New Way to Reach Soldiers in the Gulf Unveiled

Friends and families of troops participating in Operation Desert Shield now have a faster, easier way of communicating with loved ones stationed in Saudi Arabia.

Sears, Roebuck & Co. department stores and the Prodigy interactive personal-computer service have developed a system called USA Connect that enables people to send greetings electronically to the Middle East.

“With the situation as it is over there, we felt it was our responsibility to find a way to help people with a less time-consuming way of sending messages to loved ones and also take some of the burden off the U.S. Postal Service,” marketing representative Jean Joseph said at an open house for the system Friday at the Sears store in South Coast Plaza.

Prodigy, which was formed through a partnership of International Business Machines Corp. and Sears, is a national network of more than 700,000 home computers and offers 24-hour news services, educational games and entertainment listings for a monthly fee.

To use USA Connect, a sender must know the name and address of the Desert Shield recipient and have a personal computer equipped with the Prodigy service.

After the letter is typed into the computer, it is sent through telephone lines to a special electronic mailbox at the Prodigy service. From there, it is transmitted electronically through the IBM Information Network to the Middle East, where the letter is printed out and delivered to military postal operations for distribution.

“Up until now, a letter from the United States would take anywhere from two to three weeks to get there,” Joseph said. “With USA Connect, it takes no more than two days to a week.”

Prodigy plans to continue USA Connect until March.