See Your Soldier home

University videoconferencing technology connects Illinois families, soldiers stationed in Iraq

Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, wives, and children who had not seen their loved ones in person in months got the next best thing on July 11, 2006, as more than 230 family members participated in free, private videoconferencing sessions that allowed them to see and talk to soldiers stationed at Camp Al Asad and Camp Taji/Cooke in Iraq.

The See Your Soldier event was sponsored by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) and University of Illinois Extension in collaboration with military technicians and was coordinated by Nancy Komlanc, director of education for the Technology Research, Education, and Commercialization Center (TRECC), which is funded by the Office of Naval Research and administered by NCSA. Komlanc promotes the use of videoconferencing technology by K-12 educators, and her experience in that area inspired her to apply the same technology to bring families together.

Videoconferences took place at the NCSA Building in Urbana and at Extension offices in Carbondale, Grayslake, East Moline, Macomb, Morrison, Mount Vernon, Rockford, and Springfield. Many of the people who participated in the event wrote to express their gratitude:

"I just wanted to send out a thank you in appreciation for making it possible for my husband to see our 3-month-old daughter once again," said Michelle Sosin, whose husband, Anthony Sosin, is stationed at Camp Al-Asad and has not seen his daughter since she was 2-weeks-old. "This teleconference meant more to him then anything else in that moment, because he got to see how big our daughter has gotten and so much more about her that he's been missing (what her eyes look like, who she smiles like etc.)."

"Thank you so much for connecting us to Eric," said Susan Somers-Willett. "We won't get the opportunity to see his face again until the end of the year, and it was such a special treat. Today brightened my entire family's spirits. Thank you for making it happen."

"You have given us something very special and the time that we had with him will never be forgotten," said Tara Kirkpatrick, whose son Jeremy is at Camp Taji. "I haven't seen or hugged my son for eight months, and we can't wait until the 4ID come home when their time is up. Hopefully that will be in December of this year."

"Thank you so much for doing this for everyone. It meant a lot. I was smiling all day after our video talk with our son," said Patricia Stegmaier, who – along with her husband, Otto -- was able to videoconference with her son, Capt. Peter Stegmaier, who is stationed at Camp Taji. "It means all the more to all of us because Peter does a very dangerous job every day flying the Apache attack helicopter. He is in harm’s way every day. Many thanks to everyone who made this possible."

To read media coverage of the event and to see video footage, click on the links below.

This is the second time NCSA has led this effort. In December 2005, several dozen family members were able to see and speak with soldiers at Camp Taji and Camp Al-Asad via real-time videoconferencing at the NCSA Building. For more on the previous videoconferencing event, go to http://www.trecc.org/features/freedomcalls/.

 

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Equipment in Iraq Provided by:
            

University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign College of Agricultural Consumer & Environmental Sciences University of Illinois Extension