thedrifter
02-07-08, 08:41 AM
Live video helps Marine see newborn daughter
By: SARAH WILKINS - Staff Writer
CARMEL MOUNTAIN RANCH -- This year's Super Bowl brought two surprises for 1st Lt. Vince Ferrito: a last-minute win by his beloved New York Giants, followed by news a day later that his daughter had been born in the last hours of the game.
On Wednesday, a videoconference allowed the Camp Pendleton Marine, who is stationed in Iraq, to see little Marrissa Rose for the first time.
"Aw ... she's so pretty, she's beautiful," 24-year-old Ferrito said softly in the first few moments when he saw his daughter, who slept quietly in a tiny white and pink dress. "We're lucky. She looks like her mom."
On the other side of the camera, Ferrito's fiancee, Holly Wayman of San Marcos, and his mother, Rose Ferrito, wiped tears from their eyes while showing off Marrissa, who had been born a few days early at Pomerado Hospital in Poway.
The videoconference, at Palomar Pomerado Health's corporate office in Carmel Mountain Ranch, was set up through the hospital and Freedom Calls, a New Jersey-based nonprofit organization that uses satellite technology to connect deployed Marines with their families.
The technology, which uses live feed from video cameras attached to computers, has long been in use for business meetings and projects at the hospital, but had never before been used to help a military family, said Steven Toye, a network systems engineer for Palomar Pomerado Health.
"It's amazing, I don't know how to thank them," Wayman, 27, said of those who worked to set up the conference. "It's hard, but it's great."
Ferrito and Wayman have been together for two years, having met just weeks after Ferrito first arrived at Camp Pendleton.
Ferrito, a native of New Jersey, left for his second tour in Iraq shortly after the couple found out Wayman was pregnant.
"I was really happy, but it was also really tough, because I realized I wasn't going to be around," he said. "I was able to get most of my deployment out of the way before she was born, but it's a really difficult thing because I want to be there to help support her.
"Sometimes God throws things at you and you just have to roll with them."
The videoconference allowed Ferrito to spend more than an hour with his family. He is typically only able to speak to them by phone every week or two.
"There's so many (Marines) out there with so little contact with their families," Rose Ferrito said.
Ferrito, meanwhile, couldn't stop smiling while watching Marrissa, who was jokingly described as having his ears and his temper.
"I'm so grateful for them letting me see my daughter," he said.
-- Contact staff writer Sarah Wilkins at (760) 740-3524 or swilkins@nctimes.com.
Ellie
By: SARAH WILKINS - Staff Writer
CARMEL MOUNTAIN RANCH -- This year's Super Bowl brought two surprises for 1st Lt. Vince Ferrito: a last-minute win by his beloved New York Giants, followed by news a day later that his daughter had been born in the last hours of the game.
On Wednesday, a videoconference allowed the Camp Pendleton Marine, who is stationed in Iraq, to see little Marrissa Rose for the first time.
"Aw ... she's so pretty, she's beautiful," 24-year-old Ferrito said softly in the first few moments when he saw his daughter, who slept quietly in a tiny white and pink dress. "We're lucky. She looks like her mom."
On the other side of the camera, Ferrito's fiancee, Holly Wayman of San Marcos, and his mother, Rose Ferrito, wiped tears from their eyes while showing off Marrissa, who had been born a few days early at Pomerado Hospital in Poway.
The videoconference, at Palomar Pomerado Health's corporate office in Carmel Mountain Ranch, was set up through the hospital and Freedom Calls, a New Jersey-based nonprofit organization that uses satellite technology to connect deployed Marines with their families.
The technology, which uses live feed from video cameras attached to computers, has long been in use for business meetings and projects at the hospital, but had never before been used to help a military family, said Steven Toye, a network systems engineer for Palomar Pomerado Health.
"It's amazing, I don't know how to thank them," Wayman, 27, said of those who worked to set up the conference. "It's hard, but it's great."
Ferrito and Wayman have been together for two years, having met just weeks after Ferrito first arrived at Camp Pendleton.
Ferrito, a native of New Jersey, left for his second tour in Iraq shortly after the couple found out Wayman was pregnant.
"I was really happy, but it was also really tough, because I realized I wasn't going to be around," he said. "I was able to get most of my deployment out of the way before she was born, but it's a really difficult thing because I want to be there to help support her.
"Sometimes God throws things at you and you just have to roll with them."
The videoconference allowed Ferrito to spend more than an hour with his family. He is typically only able to speak to them by phone every week or two.
"There's so many (Marines) out there with so little contact with their families," Rose Ferrito said.
Ferrito, meanwhile, couldn't stop smiling while watching Marrissa, who was jokingly described as having his ears and his temper.
"I'm so grateful for them letting me see my daughter," he said.
-- Contact staff writer Sarah Wilkins at (760) 740-3524 or swilkins@nctimes.com.
Ellie