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my husband is about to deploy soon....hes going to get an iphone tomorrow because he was told that he can text using apps and such while being overseas using wifi. does anyone know what apps he can use? i have an iphone as well but not sure how it all works. my brother told me that you can imessage using wifi??? excuse my ignorance for asking these questions but i just want to be able to communicate with my husband while hes gone...thanks for any help... )
my husband is about to deploy soon....hes going to get an iphone tomorrow because he was told that he can text using apps and such while being overseas using wifi. does anyone know what apps he can use? i have an iphone as well but not sure how it all works. my brother told me that you can imessage using wifi??? excuse my ignorance for asking these questions but i just want to be able to communicate with my husband while hes gone...thanks for any help... )
Here is an answer to your question. He is right you can text while overseas. Just make sure he reads this too to avoid roaming charges.
BUT it also depends where exactly he's deploying. If he'll be on a large FOB like Kandahar Airfield for instance he stands a much higher chance of getting reception with a regular phone than say if he ends up at a small outpost in the middle of nowhere. I was at an outpost last year with just over 100 of us and there was no way we were getting cell signal to call home. However, we did have 5 computers to skype on and 2 landlines that we could call out long distance on as long as we weren't on a blackout of course and honestly I feel like that's enough anyway but I don't really understand why anyone would really need a cell phone unless it was for their job anyway, I mean if I was on the outpost, I had access to phones/computers they provided to reach home and if I wasn't by one that meant I was out on a mission where there was definitely not going to be any use of the cell phone but that's just my opinion. In any case, yes it depends on where he goes while deployed.
If he is deploying to Afghanistan chances are the cell service he will use is Roshan. I use it and so do my friends in BAF. If he gets a app called "Talkatone" for his iPhone he can gtalk with you over his cell at no charge. It uses the data to send it. It's a work around.
BUT it also depends where exactly he's deploying. If he'll be on a large FOB like Kandahar Airfield for instance he stands a much higher chance of getting reception with a regular phone than say if he ends up at a small outpost in the middle of nowhere. I was at an outpost last year with just over 100 of us and there was no way we were getting cell signal to call home. However, we did have 5 computers to skype on and 2 landlines that we could call out long distance on as long as we weren't on a blackout of course and honestly I feel like that's enough anyway but I don't really understand why anyone would really need a cell phone unless it was for their job anyway, I mean if I was on the outpost, I had access to phones/computers they provided to reach home and if I wasn't by one that meant I was out on a mission where there was definitely not going to be any use of the cell phone but that's just my opinion. In any case, yes it depends on where he goes while deployed.
Sounds like you had a OP SPAWAR cafe. If so you should of had 5 PC's 3 phones 1 webcam and 1 headset. The Tech in that area must of been sucky....LOL. I've been a SPAWAR tech since 2007.
You guys were lucky. Iraq 2003 no network no Internet cafe. The MWR was a gym and a couple of sofas. AT&T set up and chargeD big bucks to call home. No running water. No toilets. No porta-johns. The PX was a warehouse the size of a postage stamp. No DFAC only MREs and T-rats on the MKT. Tents with no AC. Times have changed.
You guys were lucky. Iraq 2003 no network no Internet cafe. The MWR was a gym and a couple of sofas. AT&T set up and chargeD big bucks to call home. No running water. No toilets. No porta-johns. The PX was a warehouse the size of a postage stamp. No DFAC only MREs and T-rats on the MKT. Tents with no AC. Times have changed.
Yeppers I was in the Army then and was part of invasion force in 2003. We had nothing just like you described. It was a long long time before I even had running water. Or a DFAC and PX or the abilty to mail things. I remember the first shower in Iraq was after we reached Baghdad and we found a broken water pipe unearthed from a mortar or something. We made the most of it. I could go on and on about this but I won't. Some of the closest people in my life are from my old PLT. We are even planning a reunion later this year.
13 Years (or more) on and those arseholes still can't arrange for soldiers to talk to the people at home?
Disgusting. The technology was there 30 year ago.
(and before somebody start's rattling on about 'how hard life was in the early 1970's - I was there too.)
Almost every base has a SPAWAR cafe even tiny PB's or VSP's. So yes those arseholes have spend 500 million dollars on the SPAWAR project so soldiers can have the Internet in remote areas. If a base doesn't have it then the unit is at fault. A simple request to the USFOR-A J1 and some paperwork is all it takes. I just installed a cafe on the Afghan Iran border for a ODA team and SFAT. They requested it and it happened. I know these systems have been in use since about 2003 after everything calmed down in Iraq after the invasion.
Yeppers I was in the Army then and was part of invasion force in 2003. We had nothing just like you described. It was a long long time before I even had running water. Or a DFAC and PX or the abilty to mail things. I remember the first shower in Iraq was after we reached Baghdad and we found a broken water pipe unearthed from a mortar or something. We made the most of it. I could go on and on about this but I won't. Some of the closest people in my life are from my old PLT. We are even planning a reunion later this year.
I was in the follow up and arrived in Kuwait mid April 2003 and in Iraq at the end of the month. We pulled into a bombed out air base in An Nassaryah (my apologies to the spelling). There was just bombed out buildings, a few bad guys left over and lots of trash. our water came in about the time we arrived with a water unit that had to run flexible pipes from the river 20 miles away and then clean it to be used. Until then it was a portable basin and water from the buffalo to wash up and do laundry. We had it pretty good when the first shower point came open and they said 1 shower every other day. Of course that was heaven. A two mile drive in the back of a 5 ton truck or a HWMMV through the sands and back. For at least 15 minutes you were clean.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Manuel de Vol
13 Years (or more) on and those arseholes still can't arrange for soldiers to talk to the people at home?
Disgusting. The technology was there 30 year ago.
(and before somebody start's rattling on about 'how hard life was in the early 1970's - I was there too.)
First let me say thank you for the outrage as misplaced as it is. You need to remember that we travel as light as we can. We blow up stuff and take out the bad guys. We take over territory that has destroyed infrastructure. It takes time to set up stuff. You have to do it yourself. If you are in a unit like mine that supports the ground pounders and tankers we set it up for them first. Trust me we were in heaven once the bullets themselves stopped flying in mid April. I count myself blessed that we went when we did. I am glad we didn't have to endure the hardships that the soldiers of WWI WWII Korea, and even Vietnam. We learn from those and make things better for the soldiers that go off to war. We equip them with better protection and better training. But even with all the advances we still cannot fight in comfort unless we are behind a joystick and flying drones or those iRobot thingies. Even still you have to put boots on the ground to hold it.
By the time I left Iraq in 2004 there was a DFAC. Running water to shower trailers. Buildings with AC. A decent PX and MWR that had computers and internet as primitive as it was. We left it better for follow on units. Those units took up the struggle and made it better for their replacements and so on. Feel bad for us while we are there in harms way but please do not fault the system for short falls unless it absolutely cannot be excused. We learn and get better every time.
V/r
1SG
Maintenance company
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