Springfield State Journal Register

October 22, 2003

A1

Keeping connected
   Internet links soldiers to family, comforts of home

By MARCUS STERN
Copley News Service

BAGHDAD, Iraq - For the Illinois National Guard’s 233rd Military Police Company, the Internet is more than a superhighway.

It’s a 6,000-mile bridge that spans the gap between their frontline position in central Baghdad and their families, friends and even favorite department stores back home.

“A lot of the girls shop at Victoria’s Secret,” said Spc. Jennifer Stamer, 22, a waitress and bartender at Cheddar’s restaurant in Springfield until she was activated, along with the rest of the 233rd, in February. “They get underwear, pajamas and swimming suits.”

Yes, there is a swimming pool near the 233rd’s barracks.

Rangerjoes.com is a favorite of the men. They buy leg holsters, knives, shin pads, Kevlar-tipped gloves and other specialties that aren’t supplied by the Guard. Galls.com is a favorite for medics in search of supplies.

A month ago, someone here discovered dialpad.com. Its use has spread like wildfire among the troops of the 233rd and the broader 519th MP Battalion, to which the 233rd is attached.

With a microphone and headset hooked into a computer connected to the Internet, the troops can talk with friends and family back home for less than 3 cents a minute.

The Internet also offers e-mail, instant messaging and Internet chat. The Internet cafe is a bank of computers along a wall in one of the buildings on the compound the 233rd uses here.

Using the computers costs a member of the company $3 an hour.

“It’s a big morale booster,” said Spc. Robert Gasen, 22, of Virden.

The possibility of immediate, continuous communication with families is the single biggest transformation wrought by the Internet for the troops here.

But shopping, for some, is a close second.

“I just bought a laptop,” said Spc. Brad Clark, 23, of Springfield. He purchased it on the Internet auction site eBay, using the Internet monetary service Paypal, which facilitates credit card transactions on the Internet.

The only trick for avid military shoppers in Baghdad is finding retailers and vendors willing to mail their products to APO addresses. U.S. military and diplomatic employees overseas rely on the U.S. government’s global mail delivery system. Deliveries take about 10 days.

Wal-Mart, Victoria’s Secret and Amazon.com are three especially popular shopping sites.

Stamer, a Litchfield resident, said she uses the Internet to communicate with her brother, Jason, who serves in northern Iraq with the Army’s 101st Airborne Division. She and Jason used e-mail to coordinate his visit to Baghdad Oct. 13.

She also used the Internet to send her mother a congratulatory present when she recently was told she had survived breast cancer.

But Stamer hasn’t bought much for herself online.

“I was going to buy some clothes, but I didn’t want to drag them all the way home,” she said.

She does use dialpad.com to call her parents, she said.

Sgt. Daniel Hinds, 25, of Springfield, says he sends an instant message to his wife every couple of days. They sit at keyboards half a world away and take turns sending messages, allowing a conversation.

“It’s my only (communications) line,” he said. “The turnaround time for letters is about five weeks.”

The frequent conversations help reduce the stress his wife feels as she sees little but bad news on TV from Baghdad, Hinds said. It also lets him keep up with the activities of his daughter Madison, who turned a year old Oct. 6.

“I see a lot of my friends and my cousin online,” he added.

Staff Sgt. James Edward Mayes, 28, who grew up in Athens but now lives in Chicago, said he bought a promise ring for his girlfriend online and uses dialpad.com and e-mail to communicate with her almost daily.

“She’s been having a rough time, and she wants to hear my voice,” he said, adding that hearing her voice also is important to him.

Before the discovery of dialpad.com, the troops relied on a battalion satellite phone that was rotated among the units of the 519th. Each member of the 233rd was able to use the sat-phone for only about 10 minutes a month. Mail didn’t arrive until two months after the 233rd arrived here in April.

Sgt. Mark Johnson, 29, of Champaign said he and his wife use America Online’s Instant Messenger to chat online each evening, either before she leaves work or after she arrives home.

He also saved his own bacon when he went online last spring and discovered Mother’s Day was the following day. Despite the 11th-hour nature of his plight, and even though he was in central Baghdad, he used the Internet to get a pearl necklace and flowers delivered to his wife the next day.

On the other hand, he has a bid pending on eBay for a 28-foot cabin cruiser. Bidding remains open for four more days, but he’s optimistic.

“The best part about it is my wife won’t know about it until the boat arrives at our house,” he said - before remembering that she religiously scours The State Journal-Register’s Web site for news about the 233rd.

Kristina Ward, 21, of Springfield said she uses the Internet to buy movies from Wal-Mart and clothes from Victoria’s Secret, including underwear and tank tops. She’s also waiting for a pair of tennis shoes from J.C. Penney.

Lt. Joel Ferris of Mount Olive, the officer in charge of the 233rd’s First Platoon, said the Internet has been a boon to his platoon’s morale.

But sounding a bit old school, he added, “I like a nice, long handwritten note.”