E

Staying in Touch With Home, for Better or Worse

#91

The New York Times

2/17/11
James Dao
Vocabulary to Know Before You Read
engrossed
rapture
insurgent
prosaic
sordid
wayward
unfettered

inexorable
cacophonous
stoke

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan Forget the drones, laser-guided bombs and eye-popping

satellite imagery. For the average soldier, the most significant change to modern warfare
might just boil down to instant chatting.
Consider these scenes from northern Afghanistan:
A gunner inside an armored vehicle types furiously on a BlackBerry, so engrossed in
text-messaging his girlfriend in the United States that he has forgotten to watch for
enemy movement.
A medic watches her computer screen with something approaching rapture as her 2year-old son in Florida scrambles in and out of view before planting wet kisses on the
camera lens, 7,500 miles away.
A squad leader who has just finished directing gunfire against insurgents finds a quiet
place inside his combat outpost, whips out his iPhone and dashes off an instant message
to his wife back home. All is well, he tells her, adding, Its been busy.
The communication gap that once kept troops from staying looped into the joyful,
depressing, prosaic or sordid details of home life has all but disappeared. With
advances in cellular technology, wider Internet access and the infectious use of social
networking sites like Facebook, troops in combat zones can now communicate with
home nearly around the clock.
They can partake in births and birthdays in real time. They can check sports scores, take
online college courses and even manage businesses and stock portfolios.
But there is a drawback: they can no longer tune out problems like faulty dishwashers
and unpaid electric bills, wayward children and failing relationships, as they once

could.
The Pentagon, which for years resisted allowing unfettered Internet access on military
computers because of cyber-security concerns, has now embraced the revolution, saying
instant communication is a huge morale boost for troops and their families. But military
officials quietly acknowledge a downside to the connectivity.
Some commanders worry that troops are playing with iPhones and BlackBerrys (as well
as Game Boys and MP3 players) when they should be working, though such devices are
strictly forbidden on foot patrols.
More common are concerns that the problems of home are seeping inexorably into
frontline life, creating distractions for people who should be focusing on staying safe.
Its powerful for good, but it can also be powerful for bad when youre hearing near real
time about problems at home, said Col. Chris Philbrick, director of the Armys suicide
prevention task force. It forces you to literally keep your head in two games at one time
when your head should be in just one game, in Iraq or Afghanistan.
It took the military several years to come to terms with both the cyber-security and
safety issues. Initially, the Pentagon banned access to social networking sites. But when
officials realized that they were falling behind the times and angering young Web-savvy
troops, they conducted a study and determined there was more to be gained by allowing
access. Classified-network computers still have no access to social networking sites.
To see the upside of a well-connected force, one need look no further than the Morale,
Welfare and Recreation building, fondly known as the M.W.R., at Forward Operating
Base Kunduz, home to the First Battalion, 87th Infantry for the past year.
In more than 40 plywood cubicles that are available all day, soldiers sit in front of
computer terminals or talk on telephones, all of them connected to home. There is
virtually no privacy, so the arguments over money and children, the love talk and baby
talk, are clearly audible in one cacophonous symphony of chat.
Pfc. Briana Smith, 23, medic and bubbly single mother, is regularly in the M.W.R.
checking up on her 2-year-old son, Daniel, who is living with her parents in Tampa. She
tries to call home daily and routinely logs onto Facebook to check in with family and
friends. And at least once a week, she uses video conferencing on Skype to visit with
Daniel.
The close communication thrills her, but can leave a pang, too. I cant be involved in the
everyday things, she said. I only get to see the little tidbits of his life. Its good to see,
but its a little heartbreaking at times.
The Internet connections and phones are not all free. Though troops do not pay to use

