MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- Deployments can be hard on Marines, Sailors and their families, but one organization strives to make the separation a little more bearable. 

Freedom Calls, in coordination with the Abby Reinke Wire Mountain Community Center here, allows some family members here to talk with and see their deployed Marine or Sailor.

“People don’t realize, until they get here, that it’s actually an interactive experience,” said Dick Bartlett, volunteer coordinator with Freedom Calls, an organization which provides video teleconferencing (VTC) between deployed military members and their families.

Bartlett, 65, had organized VTC sessions on base before, but April 28 was the first at any of Camp Pendleton’s community centers.

“It’s a privilege to help connect     the families,” said Regina M. Hunter, manager of the Abby Reinke Wire Mountain Community Center. “The whole purpose of the community centers is to support the families while the servicemembers do their jobs.”

Bartlett hopes to provide VTC every Friday at Abby Reinke, but bringing the sessions to the families requires a substantial amount of planning and networking, he said.

Before anything can happen, the I Marine Expeditionary Force selects a deployed unit and produces a list of servicemembers who want to participate.

The forward unit then contacts a Camp Pendleton key volunteer who gets in touch with the family members to schedule times for the VTC sessions.

On the day of the VTC sessions, Bartlett dials the internet provider number to the chaplain’s office at Camp Fallujah, Iraq, and ensures the system is running properly.

“Everything has to be working together,”  said Basil G. Domingo, a computer and marketing specialist with Marine and Family Services. “We work with an internet service provider, so we need to make sure the setting is correct and that all the components fall into place.”

After Bartlett knows the participants’ schedule is the same both here and at Camp Fallujah, the VTC sessions can begin.

“It was really cool,” said Janet C. Schweizer, wife of Master Sgt. George E. Schweizer, band master for 1st Marine Division Band. “We email a lot, and (George) calls, but it was great for the kids to see his face when he talked.”

“They could blow him kisses, and he could blow one back,” she added, referring to her experience with a Freedom Calls VTC at First Command Financial Planning in Oceanside.

Video teleconferencing gives military members valuable, face-to-face interaction that proves to be a huge morale boost, said Bartlett, who has volunteered with Freedom Calls for more than six months.

Master Sgt. Schweizer, for instance, had not slept for the 48 hours before the VTC session with his wife and children. Bartlett told him after the session that he should get some sleep. Schweizer declined; he wanted to see the smiles on the faces of other Marines after they had the chance to VTC with their loved ones.

Bartlett currently provides the interactive contact between families here at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar and servicemembers in Ramadi and Taji, Iraq.

“I found out that II MEF was (video teleconferencing) regularly,”said Bartlett. “When I asked why we weren’t doing it here, they said, ‘we don’t have the facilities.’ I told them, I’d find the facilities.”

“It’s just the right thing to do. It’s a lot of work, but it’s a lot of satisfaction.” Bartlett said the 11-hour time difference does not affect the number of Marines interested in video  teleconferencing with their families.

“For the Marines there, time has no meaning,” said Bartlett. “If you can talk to your family at three in the morning, you’re there.

“You see the smiles here, and you see the smiles on the other end, it’s all worth it,” he added.