Group wants to help troops phone home

Operation Call Home raising funds to buy satellite phones for Washington soldiers

Joe and Maude McMains were traveling in Rialto, Calif., from their Grant County home when they received a phone call from their grandson, Ian Moore, who is stationed in Iraq.

Moore, who is a member of the Moses Lake-based 161st company with the 81st Brigade of the Washington Army National Guard, had tried their cell phone because he'd tried the numbers of all other relatives, been unable to find anyone and was running out of time to make his call home.

"Where is everybody, Grandma?" Maude McMains, remembered Moore saying. "I've tried everybody, and you were the only one I could find."

But a new group hopes to reduce the normal three-hour waiting time for soldiers to call home, and they're looking for donations to help.

The program is called Operation Call Home: A Phone for Every Platoon, and its founders are looking to purchase Iradium 9505 satellite phones with minutes for use by soldiers to decrease their waiting time for calls home.

James Davison, a Toppenish resident who is president of the nonprofit group, said he hopes to raise enough money through donations to provide one satellite phone for each of the 80 platoons of the 81st Brigade of the Washington National Guard, which includes the Moses Lake-based 161st.

A platoon usually includes between 30 and 40 soldiers, Davison said.

Davison, whose son, Michael Davison, is a sergeant in the 81st brigade based out of Snohomish, said he wanted to give his son a satellite phone for his own personal use before he was called up to go to war. The

younger Davison refused because he didn't want something that the rest of his unit did not have, James Davison said.

So the father gathered a few other interested parties and formed the 501c3 nonprofit group. Operation Call Home has gathered $26,248 from donations but is still a long ways from its goal, Davison said. For 80

phones at $500 a piece, plus all the minutes of use, Davison said the group must raise $1.58 million.

Most soldiers call home at AT&T call centers set up in various bases in Iraq, Davison said. When he spoke with his son, Davison said the quality of those calls was far inferior to those made with the satellite phone.

"You almost had to talk and say, 'Over.' Then you had to be quiet for awhile and wait for them to answer you back," Davison said.

Operation Call Home has raised enough money to send six phones to the 81st Brigade, Davison said. Both his son and the McMains' grandson have access to one.

Davison said he received clearance from top Army officials to send the phones to troops serving with the 81st Brigade, because of potential security concerns, such as tracing the calls.

Because of those hoops, the program is raising funds only for Washington's 81st Brigade, though Davison said he has spoken with representatives from other units in other state about starting similar programs.

Brigadier General Gordon D. Toney, who commands the 81st Brigade, wrote a letter to Davison in support of the program.

"As we deploy our soldiers, it is critical that each soldier has clarity of purpose, confidence in their training, team and equipment, certainty in mission accomplishment and good communication," Toney wrote. "An enhanced capability to communicate with loved ones at home, which is the aim of this private initiative, will help morale and assist in accomplishment of these goals."

Those interested in donating funds can send a check to Operation Call Home, 101 Pearne St., Toppenish, WA 98948, or drop a check off at any Bank of America branch and ask it be placed in the Operation Call Home

account.

Or visit the Web site for the effort, www.platoonphone.com, and make a donation via credit or debit card.

For his part, McMains attended a recent Grant County PUD commissioners' meeting to request donations, where he found a receptive audience. He's been on the road since and hasn't heard back, but McMains said the challenge is now getting the word out.

"It's pretty much a word of mouth deal," he said.