I keep reading about how soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are having their tours extended long beyond when they expected to come home, and their morale is suffering as a result. Thankfully, many of our soldiers are able to stay in touch with friends and family via the Internet, but their e-mail access is often very limited.
WWdN reader Drew sent me the following note earlier today:

I will send you an invitation for the hard to get Gmail if you post something on your site telling others to give their invites to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. See, Google gives 1 gig of email space, perfect for movies and pictures from home, but it’s invite only. When you get an account you will get invites too, and if you could pass them along to those who need em that would rule.

I think this is a fantastic idea, and an easy, but very powerful way for many of us to help support our troops. GMail gives users 1 GIG of free storage space, which is more than enough for pictures, movies, sound files . . . all sorts of things that could help our servicemen and women feel a little closer to home.
The thing about GMail is that it’s currently invite-only, so I e-mailed Drew back, and asked him if he had some sort of clearinghouse set up for soldiers to submit requests for invites. He responded:

No, but about 10 of us are trolling www.gmailswap.com looking for folks in the military. See, once you talk to one of them, they pass an email along to fellows stationed with them, so we’re just trying to dole them out as we get the request.
There’s no way to know how long Gmail will be invite only, but SGT Tim Knowles in Afghanistan said that good morale is hard to come by out there and in Iraq, and the guys are buzzing about the possibilities of 1 gig. They all seem to have hotmail and well it’s weak.
I’m going to look into getting a site together or at least a list.

Of course, there are epic assholes online who will pose as soldiers so they can get invites, but I think it’s completely worth the risk.
So here is your challenge, WWdN readers:

• Help spread the word about this effort, and keep checking back here for a link to the soon-to-be-built clearinghouse for requests.
• If you’re a designer, and you would like to donate some time, or a host who would like to donate some space and / or bandwidth, send me an e-mail and I’ll pass it along to Drew.
• If you’re a reporter, maybe you’d like to do a story about a bunch of nerds who are working to do something cool to support our troops. Maybe your story will be seen by some other people who can get on board, and together, we can make a positive difference!
• If you’re a Google employee, maybe you’d like to come up with a way to ensure that members of the armed services can get GMail acocunts, no matter what.
• If you’re a fellow blogger, you can link this post, or the clearinghouse website when it goes live.
• And of course, if you’re a GMail account-holder, you can use those invites that are piling up (I’ve sent out six in the last week) to do something really cool for some people who are making an incredible sacrifice right now.

Okay, now you know what to do, so get to it!