Family readiness officers go high-tech - Marine Corps News, news from Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Family readiness officers go high-tech

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — More than half of the Corps’ family readiness officers are using a new Internet-based tool to pass the latest deployment news, scrapping the traditional key volunteer-to-spouse phone call.

“When we utilized call trees, it just goes every which way,” said Kelly Cotton, family readiness officer for the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit. “The initial message is never what gets passed down all the way.”

The 26th MEU, now making its way back to Camp Lejeune, N.C., after a six-month deployment to the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf areas, was the first to use the mass communications tool, which officials are calling “MCT.” The Corps has 254 FROs using the system, according to information provided by Lt. Col. Craig Kilhenny, branch head for Family Readiness programs in Quantico, Va.

The 103 remaining FROs in the Corps should be trained and running the mass communications tool by the end of March, he said. Commands without an FRO are expected to have someone hired and trained on the program by Oct. 1.

About 128,000 Marines, spouses, family members and friends currently receive messages through the mass communications tool.

The set-up is simple. The commander sends a deployment update to the FRO, who logs on to a Web-based, password-protected system, makes a voice recording and types in the message.

The system instantaneously sends the update to everyone on a Marine’s contact list via e-mail, text message or telephone. The process, Cotton said, takes 20 minutes or less, much quicker than making call after call to pass the word.

“The family members love it,” she said. “We’ve utilized it almost monthly through the deployment. Now, with homecoming on the horizon, we’re using it more.”

More than 4,000 people, including spouses and parents of Marines and sailors with the MEU, are on the system, she said. The troops choose the people they want on their contact lists, limited to four contacts per person, Cotton said.

Lori Goudzwaard, the wife of a 26th MEU sergeant, said she relied on her husband for updates during his first deployment.

“My KV was pretty much nonexistent,” she said.

He updated her throughout this current deployment, she said, but the new system helps.

“Things get embellished,” Goudzwaard said of passing information by word of mouth. “I think this tool is a really good tool as far as keeping that information concise and direct.”