Seven-week
old Ryan Stepenosky was fussing on his mother’s lap. Whenever
she stopped bouncing him on her knee, he would pucker up and grimace.
“His father says that he’s going to need botox at the age of
20 because he frowns so much!” Tina Stepenosky laughs as she
recalls the visit with her husband only a few moments earlier.
Father-and-son quality time is not common for Lieutenant Commander
Jim Stepenosky, a group surgeon from Miramar Marine Corp Air Station.
He is 7,700 miles away in Al Asad, Iraq and hadn’t seen his
son in weeks. However, through a 30-inch LCD television, video cameras
and a satellite link, he got to see
a very welcome frown.
 The
Stepenoskys (and the Gogols, pictured above and right) are among
the many families reconnecting with loved ones deployed in Iraq
through video
teleconferencing (VTC) at the UCSD Supercomputer Center. A Family
Readiness Officer sets up a schedule where soldiers are assigned
30-minute time slots. Their families are invited to come to the
Supercomputer facility where they are taught how to use the
VTC equipment. They
are then given a conference room for a private video meeting.
Supercomputer Center Director Jim D’Aoust read about the VTC
setup for families in Camp Pendleton and knew that the UCSD Supercomputer
Center would be a perfect location for families from the Miramar
Station. The program is held in partnership with Freedom Calls, an organization
helping to build communication networks to keep families connected.
VTC is available for families every Saturday. Either
the soldiers in Iraq or their families at home can request to be
part of the program. Organizers say that one of the
problems is just getting the word out and letting families know
how VTC works. “Sometimes, families don’t know what it’s like, and how
it works,” volunteer and VTC coordinator Dick Bartlett says. “But
this will just get bigger and bigger.”
D’Aoust says that while the Supercomputer Center could hold
up to six
private VTC conferences simultaneously, setting up links in Iraq
is more complicated. Bartlett is currently trying to raise $25,000,
the amount needed to set up
one link in Iraq. It may sound expensive, but for families like the Stepenoskys,
the few moments they can have together are priceless. “I think it’s incredibly important for the guys over there,” Tina
says. “They’re the ones who are homesick, who miss their
families. I haven’t seen him this happy since we got married.
And it was because he got to see his little boy.” 
— Marnette Federis, ’06
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