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Webcam Puts Marine In Iraq At Wife's Side After Birth In St. Pete

News Channel 8 photo by WALLY PATANOW

Erin Entrekin shows her one-day-old baby, Aislyn, to her husband, Lance Cpl. Gregory Entrekin.

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By CARLOS MONCADA | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 17, 2008

Updated: 06/17/2008 03:36 pm

ST. PETERSBURG - Lance Cpl. Greg Entrekin is serving on the front lines of Iraq, but he saw his newborn daughter for the first time at 11:15 a.m. today at St. Petersburg General Hospital.

Thanks to a satellite link provided by the nonprofit Freedom Calls Foundation, Entrekin was able to gaze into a laptop and see and hear his daughter, Aislyn, and wife, Erin, from half a world away.

"She's got a lot of hair," the 20-year-old Marine Corps reservist said of the sleeping baby cradled in her mother's arms.

"She looks just like you," said the smiling but weary mother, who delivered the 6-pound, 8-ounce girl about 17 hours earlier.

Several reporters surrounded Erin Entrekin in her hospital room to witness part of the live communication, a first for the St. Petersburg hospital. Aislyn's grandparents, Mark Yetto and Mary Trombitas, also were present.

"It's amazing," the 21-year-old mother said shortly before the teleconference began. "I'm so glad he can see her at a day old instead of 3 months when he gets back."

At one point, she held up the 20-inch baby, eyes still closed, to the Webcam for a few moments, affording her husband a better look.

"She looks just like the ultrasound, chubby cheeks and a little nose," said Entrekin, a driver who has been in Al Taqaddum in central Iraq since February. "I'd give anything in the world to hold her."

The couple have been married since November. He grew up in Floral City and has been a Marine reservist for nearly three years. She grew up in St. Petersburg, attending Northeast High School. They met in Orlando, while he was on duty.

The couple spoke for about 90 minutes via the satellite link, and allowed reporters to sit in for about 15 minutes of their talk.

Greg spoke about the phone service being down, about another sandstorm expected to blow through, and how the temperature reached 127 degrees Monday.

He also mentioned how he had to break in to the room where the Webcam was set up because the door was locked.

"I just took my knife and rammed it into the lock," he said. "I was going to see her one way or another."

Most of their talk, though, was about Aislyn's full head of dark hair, chubby cheeks, small nose and pouty lip.

"She turned out looking like you, like you said," said Greg Entrekin, adding he should return home the second week in September.

Through the Freedom Calls Foundation, troops in war zones can participate in births, weddings, graduations and other milestones that those in generations past were forced to miss.

The Morristown, N.J.-based foundation, run on private and corporate donations, provides about 2,000 video conferences a month, including about 250 birth conferences, said founder and Executive Director John Harlow.

Harlow said he started the foundation in 2004 after seeing a TV news story about a National Guard soldier who racked up a $7,000 phone bill staying in touch with loved ones.

"They wouldn't give him a break," Harlow said.

Reporter Carlos Moncada can be reached at (727) 451-2333 or cmoncada@tampatrib.com.

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