"Hello. I am on my second tour to Iraq like most other soldiers (which) doesn't mean it's any easier to be here. However, seeing all the support we have, despite what is on the television ... really helps us to keep our heads held high while we fight in a war that is not very popular back home. Thanks ... "

The note, written by Army National Guard Sgt. Terrill Lantz with the 36th Combat Aviation Brigade in Balad, Iraq, is one of 2,500 posted by deployed service members on a Department of Defense Web site called "America Supports You."

Lantz and colleagues are responding to nearly 200,000 messages of gratitude also posted on www.americasup portsyou.mil by Americans across the nation. All of them express appreciation for service members even if some admirers can't resist an elbow shot of opposition toward the Iraq war.

America Supports You is more than an online bulletin board, however. It's a worldwide platform for individuals, nonprofit groups and businesses to support U.S. military personnel and their families in a variety of ways, from arranging care packages for deployed members, to building or upgrading homes for severely wounded veterans. It's an Internet resource that was not available, or even imagined, by past generations of warriors.

Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of defense for internal communications, said service members and their families who visit the site come away more confident that the nation understands what they sacrifice and many want to help.

Barber came up with the idea for ASY in the fall of 2004 after hearing returning troops ask if they were losing the nation's support. From her role in community outreach, she knew about support-the-troop activities of hundreds of community groups and thousands of citizens. The troops did not.

So ASY was to be a platform to show the military how much the nation cared. But it quickly also became a huge information portal for people and groups wanting to express support or learn how they, their church or their classroom can reach out to deployed members and waiting families.

"For the first time in the history of the Department of Defense, when terrific people call saying, 'What can I do to support the troops?' we can send them to the America Supports You Web site," Barber said.

A map lets visitors click on their state to see local support groups to partner with. Service families can find offers of donated computers, frequent-flier miles, gift certificates, phone cards and more. They can request packages, cards or letters for deployed loved ones.

Barber saw how a care package can help while her husband, Linden, an Army Reserve lawyer, was deployed to Iraq. Browsing ASY one day, she came across a group's offer to send packages to deployed spouses and fired off a letter. "Next thing I know, he gets a neat care package with cards from a bunch of third-graders."

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