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Being There Without Actually Being There
September 26, 2008
I’m sure that the title of this post has some of you wondering what the hell kind of kool-aid I was drinking when I was in Las Vegas last weekend. Rest assured, there’s a method to my madness and the majority of the time I spent in Vegas, I was drinking Diet Pepsi or water.
When our Troops are deployed, they often miss out on important milestones in the lives of their family members. If they have children, they may miss that first birthday party, sporting events, music recitals and graduations, to name a few. Many have even missed the birth of their children, as their jobs took them away from home, as the due date approached.
The military understands how missing these milestones can affect the morale of the Troops, as well as the family members they leave behind when they deploy. Because of this, the military often attempts to ensure that the service member is able to go home on leave for at least some of these events. But that’s not always possible, due to mission requirements in the combat zone. That was the case for Marine Lance Cpl. Jovan Rodriguez, who was anxiously awaiting the birth of his first child and was hoping to be by his wife’s bedside, when she gave birth.
Marine Lance Cpl. Jovan Rodriguez, deployed to Iraq, smiles for the camera shortly after witnessing the birth of his daughter, Liliana, via satellite to New Jersey. He is a warehouse clerk assigned to Task Force 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines, Regimental Combat Team 5. Rodriguez joined his wife through teleconference at Al Asad Air Base for the birth of their first child, Sept. 10, 2008. Marine photo by Lance Cpl. Joshua Murray.
Due to operational commitments, Rodriguez was unable to return to New Jersey to be with his wife when she gave birth to their daughter. Rodriguez wanted to witness the birth of his child if at all possible, so he set out on a mission to find a solution to the dilemma and was able to do so.
“When we found out I couldn’t go home, we did some research and found out we could do it by Webcam,” Rodriguez said. He and his wife explained their situation and worked out the details with the hospital staff at Underwood Memorial Hospital in Frankville, NJ. The staff agreed to allow a video teleconference for them during the birth of their baby girl.1
To facilitate the teleconference, Rodriguez had to fly from Camp Al Qa’im to Al Asad Airbase. He spent several days waiting for the baby to arrive. Finally the day came and rodriguez was able to spend hours at the Morale, Welfare and Recreation Center located at Al Asad. He was able to join his wife through a two-way audio and video conference.
“If something went wrong, they would have cut off the video and I would have been scared, because it’s my first time,” said Rodriguez. Luckily the birth of Liliana Rodriguez went smoothly. Rodriguez was able to witness the birth of his child and provide support to his wife. 2
“I could see my wife and listen to her the whole time, and the labor went very smoothly,” he said. “I consider myself one of the luckiest men in the world. I know a lot of (service members) don’t get to see the birth of their child and I was blessed to be able to.”3
Hopefully, with the success of this video teleconference, other service members will be able to witness such major life events in the future. Already many of our Troops are already able to participate in video teleconference visits with their families, while they’re deployed. Usually these are sponsored by their units. Encourage the military spouses you know to sign up for the video teleconferences that their deployed spouse’s unit might sponsor. It makes it a lot easier to be able to actually see your service member when you’re talking to him or her. I participated in several when Marty was deployed, as well as one with my son when he was in Kosovo. I think being able to actually see them, makes you know for certain that they’re okay and they’re not just saying that to relieve you and keep you from worrying. Many of the Marines serving with Rodriguez in 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines say that they hope they’ll too be able to make the trip to Al Asad to witness the births of their own children. This is great information for Troops who are getting ready to deploy. With a little bit of coordination between the MWR Centers and local facilities, such as the hospital in Rodriguez’s case, service members are able to participate in important milestones that they might not otherwise be able to.
- http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=51289 [↩]
- http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=51289 [↩]
- http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=51289 [↩]
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2 Responses to “Being There Without Actually Being There”
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I was really happy to see my story reached so many people. It was a great experience to atleast have him there with me via webcam. My wish is for all people who are going through what we went through to be able to use the same sysytem, but it was only possible with freedomcalls.org. They were awesome in making sure it all happened for us. It was a great experience and again thank you for posting our story!! Hopefully other families will find some answers they did not know were available!
Cara, I was pleased to share your story with our readers. My hope as well, is that by telling your story, other families facing a similar situation will be able to take advantage of this wonderful asset that’s available to them while their service member is deployed. Here at Fort Hood, when my step-son was graduating from High School, many of the parents were unable to attend, due to being unable to arrange their R & R for that time. The local schools, Fort Hood and the community arranged to have a live video feed, so those in Iraq and Afghanistan, were able to proudly watch their children graduate. It was great and it was wonderful to see the proud smiles and hear the comments and words of encouragement and pride, from the parents who were deployed. Thank you for allowing your story to be told. Please also share our gratitude with your husband for his service to our country.