Oceanside volunteer racks up the hours

By: TOM MORROW - Staff Writer
Editor's Note: North County is filled with people who volunteer their time to help others. This is the story of one of those volunteers. | Sunday, September 3, 2006 7:11 PM PDT ∞

OCEANSIDE ---- If you ask Dick Bartlett where he finds the 40 to 60 hours a week he spends volunteering, he has to stop and think.

Between putting Marine and Navy families together via videoconferencing with deployed loved ones in Iraq, plus his participation on seven community boards and commissions, Bartlett has a tough time explaining it all to Inez, his wife of 44 years.

"She thinks I'm crazy," Bartlett said, chuckling.

Before retirement, Bartlett was with a General Electric Capital Corporation company in Philadelphia where he managed the firm's life reinsurance operations for the eastern half of the United States.

Moving to Oceanside in 2001, Bartlett shed his business suit and tie for a T-shirt and shorts, his standard apparel these days.

His many volunteer duties include being a member of a coalition of committee civic organizations, neighbor committees, and business groups to ensure that the new hotel resort going in across from the city pier gets constructed to everyone's satisfaction.

Bartlett also sits on the city's District D Zoning Committee, the finance committee for St. Mary, Star of the Sea Catholic Church, and the business affairs committee for the Transit Alliance for a Better North County. And, as if that's not enough already, he's also a board member of MainStreet Oceanside and the Modern Opera Theatre Company.

As busy and involved as he is, Bartlett said he has no desire to seek the presidency or chairmanship of any organization for which he volunteers.

"I don't want to be in charge, I just want to give my input," he said.

His main passion nowadays is putting military families in video contact with their loved ones in Iraq. As a volunteer for Freedom Calls, Bartlett coordinates the videoconferencing for families at both MCAS Miramar and Camp Pendleton. Freedom Calls is a nonprofit organization based in New York that provides videoconferencing equipment and money for satellite time so families can talk with their loved ones on duty in Iraq.

"We haven't set up anything locally for Afghanistan, but maybe in the future," he said.

Currently, Freedom Calls has established four primary locations in Iraq where Camp Pendleton and MCAS Miramar service personnel are deployed.

"We have video sites at Camp Fallujah and at Al Asad Marine Airfield in northern Iraq, plus at Ramadi and Taji in Iraq," he explained. "The Ramadi base is a combination of both Marines and Army, while the Taji base is all Army."

On this end, Freedom Calls has a videoconferencing site at UC San Diego as well in North County at Pacific Marine Credit Union, KOCT-TV, and the Abby Reinke Community Center on Camp Pendleton. There is also a site in Temecula.

"At this time I don't feel a need to develop more host sites here," says Bartlett. "But Freedom Calls need money to expand the number of sites in Iraq and to expand into Afghanistan."

With the money, Freedom Calls buys equipment for the sites in those countries and then turns it over the military to operate in the deployed areas.

"My primary job as a volunteer is to get the families ready to go before the video camera at this end," he explained. "Each family gets 30 minutes with their loved one."

Bartlett said the average session goes about six to eight hours, costing Freedom Calls about $8,000 in satellite time.

"We use the Internet from here to a Freedom Calls link in Georgia, where the signal is uplinked to the satellite and picked up in Iraq," he explained.

Is it worth all the time he spends with Freedom Calls?

"All anyone has to do is come and witness these families talking with their Marine or sailor," Bartlett concluded. "Believe me, it's worth it."

Contact: Tom Morrow at tmorrow@nctimes.com.