"He was nervous about shipping out," says Steven Payne Sr. "But he felt compelled to do his duty as a soldier."

Steven says he tries not to dwell too much on his son's situation.

"It's something I don't like to think about, " he says. "The thought creeps up on me now and again, but I just have to put it out of my mind."

Payne was assigned to the 82nd Airborne, which consists of approximately 14,000 paratroopers. Four thousand were deployed to Iraq.

Since Steven's deployment, the Paynes have been trying to cope.

"I don't want to say it's nervewracking, but I think about him all the time and I wonder what he's doing," Steven says. "Without any communication it's only guessing, and that just makes it worse because you have no idea what he's doing or where he's at."

In Willow Glen, families like the Paynes can take comfort in the support being shown by their neighbors and a local nonprofit organization.

On Walden Square, Julia DeMaria and her family have turned their front porch into a collection station for supplies, handwritten letters and donations for Operation Yellow Ribbon, a nonprofit organization working to support military personnel stationed overseas as well as families and friends stateside.

Last Christmas DeMaria visited the United States Overseas website to research ways of sending toys to families stationed overseas, but she couldn't find anything.

But when she learned of the items that Operation Yellow Ribbon was collecting, she thought, "That's exactly what's needed: Something that's going to help the families in the military."

Since March 26 the DeMarias' front porch has acted as a daytime collection station and will continue in that capacity until Easter Sunday, April 20.

De Maria feels that military personnel everywhere should receive support, no matter where they're stationed or even if they're not involved in the war on Iraq.

"I think it's important that everybody realizes that showing our support is an ongoing process," De Maria says. "We need to show our support for the people who actually serve and protect us."

Everything she collects goes to Operation Yellow Ribbon, but she says what she wanted to do was "get this neighborhood involved in it."

DeMaria has lived in Willow Glen only a year and she said that collecting donations on her porch would be a good way to meet her neighbors while also providing a way for them to show their support.

"I've had people come over and tell me how thrilled they are to have an easy way to support and give," she said, "because many of them didn't know how."

DeMaria said she hopes other neighborhoods begin their own collection stations. Since she began the drive, her mother and sister in-law have also initiated drives in their neighborhoods in Morgan Hill and Los Gatos.

"Right now I think we all need to dig in and do something," she says.

One of Operation Yellow Ribbon's organizers, Jared Sowards, says that the organization has three goals: to support overseas service members with letters and care packages, to unite community members of various faiths and backgrounds, and to provide an outlet for stateside friends and family to participate in "productive" activities rather than watch news coverage on television and "stress out."

"There are a lot of families who have family members or a lot of close friends deployed," Sowards says. "So Operation Yellow Ribbon gives them an outlet for constructive projects and activities to take them away from the television and focus on something good and draw support from one another."

Coming to support the Paynes was their neighbor, Barb Jarvis, who arranged to get nearby Creek Drive homes to also tie yellow ribbons around their trees.

"We didn't know what to say, because we certainly wouldn't have asked everyone to put up yellow ribbons," Vanessa Payne says, "but it was a wonderful gesture when Barbara organized ribbons for everyone."

Jarvis, who has lived in Willow Glen for 38 years, says, "I thought, 'We have some military people on this street, so it would be nice to get everyone involved to show the troops our support.' "

Jarvis says that another Creek Drive resident, Gloria Spanier, made several yellow bows and Jarvis arbitrarily tied them to nearby residents' trees.

"I know the neighbors," Jarvis says confidently. "And they've thanked me for it, and I've even been asked to get more for houses I didn't get to."

Jarvis hopes anyone coming along Creek Drive will notice how much the street supports the Paynes and another neighbor, "Car" Mayco, who has two granddaughters in the Marines.

"We want everyone to know we support our troops," Jarvis says, "and we'll keep those ribbons up until the soldiers get home safe and sound."

But it may be awhile until Steven or anyone else receives their mail or care packages.

Sowards said that there are logistics problems getting equipment to the "sandbox," a nickname for Kuwait and Iraq. Because troops moved in so quickly, they may need to wait for care packages until they "set up positions" in Iraq.

So for now, care packages are going out to ground troops in Kosovo, Algiers, Afghanistan, Germany, Japan and Korea and to ships in the Persian Gulf, the Sea of Japan and the Red Sea. These places can receive packages within two weeks.

Operation Yellow Ribbon collects personal care items for men and women, such as razors, lotions, bar soaps, wipes and clothing such as undergarments and socks.

Sowards said that Operation Yellow Ribbon differs from United States Overseas in the sense that Operation Yellow Ribbon is "personalized."

"For United States Overseas you can submit a donation to go toward paying for a care package," Sowards says, "but you don't know where it's going or who it's going to or even what items are going in it, but with Operation Yellow Ribbon, you're actually assembling the care packages, soliciting the donations—you put all this together."

Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer Troop Support: Homes along Willow Glen's Creek Drive have trees adorned with yellow ribbons and American flags to show residents' support for military personnel deployed overseas.

"And the troops get fed up," he says. "They don't get to hear anything about the popularity polls. All they see is the national coverage, and the media focuses on the protesters. And it's disheartening to them."

"The way the soldiers see it is that they're an extension of the president, an extension of his direction and authority," Sowards says, "and they have taken a code upon themselves to defend America, both domestically and abroad. This is where Bush asked them to be, and that's where they're going to be, so when protesters attack the president, they attack the soldiers. They see it as a slap in the face."

Steven Payne wants his son and his comrades to know the neighborhood believes in them.

"In this situation you really haven't any control over where troops are going to be deployed or where they're going to fight," Payne said. "That's a decision coming from the White House. But the decision has been made, and I want everyone who serves in the military to know that we support them."

In the meantime the Paynes continue to live one day at a time.

"We know he doesn't want us to worry about him or disrupt our lives thinking about him," he says. "He's just that way."

He adds, "The biggest thing is, we miss him—we worry a lot about him. We've seen him grow up. And we're looking forward to seeing him live the rest of his life, to see him get married, have kids and have a wonderful life. We don't want to be robbed of that opportunity."

For more information about Operation Yellow Ribbon, write to PMB 199, 2059 Camden Ave., San Jose, 95124 or visit www.operationyellowribbon.org.