The Next Best Thing
Just before Christmas, NCSA helped some area military families hold virtual reunions with loved ones in Iraq.
by Kathleen Ricker

Mary Kuetemeyer of Savoy, Illinois, knows all too well the frustration of missed connections. Since September 2005 her son, University of Illinois alumnus 1st Lt. Christopher Kuetemeyer, has been assigned to convoy security at Camp Taji, located near Baghdad, more than 6500 miles and eight time zones from Champaign. His calls, once a month or so, are precious but impossible to plan for. “He wouldn’t know when he could call," says Kuetemeyer. “One time I was right outside—I was outside the house for just ten minutes--and when I came back in, he had called—and I couldn’t call him back. I felt terrible."

Corporal Kevin Bein (on screen), a third generation Marine serving with an air unit at Camp Al-Asad, talks with family members from the Champaign area, including his uncle, an Illinois National Guardsman who has himself recently returned from Iraq, and his grandfather, Ed Bein Sr, also a veteran. view larger

But Kuetemeyer and her husband, Dave, were recently able to catch up with their son—not by phone, not even by e-mail—but face-to-face. On December 21, NCSA played host to over 50 family members of soldiers stationed at both Camp Taji and Camp Al-Asad. Sitting in conference rooms equipped with large plasma displays and Polycom videoconferencing systems, the families were able both to see and talk with their soldiers--and vice-versa--via satellite link.

The videoconferencing sessions were coordinated by Nancy Komlanc, director of education at NCSA's Technology Research, Education, and Commercialization Center (TRECC), one of whose own projects is to promote the use of videoconferencing among K-12 teachers. It was no easy task, but was a joint effort by NCSA employees, military technicians at Taji and Al-Asad, and the Freedom Calls Foundation. 'Freedom Calls' provided the conduit for connecting U.S. families and U.S. schools with soldiers in Iraq. From the United States, the calls (Polycom over IP in the case of videoconferences) are routed to satellite linkups which connect several army bases and locations in Iraq.

The availability of this level of communications technology is fairly recent, according to Mike Rudzinski, Associate Director for Finance and Administration at NCSA and himself a returned veteran of the Iraq war. Rudzinski served as intelligence officer for an engineering unit headquartered at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait from late 2002 to mid-2003. While in the Gulf he spoke to his family by phone perhaps once a month and occasionally sent the old-school written letter. However, e-mail was his preferred mode of contact. "I was pretty fortunate," he says. "Most units didn't have that kind of access, but because of where we were and what my unit did, we had to have the bandwidth, so we had the access."

Active duty troops, says Rudzinski, are more likely to have access to this technology because their bases in the U.S. are large, long-established, and well-equipped. But over the past two years the increasing numbers of National Guardsmen who have gone to Iraq come from smaller communities that often don’t have that kind of wherewithal. Organizations like Freedom Calls Foundation, he says, “fill an important niche for these units."

Thom Dunning, director of NCSA, with the Bein family after their conversation with Cpl. Bein. "Our new building and its communications facilities lend themselves well to this kind of activity," says Dunning. "We are happy to have the opportunity for NCSA to contribute its technology resources to the community, and, in particular, the opportunity to assist both those members who are serving our country and their families who are missing them at home."
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To ensure that the day ran smoothly, several NCSA employees volunteered to welcome the military families into the building with refreshments and take them up to the interaction rooms where the sessions would be held. Other NCSA staff kept track of time and made sure the calls proceeded on schedule. Technical support and expertise were provided by George Estes and Ken Jackson, both of NCSA's video technology group, who helped ensure that there would be no dropped connections and adjusted camera angles on the NCSA end to accommodate larger or smaller numbers of participants. "The NCSA folks who came out to volunteer were outstanding," said Komlanc. "I'd work with them any time."

At NCSA, participants in the conversations on both ends--in Iraq and at NCSA--were very surprised at how clear the connection was. "We've done webcam before, but nothing like this," said Kathy Tattersall, who came with her daughter Tiffany to speak with her son, Capt. Brandon Tattersall, a Marine stationed at Al-Asad and another Illinois alumnus. "Even Brandon commented on it...he said, 'I can't get over the quality of this! The pictures are beautiful! I can see you so clearly!"

"We had no idea what to expect," said Julie Newman of Rankin, IL, who came with her husband and several other family members to see her son, Lance Cpl. Joshua Newman, stationed at Camp Taji. "But it was great. We could hear him and see him and everything was wonderful. We couldn't hug him, but we got to see him."