YONGSAN GARRISON -- The Joint Hometown News Service Holiday Greetings team visited Yongsan Garrison to record holiday messages from those serving in Area II to loved ones in the United States, Aug. 29-31.
Traveling across the Pacific theater to shoot holiday greeting videos, the team recorded holiday greetings for the Area II community for three days at the Dragon Hill Lodge. Servicemembers, civilian employees from all branches of service, and their families stationed overseas participated in this meaningful event.
"This is a program where we provide DOD employees the opportunity to send holiday messages to their families back in the states. These messages start running right after Thanksgiving and will be aired until New Year's," said Tech. Sgt. James Smith, NCOIC of Hometown News Service Pacific. "I myself also recorded the greeting messages. I know that my family is going to see this, and they get excited about seeing me on TV."
According to the statistics from 2009, the program produced more than 9,500 TV and radio greetings which were sent to 1,234 TV stations and 1,689 radio stations. Based on feedback received from the stations, more than 52 million households watched the greetings on TV, and another 21 million heard them on the radio.
"I told my relatives that I wish them Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and I hope to see them this Christmas," said Samia Mounts, assistant principal at Seoul American Elementary School. "My family just loves it when they play it in New York and Phoenix. The messages are played a lot on TV and on the radio, and they really enjoy watching it."
The team will continue recording the holiday messages at Kunsan Air Base on Sept. 9-12, at Camp Carroll on Sept. 13-14 and Camp Walker on Sept. 15, before heading to Guam.
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