From Military.com:
“What to Do If Your Service
Member Deploys Without a Phone or Laptop”
As U.S. military units face
spinning up for new deployments amid growing tensions in the Middle East, a
different worry looms over military families stateside: how to keep in touch. That's
because service members could be asked to leave their personal phones,
computers and other electronics back home. That what happened to a group of
paratroopers who were alerted for a recent short-notice deployment. And though
the decision whether troops must leave that stuff stateside will likely be up
to commanders, it could become a regular thing. While not having a phone or
computer downrange sounds like a first-world problem everyone should just get
over, it's a big deal to military spouses, kids and parents left stateside in
an era in which easy contact with deployed units has become comfortingly
normal. The good news, in a way, is that we've been at war so long that many of
us did regularly send out our spouses without those things, in part because the
technology simply didn't exist the way it does now. Let's be completely honest:
The truth is that deploying without personal devices is absolutely going to
make separation harder. It is going to make communication less predictable. It
is going to make everything seem longer. And it is OK for us to take a second
and say, "Yeah, that sucks." But we also know that we can do this.
We've done it before.
So how do you stay in touch when
personal devices aren't available? Here's what you could do instead:
1. Snail Mail. Today, we love
sending care packages and actual letters because they're just a nice touch of
home, but a decade ago we used that system because it's all we really had.
While most units will have at least a starting address set up before they
leave, those sent on short-notice deployments will instead likely have to wait
a few weeks for a downrange address. Even then, it could easily change. Before
you ship stuff downrange from Amazon or mail off adorable military care
packages, know that mail can take a long time to catch up if a unit moves to a
different Forward Operating Base (FOB) or Combat Outpost (COP). It's certainly
not the fastest way to get communication to someone, but it does work ...
eventually ... usually.
2. The MWR Tent. This is the
actual solution here. If your service member deploys to a location without a
U.S. infrastructure, the Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) area may take a
week or two to set up. Eventually, however, they'll likely have access to
shared computers and phones they can use to call home, use Skype or check
email. (I'm having flashbacks while I write this to grainy Skype sessions in
2010 in which I could see soldiers walking around behind my husband as they
waited their turn to use the computer. There was also that one time he forgot
to hang up, so I just sat there and watched soldiers walking by in the MWR for
a few minutes, then hung up quickly when some new guy sat down.)
3. Satellite Phone. If things get
really dire out there, many units have a satellite phone they can pass around
for troops to use. I wouldn't bet on this being a regular thing.
^ It’s hard enough to be a
solider and deployed away from your friends and family and vice versa and not
being able to keep in contact with them while deployed makes it even worse. I
can understand the need to restrict laptops and cell phones while deployed to certain
areas, but that doesn’t make it any easier on those involved. ^
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