I got SPAMMED by John Kerry today, pitching a USO “support the troops” charity called "Operation Phone Home.Kerry’s email says:
Really? Do soldiers get no allotment whatsoever to phone home from a combat zone? I haven’t decided yet whether or not to support this charity, but if this claim is true I will certainly write my own representatives and insist they allocate money and resources to provide some amount of telephone time as a benefit to soldiers in a war zone.
Currently I have a friend who is deployed to Camp Victory in Baghdad. Speaking with his wife, he gets a 10 minute call every week on Uncle Sam’s dime. Any other calls must be made at his expense. However, he’s an Intel REMF at Corp level so it may be different for other soldiers.
I can telll you that during Gulf I (or what ever we’re calling 'em) I paid (or whoever I called when I called collect) for every call that I made back to the states…not that I had a chance to make very many since I was an infantryman in a line unit.
Probably based on this (from snopes).
Yes, but.
A number of phone companies were (and perhaps are) donating phone time to the troops. A number of charities are doing a fine job of distributing free phone cards.
Since I am no longer in the service, I do not want to say for sure, but there are a number of efforts to reduce this burden.
Military Exchange Prepaid Calling Cards
You asked? There ya go. 
I heard about this the other day on the radio. How one can simply donate $$$, knowing that the entire donation will be used to purchase calling cards, and donated to troops in need of one who cannot afford one.
I’d do it. In fact, I’m gonna do it. If I can afford to go see a movie and popcorn today ( price, roughly 15.00 ) then I can donate 20.00 for a phone card for a serviceperson to use to hear their family’s voice over the telephone.
I don’t see a scam in here anywhere.
Cartooniverse
There is a service called MARS, which is the Military Affiliated Radio System, which I believe is still in use. This is a phone call via ham radio. You called into the base MARS station, where an operator would patch you to a phone number in the states. You were usually limited to a five-minute call per day, and you have to say “over” whenever you are done speaking so the operator can hit the switch.
This worked out fine, if you planned your call and practiced at saying more than just “Hi. Over.” The operators did so many of these calls that privacy was not really an issue. All they listened for was the “over”.
You can also send calling cards through Treats For Troops, but it sounds like other things (depending on where the soldier is stationed) might be equally appreciated as well.
It’s not really SPAM because you signed up for it (barring an accident somewhere). If you don’t want Kerry’s SPAM you can click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email.
I saw a TV reporter explaining how he & his crew didn’t ever have to worry about carrying food or water with them. Any time they came across any US troops they just let them use some their satellite phone and they gave them all the water and MREs (Meals, Ready to Eat) they wanted.
I recommend that anyone who is interested in what troops really need check out Books for Soldiers. Thanks to a recent hack attack, they’re in transition to security rules mandated by the DoD. 
While BfS does (manifestly) encourage sending books, it also handles a vast assortment of other things. I’ve kept meaning to put up an article here, but I didn’t really want to put it in IMHO, so thank you, Boyo Jim, for making it possible for me to post this in GQ! 
If you go through the new app process, once it’s set up, you’ll discover that many units aren’t stationed anywhere near PXes or mess tents (though I’ll bet they’re not as sorry about their MREs as they were about 10 days ago!) :eek: Those units, if they have juice, are geeked to get CDs and DVDs, as well as ramen noodles and other junk food that needs cooking. They’re also wild to get condiments (ketchup, mayo, etc.), food that doesn’t hafta be prepared (such as tuna), disposable razors, wet wipes, and toiletries. And the femmes sometimes have “sanitary” crises, as well. And all of them enjoy mail. Not all of them get much.
Some units (both in Iraq and Afghanistan) ask for clothes and stuff for local kids. We have reason to be very proud of the overwhelming majority of our guys and gals. <snip further commentary; this is GQ>
On my ship we had four custom-made AT&T pay phones in the mess-decks, which was to be divided between a crew of ~400. In the persian gulf the cost to use these phones was $1.00 a minute and you couldn’t use a calling card. They were made via satellite so I guess this was to offset the cost, and to keep the lines restricted to those who really, really wanted to talk to their family.
I can say that we got lots of free calling cards from Morale Welfare and Recreation to be used when we went into port. If you decide to donate money this is probably the best possible use for it, as it will get used.
From a certain angle you can say that it’s a poor thing to make troops pay to talk to their families, but this is something that simply hasn’t been possible in the past, so it is a true liberty in the first place. And it isn’t free for the government. It costs a lot of money to get those communication channels going on a wide enough scale for hundreds of thousands of people to talk to their families for a sufficient amount of time. A lot of these guys have more money than they know what to do with too, what with hazardous duty and tax-free pay!
From my experience, many places have morale phones where you can call back to the states on the government’s dime (the DoD’s worldwide phone system), and once you are connected to an operator there, you can be patched to your house if your house is within the local calling area (e.g., if you live near Andrews AFB in Maryland, you can call an operator there and have them transfer you to your house). My house isn’t near my base, so I have the operator patch me to a calling card 1-800 number, which I had to pay for. Since it was my choice not to live near base, I don’t grumble about having to pay the long distance–still a good deal, because the call is being made from the states rather than the other side of the globe.
In addition to the morale phones, some places also have ATT calling card phones, which require the prepaid cards to operate.