DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM More than 40 families talked to and saw loved ones yesterday who have been deployed to the Marine Forces Central Command headquarters in Bahrain. Through video conferencing at Camp Smith, Seth Allen waved to his father, Sgt. Corey Allen, as he waved back to his family, including wife, Shawn, and daughter, Randi.

Broadcast of aloha
reaches Marines
sent to Bahrain
>

A Camp Smith video link reunites
families with their loved ones

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By Diana Leone
dleone@starbulletin.com

On one side of a five-minute video conference was a U.S. Marine, serving in Bahrain as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.

On the other side, a wife and children, looking at the larger-than-life video image of Dad on a screen in front of them as they broadcast live love and kisses from Camp Smith last night.

More than 40 families were able to talk to and see their loved ones who are deployed at the Marine Forces Central Command headquarters in Bahrain.

Of the 200 Camp Smith Marines in the Persian Gulf, 100 have been there a month and others have been there as long as January, said Col. Bruce Grathwohl. It's uncertain when they'll be home.

Marine Chaplain Cardus Thornton, who is among those in Bahrain, conceived of the video conferencing as a way to lift spirits for the soldiers on St. Patrick's Day, said his wife, Cathy, as she waited with their three children to talk to her husband. Because her husband had ministered to those on the USS Cole in 2000 after its terrorist attack, he knows how much strain there is on families during a deployment, Cathy Thornton said.

The video-conferencing equipment usually is used to conduct high-level military meetings. But for four hours yesterday it was focused on the important questions in life.

"Dad, when you come back, can we get a big screen TV?" Gabby Scott asked her father, Sgt. Freddie Scott. "Or can we get a movie theater?"

"I can't believe you didn't bring the dogs," Staff Sgt. Gary Robbins joked to his wife, Marine Master Sgt. Gayle Robbins, and children Vivian, 11, and Dan, 15.

Robbins firmly nixed the idea of Dan taking the family out on a pontoon boat without his supervision, but ordered the family to barbecue on the back porch in his honor.

"I love you guys and miss you, and I'll be glad to be home when I get there," Robbins said.

The sentiment was repeated over and over, often with a tear in the eye of the video dad.

"All my beautiful angels," Maj. Scott Whitney said to his wife, Tami, and daughters Rachel, 7, and Kirsten, 5. "God, I miss you."