IT WORKED!

Well, sort of.

Just got back from the VTC from down range.

Four families from our company were present, but only three of those families soldiers were on the other end.

The connection kept breaking. There were times we could hear them but not see them, times we could neither see nor hear them.

And occasionally we could see and hear them.

Please understand that "see" is a relative term. The pictures displayed by these VTC cameras and transmitted along phone lines are very grainy, and actually are a series of individual snapshots...not real moving pictures.

Still - Our girl looks GREAT!

She was obviously very tan in the face...which set off that huge wonderful smile of hers so well.

They said their living conditions are improving daily...the First Sergeant said they are not usually in any danger...so for us not to worry.

They are still eating mostly MREs.

And the one thing everybody can use is an ice chest, or cooler. Apparently they can get ice...they need the ice chest to cool off drinks.

I'll be buying one today of course. Oh, along with a heavy duty scrub brush the 1SG says they need to help with doing laundry.

Beyond that CPT Patti said that 99% of her soldiers are in good health.

All in all I don't recommend the VTC as an effective form of communications.

But if you haven't laid eyes on your darling for a while - well - it is a wonderful thing.