thedrifter
08-31-05, 01:06 PM
August 31, 2005
Marine in Iraq hears son’s birth
Associated Press
MARION, Ohio — A Marine on duty in Iraq got through by phone just in time to hear his son’s birth in Marion.
Just before six p.m. on Monday, Sgt. Charles Van Voorhis reached his wife’s cell phone as she was in mid-contraction.
Joy Van Voorhis spoke with her husband briefly, then handed the phone to her dad.
For the next 20 minutes, Van Voorhis listened from a distance as 7-pound, 5-ounce Jacob Edward Van Voorhis was born.
“The doctor even had someone hold the phone up as they were cleaning (Jacob),” Joy Van Voorhis said Tuesday. “He got to hear his son’s first screams, all the way over in Iraq.” Even better, the family also spent a virtual two hours together on Tuesday.
The Freedom Calls Foundation worked with Marion General Hospital staff to install special computer software and high-tech recording equipment that enabled Van Voorhis to see his wife and new son.
Serving with the hard-hit 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines Division out of Brook Park, the reservist hadn’t seen his wife since Jan. 3, 10 days after learning she was pregnant with their first child together.
His parents, mother-in-law and his 16-year-old son joined his wife for the visit via a television wheeled into the hospital room.
“He looks exactly like me,” Van Voorhis said.
“It’s pretty neat that I’m here and can still see this.” To participate in the virtual visit, Van Voorhis was flown to another base where the Freedom Calls organization is equipped to make such connections. So far, the group is located at three Iraqi sites.
The nonprofit organization has helped 30,000 soldiers at those sites make virtual connections with home, and has helped many more witness weddings, graduations and births from the war zone.
Ellie
Marine in Iraq hears son’s birth
Associated Press
MARION, Ohio — A Marine on duty in Iraq got through by phone just in time to hear his son’s birth in Marion.
Just before six p.m. on Monday, Sgt. Charles Van Voorhis reached his wife’s cell phone as she was in mid-contraction.
Joy Van Voorhis spoke with her husband briefly, then handed the phone to her dad.
For the next 20 minutes, Van Voorhis listened from a distance as 7-pound, 5-ounce Jacob Edward Van Voorhis was born.
“The doctor even had someone hold the phone up as they were cleaning (Jacob),” Joy Van Voorhis said Tuesday. “He got to hear his son’s first screams, all the way over in Iraq.” Even better, the family also spent a virtual two hours together on Tuesday.
The Freedom Calls Foundation worked with Marion General Hospital staff to install special computer software and high-tech recording equipment that enabled Van Voorhis to see his wife and new son.
Serving with the hard-hit 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines Division out of Brook Park, the reservist hadn’t seen his wife since Jan. 3, 10 days after learning she was pregnant with their first child together.
His parents, mother-in-law and his 16-year-old son joined his wife for the visit via a television wheeled into the hospital room.
“He looks exactly like me,” Van Voorhis said.
“It’s pretty neat that I’m here and can still see this.” To participate in the virtual visit, Van Voorhis was flown to another base where the Freedom Calls organization is equipped to make such connections. So far, the group is located at three Iraqi sites.
The nonprofit organization has helped 30,000 soldiers at those sites make virtual connections with home, and has helped many more witness weddings, graduations and births from the war zone.
Ellie