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Troops and Loved Ones Share Online

by Rita Boland

Military families have a powerful new tool for staying in touch with deployed warfighters even when service members are located in areas with limited bandwidth or infrequent communication opportunities. An easy-to-use Web site template provides a resource for uploading photos and videos, which eliminates the need to send large attachments and allows service members to access the images whenever they have the opportunity because files are stored online.

Websites for Heroes is an outreach effort to support troops and their families in a way that goes beyond yellow ribbons. The companies behind the effort, DigitalPost Interactive and Caliber Media, wanted to assist military families by easing separations due to deployments, enhancing homecomings and making readjustment to family life easier for everyone. They developed a Web-based program that allows families to share videos, pictures, text and schedules online.

Interested military families join a waiting list for the Web sites, which are provided as funds become available. Caliber Media handles the Web design and supports the e-commerce and distribution. DigitalPost Interactive provides the technology for the site functions. Individuals or organizations can sponsor the Web pages for one year for $99 to cover operating costs. The normal cost for DigitalPost Interactive’s The Family Post sites—the template for the Websites for Heroes sites—is $158 for one year. Once families have a site, they can choose to renew their subscription annually and pay the fees themselves. Specific families cannot be sponsored; the sites are awarded on a “first come first served” basis to protect anonymity. Any money the companies make beyond the operating costs will be donated to a veterans’ charity.

Terry Gniffke, chief executive officer, Caliber Media, estimates that about 200 families currently are waiting for sites but adds that he could easily attract 2,000 families if sponsorships were available. Gniffke, a Vietnam War veteran, had the idea for Websites for Heroes after meeting with Michael Sawtell, chief executive officer of DigitalPost Interactive, about another project. When Gniffke saw how easily families could create Web sites through The Family Post, he realized the applications it could have for the military. The two men decided they had a resource with which to reach out to the military community and provide a form of support that does more than demonstrations of solidarity to benefit troops and their families directly. “The Army, Marine Corps and the military are at war, and America is at the mall,” Gniffke says.

Sawtell expresses similar sentiments and notes that “the least we could do is give them a communications vehicle to keep them connected.”

The base platform for the Web sites is a simple Web 2.0 interface with drag-and-drop features and easy upload capabilities. Users need no coding knowledge to build their sites. Families can choose from a variety of layouts and musical scores played in 30-second loops, and directions on a set-up site walk users through building their Web pages. The sites support two hours of streaming video and unlimited pictures that can be turned into slideshows. The Web sites’ technology compresses JPEG files and instantly uploads them so deployed troops can browse them easily yet print a good quality 5-inch x 7-inch photograph. Unlike e-mail attachments, which can be stripped, never delivered or must be deleted after viewing, the images on the Web site can remain up indefinitely so troops can view them repeatedly. All the sites are password protected.

Other features of the sites include a history page, a calendar and a message board. The calendar helps keep troops connected to their families’ day-to-day activities. When deployed service members have the opportunity to call home, they can ask their children about recent activities.

The Galvez family of Gulfport, Mississippi, used its site to keep in touch while Chief Warrant Officer Galvez was deployed with the U.S. Navy. The family obtained its site when the chief warrant officer was in the Middle East. “It was fantastic,” Michelle Galvez says.

The family most enjoys the video capabilities; pictures come in a close second. Using the video feature, the deployed sailor was able to hear his youngest child talk for the first time and to see her playing. Michelle Galvez explains that their three other children were excited to see notes from their father on the message board. “For some reason that was more exciting than some blah old e-mail,” she states. The site also keeps the Galvezes in closer touch with relatives located around the country—an added bonus for military families who undergo frequent changes of station. The password protection feature gives her additional peace of mind because only those she shares the password with can access the Web page.

Michelle Galvez believes Websites for Heroes eased her husband’s homecoming as well. “I think it did help life readjustment because he didn’t have to catch up on as much,” she explains. “We didn’t have to spend two weeks reacquainting him with everything that had happened. He felt like he had been there in some small way. We could just spend our time relaxing and enjoying [each other’s] company.”

Now that Chief Warrant Officer Galvez has returned, the family uses the site to stay connected during his shorter trips. The family plans to renew its subscription when the free year ends and take advantage of the technology to share information during the chief warrant officer’s next deployment.

When Michelle Galvez first heard of Websites for Heroes, she thought there would be a catch because it was too good to be true, but she has been happy with the resource. She uses her role as an ombudsman for her husband’s command to help get the word out about Websites for Heroes. According to her, many nonprofit organizations offer services to the military but not many of those services impact those left behind during deployments. “This really touches us as a family at home,” she states.