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Military Camps in Iraq with Freedom Calls Centers supported by foundation satellite links:
     Camp Taji
     Camp Fallujah
     Camp Taqaddum
     Al Asad Airbase
     Camp Victory

 National News Items

Comic Strips on Freedom Calls

  Linkup lets dad in Iraq watch son graduate


Wartime wedding - a 10,000 mile separation could not stop these two from getting hitched


Cyber marriage - cyber baby...


Birth by satellite


Video Conference Enables Marine in Iraq to Witness Birth of First Child in Oklahoma


The most wonderful moment in a father's life


Charity Keeps troops in touch with families


SGT Perry meets his new-born daughter

In a show of the bipartisan support the Freedom Calls enjoys,  Executive Director, John Harlow appears on "Capitol Perspective" with Senator Edward M. Kennedy


The virtual war family


American Heroes


Not your daddy's Morse Code


Groom in Djibouti, bride in Florida and minister in Montana - a wedding that spanned 14,000 miles


Dad attends daughters graduation from Iraq


How do you keep families together, when mothers and fathers are on the front lines? Keith shows you how technology is bringing a bit of home to America's Bravest, half a world away.


Freedom Calls brought the greatest first birthday gift to one-year-old Shelby Strickland. Her dad is fighting the war in Iraq but thanks the foundation for Shelby dad was right there to help her blow out the candle on her cake.


First ever video conference between a soldier in Iraq and his newborn child and Mom broadcast on Fox News


Two soldiers wed via Freedom Calls video conference

 




Why We Do it...

FCF Executive Director talks about Freedom Calls' non-profit alternative to AT&T's commercial exploitation of military families on Fox News
"We are making the technology available in the board rooms of those who profit from the war available to those who fight the war" -- John B. Harlow II, Executive Director
You Can Make a Difference! There is no internet infrastructure in Iraq. It costs $ tens of thousands per month to maintain satellite links to Freedom Calls Centers at military bases on the front lines. The foundation's state of the art communications services are free of charge to military families and represent an alternative to commercial exploitation by military contractors. We provide more than 2,000 enterprise class family video conferences and more than 1.5 million minutes of free telephone calls every month saving military families $4 million a year from their paychecks over AT&T's monopoly $0.19 minute telephone rates. Freedom Calls is a 501(c)3 public charity and is entirely supported by donations from the public & receives no funding from the military. We need your help! Please donate and write a letter to your Congressman and Senator requesting DOD support for Freedom Calls.
The importance of Freedom Calls - LTC Stack

Chicago Auto Show with Chrysler

 
Grad's dad in Baghdad




Highlights


Freedom Calls Directors Discuss Funding Needs

Watch the channel 12 news coverage...

Watch the NBC news coverage...
North Carolina National Guard Commends Freedom Calls

See Certificate...

Freedom Calls Executive Director, John B. Harlow II accepts thanks from President George Bush at the White House on behalf of all of Freedom Calls' hard working employees, volunteers, Hometown Link partners and generous contributors



Letter of thanks from the President

Freedom Calls fulfills last wish of soldier's dying sister

See front page article from Kansas City Star

Watch the
Fox News Coverage

Marine Corps Engineer Company C extends heartfelt thank you to Freedom Calls Foundation and AT&T Telecom Pioneers

More...

Freedom Calls Foundation celebrates 1st Year of Operations
Watch the Movie
Department of Defense Employees   select  Freedom Calls Foundation for Generous Donation - Defense Security Service Employee Association Fund to benefit soldiers and their families

DSS Commendation and DSSEA Letter of Appreciation

FCF IS Proud to be Recognized by DOD America Supports You Program
                                             
  
Freedom Calls Receives
Army Commendation -


                                   More...                                                     
        
Foundation Receives personal letter of appreciation from Major General Taguba

Foundation Mission



Faced with extended tours of duty, our front line soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are not able to speak with members of their families for months at a time. This breakdown of family communication needlessly contributes to the stress experienced by our soldiers and their mothers, fathers, wives, husbands and children at home.

Throughout history, tours of duty in wartime have served to separate families.  We are deploying state-of-the art technology to transform the experience of soldiers on extended deployments to war zones.   Soldiers may now attend and participate in milestone family events such as graduations, births, birthdays and weddings etc. via video conference over the Freedom Calls Network.  One Army General recently observed that our effort represents the single greatest boost in morale for the troops in the past 25 years

Our mission is to build a communications network independent of military networks employing state of the art Wi-Fi, VOIP telephony, Video Conferencing and Satcom technology to enable our troops to communicate free of charge from their base camps with their families at home by internet telephone, instant messaging and video conference. Your generous contributions to the Freedom Calls Foundation serve to ease the burden of thousands of our brave soldiers and their families in their effort to protect our country and rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan.

A $50 contribution by just 1 million Americans will enable the Freedom Calls Foundation to offer its state of the art communication services to virtually every soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan free of charge.

