Thanks to Red Cross, deployed Airman witnesses newborn's birth from afar

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Allison M. Boehm
  • 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq --  In the early morning hours of Dec. 23, 2009, in a small, dimmed private room, a young Airman's life changed forever.

Although he had been awake through the night, the look of eager anticipation on his face suggested otherwise. He sat, smiling from ear-to-ear, eyes glued to the real-time image of his wife on the computer monitor. He was thousands of miles away, but he was completely overjoyed.

Staff Sgt. Shane Evans, deployed here from Ramstein Air Base, Germany, was able to witness his wife give birth to their first child, a boy they named Weylin.

"I desperately wanted to reach through the screen," said Sergeant Evans. "But I was just happy to be able to see the whole process and be there for my wife. Although I wasn't able to hold my wife or newborn son, I feel as though I was there."

What made it all possible was the Red Cross Legacy Room here on base. When the situation calls for it, the room's privacy and solid internet connection gives servicemembers the opportunity to escape the desert environment and feel like they are home again, even if only for a short while.

"For many, being deployed is challenging because they miss special events -- whether it's a graduation, a wedding, an anniversary, a birthday, or the birth of child," said Kenneth Romero, team leader and station manager of American Red Cross JBB. "The legacy room helps servicemembers to be beamed back home and witness with their own eyes those life-changing events while they are here."

Servicemembers can reserve the room for any time, day or night, in blocks of one hour or more. Sergeant Evans was able to stay in the room for nearly 15 hours waiting for Weylin's birth.

"The whole time I was in the room, I didn't feel like I was deployed," said Sergeant Evans a force protection escort assigned to the 332nd Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron. "Yes, I was still in uniform, but everything else just disappeared and I got to spend time with my wife.

"Being able to see the birth made it seem like I didn't miss one of the biggest parts of my son's life. I didn't get to hold him, but I still got to see and hear him. When they set him on my wife and he cried, it broke my heart but filled me with happiness.

"I don't think I'll ever be able to repay the Red Cross members for the opportunity of feeling like I was in the room with my wife watching my son's birth."