August 10, 2007

A Special Connection

Video link lets soldier meet newborn daughter at Illini Campus

SILVIS, ILLINOIS - U.S. Marine Cpl. Angel Mojica was 7,000 thousand miles away in 130-degree Iraq.

His wife, Ashley, looked strong and beautiful in Silvis, Ill., despite a difficult labor the day before. She held 1-day-old baby, Madissyn, at her Illini Campus hospital bed while she waited for the wonders of technology to unite her family via a videoconference.

Soon, her husband’s real-time image would appear on a T.V. screen. She hadn’t seen him in four months.

Poised to document the Mojicas’ emotions and sentiments during those first few minutes was a swirl of Quad-Cities media bearing TV cameras, microphones and questions.

Finally, the moment everyone had waited for came: Angel appeared on screen in military fatigues, sat down and relished the first glimpse of his daughter in pink. It was a gift of hope and new life in the war zone.

“Hi babe, I have something for you,” Ashley said, proudly holding the fruits of her nine-hour labor.

“Wow!” was Angel’s first word, followed by “She’s beautiful.”

Then, he noticed: “Wow, there are a lot of cameras.”

Everything – from his daughter’s blue eyes and head of brown hair, to her chubby cheeks, to her adorable sneeze – would have to be memorized and remembered again and again during the difficult months until his deployment ends in November.

Uniting families

The tender family moment came courtesy of the Freedom Calls Foundation, which built a satellite network dedicated to enabling troops in Iraq and Afghanistan to stay connected to their families and loved ones at home, free of charge. There is no Internet infrastructure in Iraq.

There was motive behind the media blitz, as well. Freedom Calls, a public charity that relies solely on donations, may have to shut down later this month because of lack of funds.

Faced with extended tours of duty, front-line soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are not able to speak with members of their families for months at a time. The breakdown of family communication needlessly contributes to the stress experienced by soldiers and their families at home, said John Harlow, executive director of the Freedom Calls Foundation.

To alleviate the stress, Freedom Calls has deployed technology to transform the experience of soldiers on extended deployments. Soldiers may now participate in milestone family events, such as graduations, births, birthdays and weddings, via videoconference over the Freedom Calls Network.

“Soldiers may now keep their commitments to their families at the same time they keep their commitment to their country,” Harlow said. “Our long-term vision is that our war fighters will be able to come home from a day on the battlefield and spend virtual time with their families every night using state-of-the-art technology.”

Angel’s family lives in Texas and couldn’t be at the teleconference, but Ashey’s family was there and able to say “hello” to him as well. Ashley’s OB/GYN Anita Pinc, D.O., also introduced herself and told him of his wife’s courage.

“Ashley did fantastic,” Dr. Pinc told Angel. “It was tough, but she did awesome. You would have been very proud of her. Congratulations.”

Ashley and Angel married two years ago after meeting on a blind date at a Marine Corps Ball on the West Coast. “It was quite a love story,” says Ashley’s grandmother, Shirley Mockmore of Rock Island. The couple, who reside in Oceanside, Calif. near Camp Pendleton, found out Ashley was pregnant last November. They were devastated when they discovered that Angel wouldn’t be there for the birth.

Ashley, who grew up in Davenport and went to West High School, “worked hard” and “did her homework” to get the Freedom Calls video-conference arranged, her grandmother said.

“It has been really hard because at first they thought Angel was going to be able to come home and then it didn’t work out. This, of course, is the next best thing,” Mockmore said of the Freedom Calls videoconference. “Here, Dad is clear in Iraq and able to see his daughter the day after she’s born. It’s just wonderful. I know that Freedom Calls relies strictly on donations, and I’ll be donating.”

The Foundation receives no financial support from the government or the military, and satellite expenses run in the tens of thousand dollars a month.

Freedom Calls provides services to more than 30,000 soldiers and Marines free of charge 24 hours a day, and the Army has requested that the foundation install eight additional facilities in Iraq and two in Afghanistan in the coming months. That doesn’t include the 1,500 videoconferences from homes, hospitals and churches every month.

For more information or to donate, go to the foundation’s Web site at www.freedomcalls.org.

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