Granite State Distance Learning Network sponsors nation's first war zone "video-commissioning"

On May 21, Kristen Wentz received her commission as a Second Lieutenant in the Army Nurse Corps in a ceremony at the Memorial Union Building on the University of New Hampshire campus. Wentz, a recent graduate of the St. Anselm College nursing program, completed her Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) training requirements at UNH.

An ROTC tradition allows cadets to pick the officer who performs their swearing-in, and Wentz chose her father, Colonel Paul Wentz, Brigade Commander for the 1st Infantry Division, Division Support Command.

In an unusual twist on tradition, Col. Wentz conducted the swearing-in from his military headquarters in Tikrit, Iraq via satellite videoconference.

“It’s not that unusual for parents to commission their children,” said Lieutenant Colonel Harry D. Prantl, a Professor of Military Science who heads the UNH Army ROTC program. “In Kristen’s case, we simply used modern technology to make possible what would have happened [face-to-face] except for the circumstances.

First in the nation video-commissioning

“I’ve done a little research, and I think this is the first commissioning ceremony ever performed by videoconference from a war zone,” said Prantl.

David Foote, UNH Cooperative Extension’s director of information technology and distance education, who chairs the Granite State Distance Learning Network (see accompanying article), worked with Prantl and others over several months to sponsor and coordinate the details of the long-distance ceremony.

On the New Hampshire side, about 35 people attended the 25-minute video-commissioning—Kristen Wentz’s mother, her brother, an Army Private 1 st Class on duty in Alabama, fellow cadets, other family and friends, faculty and staff of the UNH Army ROTC program, a handful of technical people and a reporter for the New York Times.

“I found it very moving,” said Foote. “Tears flowed on both sides. Kristen’s father gave a speech. His own commanding officer [Brigadier General Stephen Mundt], attended and said a few words. They closed the ceremony by singing the Army Song.”

“At the distant end, they gathered a group of staff officers in the headquarters” Prantl said. “Col. Wentz’s commanding officer even rearranged his schedule to attend. Although the Army has videoconferencing equipment in headquarters throughout the world, they mostly use it for command-and-control communications,” said Prantl. “Planning an event like this in [a war] theater is difficult because the units move around so frequently. In fact, that’s what happened. After our first dry run with the equipment, the unit moved, so we had to start all over again.”

Foote said that technical experts Mark Leonard and David Lucas in Durham worked through a number of technical challenges with their Army Signal Corps counterparts in Iraq. “We worried we might lose the signal, but the connection remained stable and the equipment performed flawlessly,” Foote said.

Prantl said the UNH Army ROTC program commissioned 28 Second Lieutenants this year, including Kristen Wentz, the largest number since 1988. The new officers earned their undergraduate degrees from various colleges and universities around the state; through partnership agreements between their own colleges and UNH, all completed their ROTC training on the UNH campus.

Prantl said Lt. Wentz will spend the summer studying for her nursing boards and report for active duty in September.