Family is important, especially during wartime. Your contribution shows your appreciation for the sacrifices being made by our soldiers in Iraq and their families at home in a direct and meaningful way - by bringing them closer together.
 

Foundation Initiatives

Working closely with corporate contributors, individuals, and the military, the Foundation has built a satellite network connecting 5 military installations in Iraq with the United States. In 2004, the foundation installed its first facility offering VOIP telephone, internet and video conferencing services in an Army camp located north of Baghdad in the Sunni Triangle.

The Foundation's Freedom Calls Centers offer telephones, video conferencing stations, video email stations, and computers with email and internet access.  As a result the more than 40,000 soldiers in 5 camps in Iraq are able to communicate with their families and loved ones at home on a regular basis 24 hours per day free of charge.

In 2005, the foundation installed satellite links and communications facilities at Marine headquarters at Camp Fallujah and Al Asad Airbase in Anbar Province on the Syrian border.  In 2007, the Foundation installed a Freedom Calls Center at Camp Taqaddum. The Foundation's 5 facilities in Iraq now serve more than 40,000 soldiers, Marines and airmen - more than 2,000 per day.

The Army has requested that the Foundation install it facilities at 8 additional Army camps in Iraq and 2 in Afghanistan in the coming months. Each Freedom Calls facility costs about $250,000 to set up and approximately $250,000 a year in maintain. Future deployments will encompass as many as 100 additional locations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other locations where our overseas troops lack regular communication with their families and loved ones at home.  With your support, we hope to install our facilities at every Army camp in Iraq and Afghanistan in the coming year.

Operation Hometown Link

The foundation has launched Operation Hometown Link with the generous donation of several corporate and university contributors. Corporations, law firms, schools, hospitals and universities have offered to allow military families to access their video conferencing facilities across the country to speak and interact with their soldiers and marines.  The foundation expects to have more than ten thousand sites across the country in the coming months in which families can gather to speak with and interact with their soldiers and marines using state of the art video conferencing equipment. More on Initiatives...

  Family Communication
  at the Frontlines

 Recent News


President George H.W. Bush thanks Freedom Calls and troops on Thanksgiving Day - More...

 
June 19, 2008                       Special Delivery

 
June 18, 2008                       
A grad's dad in Baghdad

 
June 18, 2008                      
Live feed lets father in Iraq view Dover graduation

 
June 17, 2008                     
Most important man in her life

 
June 17, 2008                      Virtual Visit

 
June 17, 2008                      Marine In Iraq At Wife's Side

 
June 15, 2008                      Happy Dad's Day to fathers in Iraq

 
June 14, 2008                     
Cale's Jeep gets Jammed!

 
June 13, 2008                     
New York Mills students, military connect via satellite

 
June 12, 2008                      Helping Troops On Front Lines Stay Connected

 
June 11, 2008                     
New dad counts fingers, toes — from Iraq

 
June 10, 2007                      [Video] Birth celebration half a world apart

 
June 10, 2008                      [Video] Dad talks wife through labor from Iraq

 
June 10, 2008                      [Video] Soldier in Iraq talks wife through birth

 
June 10, 2008                      [Video] Army 1st LT participates in birth of his namesake

 
June 10, 2008                      Connecting to loved ones from the middle of war

 
June 8, 2008                        Satellite hookup lets Marine see son's birth in Maine

 
June 8, 2008                        Marine in Iraq sees son's birth in Maine

 
June 7, 2008                        [Video] Separated by war - reunited by satellite

 
June 7, 2008                        [Video] Satellite birth 

 
June 7, 2008                        [Video] Proud dad in Iraq talks wife thru 36 hours of labor

 
June 6, 2008                        VIDEO SAVES 'MOMENT YOU CAN'T GET BACK'

 
June 5, 2008                        [Video] Emotional long distance delivery

 
June 5, 2008                        Surprise of a lifetime

 
June 5, 2008                        Soldiers watch from Iraq as their kids graduate

 
June 5, 2008                       
Live, from Iraq

 
June 4, 2008                        [Video] Dad in Iraq leads pledge at son's graduation

 
May 22, 2008                       [Video] Very special long distance graduation

 
May 22, 2008                       [Video] Graduation via satellite

 
May 22, 2008                       
Dad in Iraq sees grad

 
May 21, 2008                       
Linkup lets dad in Iraq watch son graduate

 
May 16, 2008                       [Video] Dads in Iraq attend kid's graduation 

 
May 16, 2008                       [Video] SSG home to family after long day on battlefield

 
May 13, 2008                       [Video] Students dance for soldiers in Iraq

 
May 13, 2008                       
Mary's Little Lamb goes high-tech

 
May 12, 2008                       Technology enables Iraq marine to meet new daughter

 
May 12, 2008                       [Video] Marine visits daughter

 
May 11, 2008                        Keeping Family Together

 
May 10, 2008                        Technology enables Iraq marine to meet new daughter

 
May 10, 2008                        Video conference links newborn with dad in Iraq

 
May 7, 2008                          [Video] Student surprised to see dad in Iraq


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