Net Connects Troops at Holidays

From real-time games to video e-mail, technology brings the virtual home front closer.

Stuart J. Johnston, special to PC World News

It's a far cry from the dancing playmates in Apocalypse Now, or even from Bob Hope and Rita Hayworth, but a number of PC companies are offering technology to provide a little holiday cheer for troops who are far from home this season. And it's not your grandfather's Stage Door Canteen by a long shot.

The United Service Organizations (USO) has provided a friendly face and a fresh cup of coffee to American troops around the world since 1941. Although chartered by Congress, it is a nongovernmental, not-for-profit support group for military families.

One of the USO's most important services is help with correspondence. For soldiers, sailors, air force personnel, and other members of the military, staying in touch with home using the USO's assistance has helped them to stay sane. The organization quickly recognized the value of e-mail as a morale-builder, as well. Today, Internet e-mail "stations" are common in military installations and deployment areas.

This holiday, however, besides getting care packages and e-mails from home, members of the military also can send video e-mail, thanks to America Online. In some locations, troops can play real-time online games with loved ones while they talk with a kid brother or other family member sitting at a similar game console in their living room back home. The real-time connection is enabled thanks to Microsoft and its Xbox Live service.

Positive Reception

The USO, known for thousands of "USO canteens" around the world, has taken the original concept into the realm of "cybercanteens." These high-tech canteens feature computers with free Internet access that let U.S. service personnel keep in contact with friends and family while deployed both overseas and here in the U.S.

"That really jacks up morale," says John Hanson, senior vice president for marketing and communications at USO headquarters in Washington. Hanson served in the U.S. Air Force in Thailand during the Vietnam War. He says he can't overestimate the positive impact these new methods of staying connected to the rest of the world have on service personnel and their friends and families.

AOL launched its Project Video Connect around Mothers Day. The service enables service members and their families to create video e-mail messages they can send from USO centers in the U.S. and abroad. As an example of the unique qualities of video e-mail, Hanson tells of a pregnant military wife who, at one point in her video message, backed away from the computer so the camera could get a wide shot showing her husband how big she was getting. "It's a tangible way to connect with a loved one," Hanson adds. The video e-mail can be saved and viewed repeatedly.

Microsoft's participation--dubbed Operation: Live Connections--is being installed in both the U.S. and overseas. One Xbox Live service is going into a USO center in Kuwait, at a military base that troops pass through as they return from or are deployed to Iraq. "It's a tent with a hard floor, but we have DSL and electricity, [and] it's close to where the troops come and go," Hanson says.

Each Xbox Live station includes a game console, a monitor, and a headset so players can talk to each other while they play. "The usage [of the systems] is very high, [and] it's a way for them to get a feeling that's as close to home as possible," says Julia Miller, Microsoft director of Xbox Live.

Other Connections

Another recent innovation is USOs that are supplied with wireless laptops that soldiers can check out while they're in the facility. This helps to eliminate long lines of people waiting to use a dedicated e-mail station. The wireless laptops are provided by "a large computer manufacturer" that prefers to remain anonymous, Hanson says.

All the high technology aside, other technology companies provide soldiers with services that are essential, though they may not be as trendy. For example, Computer Associates employees help stuff care packages that include personal items such as toothpaste, shampoo, and baby wipes, which troops in the field can use to keep clean when they don't have access to showers.

So besides catching a live show by Robin Williams and hearing his familiar greeting of "Good Morning, Baghdad!" this holiday, lonely soldiers in far-away places can, with some assistance from technology, send and receive video e-mail and battle their favorite monsters online while chatting live with a friend or family member on the "virtual" home front.