Spc. Mario Aguirre witnesses the birth of his daughter, Gabriela, via Web camera at the Red Cross's Legacy Room, Joint Base Balad, Iraq, Dec. 15, 2008. Photo by Spc. Kiyoshi Freeman, 3rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary).

Opened back in July, the Legacy Room allowed Spc. Mario Aguirre, an artilleryman with the 123rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment, and native of El Paso, Texas, to communicate with his wife, who was delivering their second child in Scottsdale, Ariz.

After 16 hours of labor, Aguirre’s wife, Elizabeth, gave birth to Gabriela at Scottsdale-Shea Hospital – and Aguirre was there every step of the way.

The Red Cross uses instant messenger services and a webcam to allow Soldiers to experience special, personal events in privacy.

“It’s invaluable,” said Michael Patton, the team leader for the Red Cross office here. “If a father or a servicemember gets to witness a special event in their lives that they would normally miss by being deployed – nothing could replace it.”

“It almost feels like you’re there,” Aguirre said. “At least it doesn’t feel like you’re so far away, when you’re actually seeing each other and talking to each other and everything.”

“The instant communications we have nowadays alleviates a lot of the apprehension and anxiety,” Patton said. “We’d go for weeks without getting mail or something like that. You’re just kind of wondering – you know something’s going on.”

A former Soldier himself, Patton said he knows that feeling all too well. He missed the birth of his own child during a deployment, and only saw photographs three weeks afterward, when the mail finally got through.

With modern technology and the assistance of the Red Cross, the Legacy Room aims to alleviate that concern for servicemembers.

“It’s not as good as being there, but it’s the next best thing,” Patton said. “And now [with modern technology] they can sit there and watch it as it happens.”