Sometimes, you can barely hear the greeting through the noise of tanks and heavy trucks rumbling past. Clearly, these troops have paused for ten to twenty seconds, to send a quick “Hello, I’m okay” or “I love you” to wives, husbands, parents, or children before getting back on patrol or whatever task they’re assigned.\

Most faces are stoic, some even at ease, smiling and joking to the camera. Some men and women can barely say their names and the names of the loved ones for whom their greeting is intended.

This year, one woman deployed to Iraq tried bravely to stem the tears that threatened to spill over. Two injured soldiers sent greetings from their beds at a military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany.

Greetings from non-war countries, like Germany, have changed as well.

Some wives handle the holiday hellos, holding photos of their husbands, who are deployed to Iraq and Southwest Asia, leaving them to run households thousands of miles away from their families back home. Many hold very young children.

I air them all.

My favorite part of the project is calling families to let them know that their husband, wife, son or father taped a greeting; to watch a certain newscast to see them. Over the last two years, we’ve also streamed these greetings online, so relatives living in other parts of the country can see them as well.

The happiness on the other end of the phone speaks volumes.

There’s a Christmas carol that urges people to spread “good tidings of comfort and joy.”

To know that one simple phone call and one ten-second clip can bring so much joy to families, many of whom are struggling to get through the holidays without their loved ones, is worth more than any gift.