SHORT TAKES : Town’s GIs Make ‘Nashville Now’

CRYSTAL SPRINGS, Miss. — Country music singer Tom T. Hall visited this town of about 5,000 to help comfort friends and relatives of soldiers in the 162nd Military Police Co., sent to Saudi Arabia last month.

The Nashville Network’s program “Nashville Now” sent Hall to the tiny community just south of Jackson after receiving a letter from resident Rose Beazley.

“I just told ‘Nashville Now’ that a lot of our men were leaving,” Beazley said, adding that many of the 127 soldiers, including her brother-in-law, had to leave young children behind.

Hall hosted an eight-minute segment about Crystal Springs, which was broadcast nationally Monday on the cable network. Hundreds of people crowded into downtown, some waving signs and shouting messages to their soldiers.