A few months ago, a friend asked me several questions about staying in touch while in Afghanistan. Since I am or was sort of a subject matter expert in that, I provided my thoughts and answers.
What are some of your biggest challenges with communicating back home?
Do you find yourself telling the same stories and updates to everyone and it drives you nuts telling it over and over?
What do guys who are deployed usually need from their family?
Items, encouragement, money, all of the above?
What is the biggest pain there when it comes to staying in touch back here?
Wow. Those are great questions. First, it depends on the base. Some headquarters bases are more linked up than others. I was in one near the city of Kabul that the web was pretty good. My current base is slower, much slower. Trying to download anything, for example, times out.
So that is a challenge. And I would assume more so in the more rural smaller bases. Otherwise, FB, gchat, and skype are usually the prime communication tools. Some people even have wifi on their iphones. It is amazing seeing people stay in touch. I hope that answers question 1.
In regards to question 2, I usually talk to so few people online via skype that I usually don't have to tell the same stories. The blog helps too. But sometimes it's ok telling the same thing over again. It means they are asking, which is better than them not, I guess. Some people have no clue what to ask people out here and that's usually more of a challenge.
Things most people get excited about is food, pictures, just things that remind them of home. Not sure how much is needed, outside of the emotional. This is the toughest mental thing I have ever done, personally. Not sure about the typical military folks, though.
Not much is a big pain when it comes to staying in touch, personally, outside of just being outside the rhythm of the people you care about. A year is tough as people go different ways. But other than that. Probably the connection itself.
