Sorority sisters writing letters to homesick soldiers on the frontlines may invoke images of a bygone era, but for members of Alpha Sigma Alpha, it's an image as up-to-date as text messages on a cell phone.

More than 100 of the sisters corresponded with the members of Gator Battery, a field artillery regiment combat team that provided artillery support for an infantry brigade of the 101st Airborne Division while stationed in Remagan, Iraq. The unit, which was serving its second tour in Iraq, now has returned home.

Capt. Pete Gray, commander of Gator 6, who distributed the letters to individual soldiers, told the sisters, “The desert is a drab, monotonous place, but each of the letters brightened the spirits of each and every one of my soldiers....[W]e are proud of our service and the job we do every day, but it always helps to have friends on the outside to pick you up when you are down. The sisters of Alpha Sigma Alpha have certainly done that.”

Gray is the stepbrother of Jackie Bryan, AS ’08, who is the sorority’s public relations chair. Working with her sister-in-law, Maggie Gray, Bryan helped coordinate the project.

“My sister-in-law is really the unsung hero of this project,” Bryan says. “She took care of all the battery's families while they were in Iraq. My brother asked her to find a group of girls to write to about 80-90 guys, and she contacted me.”

The sorority quickly agreed, Bryan says: “Most of the guys were our age. There they were only about 19-20 years old and risking their lives, and here we were in college just living our normal lives every day.”