TimesLeader.com

Soldier in Iraq meets new son

Technology enables Hazleton man stationed in Iraq to see his new baby son in Wilkes-Barre General.

By Sherry Long slong@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

WILKES-BARRE – National Guard Staff Sgt. Thomas Davidick Jr. didn’t get to hold his wife Jen’s hand as she delivered Matthew, their second child, Friday morning.

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Jen Davidick, holds her 1-day old son, Matthew, and her 3-year-old son, Dylan, at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital as she talks about video conferencing with her husband, National Guard Staff Sgt. Thomas Davidick, who is stationed in Iraq. The conference was coordinated by Freedom Calls Foundation, a nonprofit organization that helps soldiers keep in touch with their families.

S. John Wilkin/The Times Leader

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Davidick

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Davidick met his son 26 hours after the birth, thanks to a video conferencing system at Wilkes-Barre’s General Hospital, even though he is half of a world away serving in Iraq with the Pennsylvania National Guard’s 56th Stryker Brigade, working with the Iraqi Army and patrolling the region.

Thomas saw and talked to Jen, Matthew and Dylan, the Davidick’s 3-year-old son, during a 90-minute video conference at 11 a.m. Saturday that was set up through the Freedom Calls Foundation, a nonprofit organization.

The foundation provides free phone and video conferencing calls to connect military members serving overseas to their families back home during special occasions.

Thomas Davidick, 28, of Hazleton, got to see photos of his 7 pound, 13-ounce son as soon as Matthew was brought into the nursery because the couple’s friends took several photos and e-mailed them immediately. This conference allowed him to do so much more than just view pictures of Matthew in his e-mail account.

“This was nice because it gave him a chance to see the baby … But having this just kind of rounds out the whole experience. He got to hear him cry and Matthew got to hear his dad’s voice for the first time,” she said as she rested in her room surrounded by friends and family.

When 29-year-old Jen learned about the foundation last week through another unit member’s wife, she wasn’t sure if she would be able to utilize the free service because her due date was approaching. Yet foundation officials went to work immediately to schedule the conference.

“I’m really glad it all happened because he’s not going to be able to see Matthew until he’s 4 months old,” Jen Davidick said.

Her husband’s unit was mobilized last September before heading to Iraq in January. He is scheduled to arrive home this fall after a one-year tour of duty.

The Davidicks try to communicate about twice a week over the phone and Internet using Web cams and e-mails, but Saturday’s conference call was the first time they’ve began able to really talk and see each other simultaneously for months.

“Most of the conversations he and I have, it’s just a phone call and he has a 30-minute time limit. His Internet connection hasn’t always been really great. Plus with both of our schedules, it’s just really hard to get a lot of conversation. It’s nice to have that uninterrupted time,” Jen Davidick said.

Jen Davidick learned she was pregnant two weeks after her husband left for training in preparation for his second tour of duty. He served in Iraq in 2003 as a member of the U.S. Army.

The Freedom Calls Foundation was founded in 2003 by investment banker John B. Harlow II after he heard media reports of a soldier stationed overseas spending $7,000 on phone bills to talk to his family. The foundation began offering military personnel free calls to their families and then it quickly evolved into video conferencing.

“This is a great privilege to help these families who give up so much for us,” Harlow said.