closer. You guys have an AWSOME service.

Sincerely,
Name Removed

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Captain in 264th uses ConnectFriend with fiancée

Soldier uses our service from Iraq!

ConnectFriend received high marks from a soldier stationed in Iraq as he uses the video messenger and text chat rooms to communicate with his fiancée who lives in North Carolina - "It was nice to be able to see and hear my fiancée within ConnectFriend it has been a few months since I was able to actually see her…thank you for providing us the service free for military use".

Many of the families who have signed up to use ConnectFriend take full advantage of all the features. They will post video clips for their troop member to view and audio clips for them to listen to. They use the on-site message system to leave notes for the soldier to pick up when they are able to log into ConnectFriend. We hear that since the soldiers in Iraq are not on a time schedule it is nice to be able to retrieve messages left by their loved ones without necessarily having to schedule a meeting time for video chat sessions. They save the video chat system for time they are able to schedule off.

If you are looking for a way to support our troops purchasing an account to use the service helps provide 2 free military accounts and you get a value add service too. Consider joining ConnectFriend and help a military family stay in touch.

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John Furgess on ConnectFriend.com

Connectfriend.com was reviewed by VFW Commander John Furgess

The Veterans of Foreign Wars was interested in providing our troops with a system that would allow military personnel to stay connected with friends and family while they were deployed abroad. John Furgess, Commander of the VFW, visited online with our CEO, Joe Eichler, about the possibilities of ConnectFriend.com.

"ConnectFriend grew out of our desire to do something for our troops", said Joe Eichler. "We have a family member in Iraq right now and were surprised that there were no cost effective means of communication available to our troops" concluded Mr. Eichler. "Our concept is and will always be free service for our military and their family".

Mr. Furgess sitting in front of the webcam in full dress uniform remarked at how the world of communication had changed since he was in the military. "A postcard or a letter once a week was about all we had." The Commander further noted the additional features that would allow a soldier to pop-in and check the latest photos posted from home, read messages left by family members, listen to audio clips or view video clips from home all stored on the ConnectFriend servers.

The live video and audio messenger which is the centerpiece of ConnectFriend performed flawlessly during the meeting between Mr. Eichler and the Commander. The Commander expressed his appreciation for ConnectFriend and endorsed the technology for use by our troops.

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