October 12, 2007

Troops visit by video / Montana company, nonprofit link soldiers in Iraq with families in U.S.
By JAMIE KELLY of the Missoulian

Troops in Iraq have seen their babies being born, visited one last time with dying loved ones, watched their children get married and discussed the car insurance bill.

No life event is too big - or too mundane - for Vision Net, or for the military personnel who use the Montana company's videoconferencing to peer into their stateside lives from Iraq.

From five military camps in Iraq, thousands of soldiers have connected with loved ones in real time and with stunning clarity and speed, all for free, thanks to the services of the Freedom Calls Foundation, a nonprofit that arranges videoconferences between Iraq and the U.S.

In Montana, Vision Net, a communications technology and videoconferencing company based in Great Falls, has partnered with Freedom Calls since 2004 to give Montanans serving in Iraq a taste of home sweet home.

“This technology was not used annually until the war in Iraq hit,” said Kris Harrison, video manager for Vision Net, which provides data and videoconferencing for hundreds of businesses, hospitals, counties, cities and schools across the state. “All of a sudden, we have had a lot more interest among not just the troops, but also the families of the troops.”

Vision Net - owned by nine separate telecommunications companies, including Blackfoot Communications - provides data and video services locally for the University of Montana, the Missoula County jail and local schools, hospitals and businesses.

On Thursday afternoon, Vision Net gave the media a demonstration of its capabilities in a teleconferencing room at Blackfoot Communications on North Russell Street.

With a click of a remote, the Blackfoot office was instantly connected with Kathryn Haducek, Freedom Calls' director of development in New Jersey.

She appeared in smooth video with almost no audio delay to explain the importance of Freedom Calls to families and troops in the nearly 2,000 video conferences it arranges each month.

“It's not just men anymore,” she said. “It's wives and teachers and moms and daughters who have an obligation to their families as well as their country.”

Exiting out of the call, Harrison scanned through a list of addresses with his remote. The next stop? Camp Taji, about 20 miles northwest of Baghdad.

It was 11:20 p.m. in Iraq, but Pfc. Lesley Dees and Sgt. Angela Younger-Embree were eager to talk about the importance of Freedom Calls to the morale of the troops.

“I know a lot of the troops really look forward to that 30-minute conversation and visual connection,” said Younger-Embree. “They're not so happy to get off the (video teleconference), but they're happy to see the children.”

In Montana, Vision Net provides more than 180 videoconferencing locations around the state.

“No one in Montana would have to drive more than an hour” to get to one, said Vision Net CEO Rob Ferris.

The technology utilized by Vision Net and Freedom Calls is worlds beyond what a webcam and a high-speed Internet connection provide - especially from a distance of 8,000 miles. It even beats up on the TV news, where audio delays of several seconds and choppy footage are common.

Reporter Jamie Kelly can be reached at 523-5254 or at jkelly@missoulian.com

For military families

If you would like to use Vision Net's free videoconferencing services, in cooperation with the Freedom Calls Foundation, call Vision Net at 1-877-449-8638, Tom Gorman at the Missoula Job Service at 542-5768, or go to www.freedomcalls.org.