U.S. Firms Plan to Donate Video Equipment to Troops in the Gulf
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CHICAGO — U.S. troops in the Middle East will soon be able to give their families back home a vivid picture of life at the front.
More than $2 million worth of video equipment is being donated and shipped overseas so military men and women will be able to tape and send personal messages.
“We have been truly overwhelmed by corporate response to the great need of military personnel in the Persian Gulf,” said Chapman Cox, president of World USO, a nonprofit organization serving more than 5 million American military families worldwide.
The “Better Than a Letter” program was initiated by Montgomery Ward & Co., with help from its vendors and the World USO. The donation includes about 450 video cameras, 350 televisions, 370 videocassette recorders, 250,000 videotapes and video mailing materials.
The equipment will be shipped to the Middle East within the next several weeks and military personnel will have free access to it. The program also provides postage to mail the videotapes home. Families without a VCR can arrange a private viewing of the tape at a local Montgomery Ward store.
Vendors providing equipment include: Zenith, RCA, Sharp, JVC and Magnavox. Videotapes will be donated by Maxell, Scotch, 3M, BASF and TDK.
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