Gwen Willis and her daughter Madison filmed seven holiday greetings on Fort Richardson Army Base this fall. One greeting will be broadcast on the Armed Forces Network overseas for their husband and father, Sgt. 1st Class Richard Willis, in Afghanistan. PHOTO BY NINA PEACOCK

Gwen Willis was not afraid to raise her voice.

"I'm a loud Sicilian as it is," she proclaimed.

She stood up straight in a bright pink shirt she bought for this occasion and prepared to project.

"In five," the cameraman said and then used his fingers to count down four, three, two, and one.

Her teenage daughter Madison stood next to her, less enthused, but nevertheless getting into her groove.

"Hi I'm Gwen Willis," she announced.

"Hi I'm Madison Willis," the daughter echoed.

"And we belong to Sgt. 1st Class Richard Willis of beautiful Fort Richardson, Alaska. We want to give a shout-out and Merry Christmas to him in Afghanistan where he's currently serving, and to our family members in Escandalo, California."

"Hi grandma. Hi grandpa."

"And to the Allen family, and all the extended family members that are down there, Merry Christmas!"

And - cut!

It's a unique type of holiday greeting card.

In early September, three teams of soldiers, airmen and civilian employees dispersed from the Joint Hometown News headquarters in San Antonio to three major military theaters. Their mission: to film holiday greetings like Willis's and air them nationwide.

Called the "holiday greet teams," crews visited military installments in Germany, Italy, Korea, Japan, Kosovo and Kuwait. At each location they set up at a visible place on base and filmed military members and spouses sending holiday greetings to their families back home.

The Pacific theater team's last stop was Alaska. Military personnel stationed here are considered overseas. They filmed at Fort Richardson Army Post near the chapel on Oct. 15 and at Elmendorf Air Force Base outside the BX/PX on Oct. 16.

A LOT OF WORK

"Not really," Spc. Andrew Barnstad said, when asked if his work put him in the mood for the holiday season. "It feels like a lot of work," he laughed.

The team is on the road for seven weeks. Down days are for traveling or doing laundry.

But, "It's very rewarding. We're happy to get out here... families really get a lot out of it," he said.

"I did it because if he was here, he'd have wanted to do it," Willis said of her husband. Gwen and Madison recorded their spiel to be aired in seven Lower-48 locations, six for family in the states and one for her husband - the Armed Forces Network overseas will broadcast it in Afghanistan.

"It will make his day," his wife said.

SMALL GLIMPSE, BIG GIFT

For many, filming a hometown greeting is a rare opportunity for their family to see them. Sgt. Shonda Newsome recorded a greeting last year when she was pregnant. This year her son, Malik, rested on her knee as she said "Hi" from Fort Richardson.

"I think it's very important," she said. "We're not close to home or close to family so at least they can see us on TV. (We) let them know we're still here, we love them and we're glad to be back home soon."

Newsome's husband, Sgt. Albert Newsome, was deployed earlier this year and when he returns they hope to move to a base closer to family in the Lower 48.

"Most of the time it's the older soldiers and spouses," doing the greetings, Dona Fair, the Pacific team leader, said. "It's tough getting this across to the younger kids," she added, referring to newly enlisted and single military members.

"We try to make them realize it's not the same as Skype or a Webcam. When you're Skyping and Webcamming it's just to that individual right there. This is on the TV and it's for their parents, friends, people that they went to high school with.... We try and say it's not about you, it's about your family."

The program could be cut if the numbers decrease, she said.

However, the team had a steady crowd of greeters in Alaska. They "got killed" by the volume of participants, said Branstad, at Osan Air Base in Korea. There they recorded a record 244 greetings in one day.

In all, the Pacific team recorded 1,692 greetings.

When they returned to San Antonio in late September, the crew's next step was a rush to get the tapes of each soldier to the proper hometown television station before Thanksgiving. Footage was digitalized, edited and consolidated, dubbed onto each state's proper tape, then copied for all the stations in each state.

"It's go-go-go-go-go, right up until Thanksgiving," Barnstad said. They worked in shifts to keep the tapes rolling 24 hours a day.

Finally, the tapes were shipped to subscribing TV stations, state by state. Larger states were divided into regions. Some TV stations will call family members to tell them their soldier's footage is about to air.

THE LIGHTER SIDE OF DUTY

A lot of greetings were sweet and friendly. Then there were some more memorable ones.

There's the women who asked, when filling out her release form, "We're not allowed to curse, right?"

When she got on camera, she greeted her deployed husband with, "Take care of my junk; I'm going to need it when you get back." The team had fun speculating what "junk" she was referring to.

Then there were folks who broke out into song. While filming one family in Japan, the kids suddenly sung in unison, "Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas - from Japan!"

And there were a few mishaps. Each group of greeters in front of the camera was hooked up to a sensitive microphone. The sound ran back to the cameraman, who wore headphones to ensure sound quality. Greeters didn't realize how sensitive the microphone is.

One family stood in front of the camera, perfectly posed as if they where in a formal family portrait, Barnstad said. They politely gave their family greeting.

"As soon as I walked away," Barnstad said, the father gruffly whispered to his children, "I told you all you were gonna mess that up!"

The team erupted into laugher, remembering the story.

The father's daughter was standing in front of him, and he pinched her when she made a mistake. "Oh! That hurt!" she said.

"It's supposed to, so you'll remember," the father hissed. He had no idea the team heard his family's squabbles.

This was Fair's second year on the Pacific greet team. When filming at Elmendorf, she recognized several families who had filmed last year.

For Lt. Col. Michael Strunk and his family, recording the greetings has become a holiday tradition.

"We've done it in Ramstein, Germany, when we were stationed there, in the Middle East, and now here in Alaska," he said.

Their footage will go to Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas. His family is always thrilled to see them on television, and his three children get bombarded with calls and e-mails when it airs.

"Being overseas, it's hard for us to get back for the holidays," he said. "I think it warms their heart to see us on TV and to see us actually talking to them."

Holiday greetings from military personnel whose hometown is in Alaska will broadcast on KTUU Channel 2, KYES Channel 5, KAKM Channel 7, KTVA Channel 11, and KIMO Channel 13 starting after today through Jan. 1, 2010.

This article published in The Alaska Star on Wednesday, November 25, 2009.