Florida Catholic | Technology Keeps Family Talking

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Navy Cmdr. David Williams and his son Matthew.

Technology keeps family talking during deployment

From half–way around the world Navy Cmdr. David Williams is able to help his son with schoolwork and “attend” a parent-teacher conference.

JENNIFER POWERS | FLORIDA CATHOLIC CORRESPONDENT

Published: 02.01.08

ORLANDO | When Catherine Williams’ husband, Cmdr. David Williams, said he was being deployed to Djibouti, she thought he was kidding.

“I didn’t think it was a real place,” she said. “I walked around for two days thinking it was a joke.”

With under two years to go before retirement, David Williams, a U.S. Navy officer with 22 years of active duty in the submarine force, was deployed to a shore-based command in the African country more than 7,000 miles from his home in Orlando. Unlike previous deployments during which there would be no contact with family for weeks or months at a time, the Williams family is able to communicate from half a world away several times per week, using all the technology that makes the modern world a smaller place in which to live.

Catherine Williams, who works in the clinic at Holy Family Catholic School in Orlando, said she has a standing appointment on Wednesdays with her husband via videophone over the Internet. Because of the seven- to eight-hour time difference in Djibouti, at about the time she is getting finished at work, her husband is about to go to sleep for the night. Catherine Williams said of the school’s principal, Sister Dorothy Sayers, Religious Teachers Filippini, “She is very up on technology and has allowed us to install a video camera on one of the school’s computers.” With Sister Sayers’ support, David Williams is able to contact his wife and second-grade son Matthew at the end of the school day.

This technology has enabled David Williams to continue being the active parent he was prior to his deployment. In the fall, Susan DiLandro, Matthew’s teacher, agreed to have a parent-teacher conference with both parents by video on the computer, enabling David Williams to participate fully from Djibouti.

At home before school, Catherine Williams puts the laptop computer on the table so that Matthew can have “breakfast with dad.” They talk about what’s coming up for the day and David Williams sometimes quizzes Matthew on his spelling words.

Today’s technology enables Internet and satellite phone calls to be made to virtually anywhere in the world. Not only are people able to write e-mail and “chat” instantaneously, but with video cameras they can also see each other. Both Catherine and David Williams’ parents have video cameras on their computers so they may also see and speak to their family members.

Djibouti a glimpse…

Marianne Cann, a Holy Family fourth-grade teacher, heard about the needs of poor people in Djibouti. She showed her students the PowerPoint presentation that David Williams sent about the humanitarian trips being made around the region. It inspired them so much that they collected school supplies and stuffed animals to send to Djibouti. Soon they hope to have a videoconference between David Williams and the fourth-graders during which he will be able to answer their questions about his time in Djibouti. This will no doubt provide an invaluable learning experience for the students, one that could only have been imagined a few years ago.

David Williams is not the only family member serving in the military. In October, the Williams’ older son Brian, a U.S. Marine, began his third tour of duty in Iraq and is stationed in Fallujah. David and Catherine Williams are able to keep in touch with him using the same methods they use for contacting each other in the United States and Djibouti.

Before the wide use of computer Internet, military families had to rely on letters and occasional phone calls while on deployment. Having the technology to keep in touch with her military husband and son, Catherine Williams said, gives her great comfort. “My husband is there when I need him,” she said. “I can speak to him every day.”

DJIBOUTI IN A GLIMPSE…
Djibouti, smaller than Massachusetts, is a country on the Horn of Africa at the mouth of the Red Sea near Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia. It is a country of extreme poverty due to limited supplies of clean drinking water and a lack of arable land for farming. The majority of the country’s food supply must be imported. Two-thirds of the population live in the capital city of Djibouti and the remainder are nomadic herders who follow the food supply seasonally.

Djibouti hosts the only U.S. military base in sub–Saharan Africa and is a frontline state in the global war on terrorism. Cmdr. David Williams is part of the Combined Joint Task Force-Cape Horn that aims to provide a secure, stable environment that is focused on education and improving conditions so that the ideology of extremism will have nothing to offer the people of the Horn of Africa.

“Camp Lemonier is different from most facilities,” said Williams, second in command at the camp. “Our focus is not on killing and capturing terrorists, but on promoting stability, providing medical, dental and veterinary assistance, and through civil projects, such as building schools, hospitals and digging wells, we are positively impacting the people of the region.“

If you would like to learn more about the U.S. military presence in the Horn of Africa log onto www.hoa.centcom.mil.
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