Photo By Master Sgt. Thomas Duval | Sgt. Stephen Seefeld, a preventive medicine specialist with Medical Company, 1st...... read more read more
EL GORAH, Egypt - Nestled in the heart of the Sinai Peninsula sits a room, painted blue and decorated with stuffed animals. Located on the Multinational Force and Observer’s North Camp, this room offers U.S. Soldiers a place to go for peaceful solitude.
While the room’s vibrancy is clearly in contrast to its sandy surroundings, it is not the paint or the décor which has Soldiers excited for the chance to visit. The prize is what the room offers.
The room is part of the United through Reading program, which is popular among deployed Soldiers and is now helping reconnect families with their deployed peacekeepers here in Egypt.
United through Reading allows Soldiers to bridge the distance between them and their children by reading aloud while on camera. After the reading sessions are over, service members can also record a personal message to their loved ones. Once recorded, the videos are sent to the Soldiers’ families. When a family receives a loved one’s DVD, the children involved can read or sing along with the recorded session. Their interaction with the original DVD is recorded or photographed and sent back to the family’s service member, completing the cycle.
“This program is a unique way for our Soldiers to connect with their children while deployed,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Alexis Shelton, Task Force Sinai senior enlisted adviser. “The kids love it, and the Soldiers get a kick out of it because it gives them the feeling they are really reading with their children.”
Recently, U.S. Army Sgt. Stephen Seefeld became the first Soldier deployed to the Sinai to learn just how much the program works.
“Having access to a program like this is vital to those of us who are deployed,” said Seefeld, a preventive medicine specialist assigned to Medical Company, 1st Support Battalion, Task Force Sinai. “This new program gives us and our kids a peace of mind, even if for just a minute, knowing that daddy or mommy is there.”
The father of three said that reading to his kids before bed became a ritual before his nine-month deployment to Egypt, and he is happy to be able to continue the tradition despite being thousands of miles away.
“It was great to be able to read to them and have a connection from all the way over here,” added Seefeld.
Seefeld isn’t the only Soldier to benefit from the program.
MFO Force Transportation Officer Maj. Andrew Hess and his wife have two kids and are another family which has been able to keep its nighttime traditions, despite three deployments and an heavy work schedule.
“Over the last year, I was working on my master’s degree, so I had a pretty big load of homework,” said Hess. “Other than nights I had class, I made it a point to pull away from the books for story time before bed. I am hoping that this program will bring back some sense of that special time we had together.”
Throughout his career, Hess has become familiar with the program. He jumped at the chance to step in front of the camera when it was opened for the first time in the Sinai Peninsula.
“I used United through Reading on my last tour in Iraq when my daughter was 2 years old,” said Hess, a two-time Iraq War veteran. “I was excited to find out that it was available here in the Sinai.”
Since opening, the Task Force Sinai reading room has hosted an average of one Soldier per day. Although not a large number, word about the program has spread. It will soon be available not just to American service members, but also to personnel from the other nations that make up the MFO: Australia, Canada, Colombia, the Czech Republic, the Republic of the Fiji Islands, France, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, the United Kingdom, and Uruguay.
As its popularity grows, Task Force Sinai is also looking for ways to expand the program to its remote camps which U.S. Soldiers call home. With hard work and dedication, the Task Force and MFO hope to have the program available to all of its service members by the end of 2014.
| Date Taken: | 09.25.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 09.25.2014 08:21 |
| Story ID: | 143222 |
| Location: | EL GORAH, EG |
| Hometown: | FORT CAMPBELL, KY, US |
| Hometown: | FORT CAVAZOS, TX, US |
| Web Views: | 331 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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