computers in the M.W.R., they do pay for the phone calls. And those soldiers who bring
their own cellphones pay fees that typically start at $70 and frequently run as high as
$300 a month. A few chatty soldiers have received bills for more than $10,000 when
their texting spun out of control.
To veterans from previous generations, it all seems like something out of science fiction.
George Moody, whose son, Billy, is a gunner with the battalion in Kunduz, spent 25
years in the Navy, deploying on ships that were at sea for months at a time. Letters
home to his girlfriend and now wife, Mary Jo, sometimes took six weeks to arrive.
Now Mr. Moody, 49, has the family computer programmed to play reveille as loudly as
possible whenever Billy logs onto Skype in Kunduz. With an eight-and-a-half-hour
difference between Afghanistan and their home in Ashville, N.C., he and his wife are
waking after midnight almost every day.
Its like having a baby again, because were back to getting up at 1:30, 2 in the morning
to talk to him, Mr. Moody said. But we could not live with ourselves if we could not
talk to him when he wanted to talk.
The easy communication can relieve fears but also stoke them. Once families become
used to hearing from troops daily, lapses in communication can send imaginations
racing.
Christina Narewski communicates daily with her husband, Staff Sgt. Francisco
Narewski, by Skype or instant messaging on their BlackBerrys. But when he does not
call back quickly, she frets. Its an anxiety just waiting to hear from him again, just
waiting to hear when he gets back, she said.
Barbara Van Dahlen Romberg, a psychologist and founder of a group, Give an Hour,
that provides counseling to troops and their families, called the connectivity a mixed
blessing when couples spend too much time waiting for calls or excessively discussing
problems that cannot be repaired long distance.
Its just stress, stress, stress, she said. I talked to a mom who was counting the
minutes between calls from her son. I gently told her that may not be good for either one
of them. It is a burden.
The ability to keep tabs on people at almost any hour can also be dangerous for soldiers
suspicious of their lovers or spouses. Its nothing to go ask your friend: What was she
doing last night? Pfc. Billy Moody said. They might tell you one thing, she tells you
another, and the next thing you know, theres drama.
Specialist Kyle Schulz, for instance, learned via cellphone that his girlfriend was taking
up with another man. The news sent him into an emotional tailspin until he rekindled

his relationship with an old girlfriend, by cellphone and Facebook. They later discussed
marriage, also on Facebook, until that relationship, too, flickered out.
In a way I kind of think I had too much communication, Specialist Schulz, 22, said,
because the more I know back home about whats going on, the less that I am
concentrating out here. And it could potentially hurt me or other people.
In extreme cases, breakups over cellphones or Facebook have sent soldiers to suicide
counseling, or worse. In one case involving a different battalion, a soldier in Iraq killed
himself in 2009 after spending hours tracking his girlfriends movements and then
arguing with her and her sister via cellphone and MySpace.
Half an hour after the soldier, Chancellor Keesling, shot himself, his girlfriend sent him
an e-mail asking to make up.
Chance knew exactly who his girlfriend had gone out with and where she was, said his
father, Gregg Keesling. She stopped taking his calls, and that is what really sent him
into the spiral.
In Kunduz, the battalion chaplain, Capt. Tony Hampton, said he often advises soldiers
to shut off the phone and stay away from the computers when tensions are brewing with
loved ones back home. Take some time to think, he counsels. Write a letter.
He doubts anyone listens.
The access is too easy for them and they just cant rest, he said. This is the microwave
generation. They need it, and they need it fast.
Questions:
1. What are the benefits and drawbacks of deployed (overseas) troops being able to be in
near-constant communication with family, friends and loved ones at home? Use details
from the article to support your answer.
2. How are lines of communication between war zones and home different today than
they were, say, 20 years ago?
3. Do you think troops should be allowed near-unlimited access to things like cell
phones, Skype and social networking (e.g. Facebook and Myspace) while they are
deployed overseas? Why or why not? Use details from the article to support your
answer.
4. Can you think of some ways to moderate (control) the way overseas troops are able to
interact with people at home via technology? How might these methods of control help
alleviate (lessen) the drawbacks of troops being allowed to use these technologies?