May 27, 2007 8:03 pm US/Central
Twins Help Deployed Soldiers Connect With Families
by Maya Nishikawa
Minneapolis (WCCO) ―
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A half-hour of video conference time was provided for 22 grateful families at the Metrodome, the site of Sunday's Twins Military Appreciation Day.
WCCO
The Minnesota Twins provided a video conference hook-up at Sunday's game that allowed families to communicate with service members in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This was the fifth year in a row the Twins teamed up with Qwest to provide the service on Memorial Day weekend.
"This is great. It's more than we'd hoped for," said Royal Carlson, father of Army Spc. Jared Carlson. "It was really nice to see him anyway, and interact with him."
Spc. Carlson is currently in Iraq for the holiday, but the video feed allowed him to check out the digital camera he picked out to give his mother for Mother's Day.
Royal also showed off his "My son's in Iraq" T-shirt.
A half-hour of video conference time was provided for 22 grateful families at the Metrodome, the site of Sunday's Twins Military Appreciation Day.
The players wore caps during the game against the Toronto Blue Jays honoring all four branches of the U.S. Armed Services. They then autographed the hats and donated them to the team's
auction Web site to benefit the Minnesota Military Family Foundation.
While the conference gave families the chance to communicate with loved ones, it also pointed up the fact that they were still half a world away.
"It's easier but then harder, too, because you sort of miss him more. You see him and you just want to hold him but you can't," said Jared's mother Debbie Carlson. "Either way, it's not good having him gone, no matter how you look at it."
Another family who used the service, the Schwinghammer family, is getting ready for a homecoming. Sgt. Joseph Schwinghammer may be coming back from Iraq this summer.
Family members admitted the upcoming reunion seemed more real when they were allowed to catch up face to face, even through a monitor.
"A picture is still a picture. It means something more to see him move, laugh, tell a joke," said one mother.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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