THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 15, 1994 TAG: 9406140372
SECTION: MILITARY NEWS PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940615 LENGTH: WASHINGTON
In an experimental program that could be extended to every Navy ship within five years, the George Washington's 6,000 sailors and Marines can now talk for 50 cents per minute to anyone in the continental United States.
{REST} The special satellite link, opened to sailors by the Navy last week, also eases the ship's transmission of television, still pictures and fax messages. Called Challenge Athena by the Navy, it already has permitted the ship's commanders to hold regular video teleconferences with their counterparts ashore.
The new phone service is one of two innovations easing communication with folks back home during the Washington's current deployment. Sailors and Marines on all 15 ships in the aircraft carrier's task force can exchange letters with friends and family at home by computer. They pay $3 for each 100-line message, with same-day or next-day delivery.
The direct phone hookup is available only aboard the George Washington and can be used only to call out. Families with emergencies that require them to contact the ship should continue to work through the ship's ombudsman.
The service could be a lifesaver in addition to a morale-booster. The ship's doctors got a hint of its medical applications during maneuvers off the North Carolina coast this spring when a sailor who had a previous hip fracture fell while working on one of the ship's decks.
Lt. Cmdr. Chuck Baxter, the ship's surgeon, said doctors aboard thought the man might have broken his pelvis again but couldn't be certain from his X-rays. They used the new hookup to transmit the X-ray images to specialists at Bethesda Naval Hospital, who determined the sailor had suffered a bad bruise and could recuperate on board.
The diagnosis saved the Navy the trouble and expense of evacuating the injured man. Was the sailor pleased about missing out on a few days in the relative comfort of a hospital?
``He was happy that we were able to treat him quickly,'' Baxter said.
Cmdr. Debra Straub, information systems officer aboard the ship, said sailors placed 2,000 calls in the first two days after the service was extended to them last week. A total of eight lines are available to the crew for personal use - five in the library, and one each in the petty officers' lounge, chiefs' lounge and officers' wardroom.
Straub said crewmen can buy up to 40 minutes of phone time in advance and can budget the time over several calls or use it all at once. The sailors use debit cards with code numbers to access the service.
The Navy spent $3.5 million to initiate the service, said Lt. Cmdr. John Hearing of the Navy Space Systems Division, one of the coordinators of the project. That covers all equipment, including an antenna that links the ship to a satellite owned by the Comsat Corp.; the lease of a receiving dish from Crescomm Corp. in New Jersey, which receives calls relayed by the satellite; and time other phone lines in the service will be used for official business.
The phones being used by sailors were installed at no cost to the government in an arrangement with Crescomm, U.S. Sprint and the ship's Morale, Welfare and Recreation fund, Hearing said. Sprint is the domestic long-distance carrier for the calls.
by CNB