The U.S. military depends on high-tech weapons and equipment to give it an edge over enemies in Iraq and Afghanistan, but technology also affects the way military personnel communicate with their families back home.

After Marine Lance Cpl. Ryan Chapman was wounded last month by a sniper in Iraq, he stayed in touch with his family in Lawrence by various phone connections and the Internet. He used a video connection to send pictures of himself so his family could see the scar and swelling along the left side of his head where the bullet struck him.

“The Internet or instant messenger was better than the phone because the phone had a little bit of a (time) lag,” said Chapman’s father, Dean Chapman. “With the webcam, you can see who you are talking to. It’s real time.”

Veterans of earlier wars said such instant communication was unimaginable in their day.

When Ross Wulfkuhle spent 33 months stationed with the Army in the Aleutian Islands during World War II, his only communication with his family was by letter.

“There was no phone, no telegrams or anything,” the 89-year-old rural Lawrence resident said. “The first two years of my marriage were by letter.”

Facing censors

Even in a less isolated theater of war such as Europe after the Normandy invasion, letters served as the primary communication between a soldier and his wife or his parents, said Lawrence Army veteran Alan Fisher.

“I don’t think anybody even thought about a phone call,” he said. “There was no way of doing it.”

It generally took a week to 10 days for a letter to get home from wherever he was stationed in western Europe, said Fisher, 82.

After one of Fisher’s buddies was seriously wounded during combat, the soldier dictated a letter to Fisher that was to be sent to his parents.

“His first words were, ‘Dear mom: Well, I got shot,'” Fisher said. “I remember thinking the censors would never let that go through.”

They didn’t. Fisher later learned the letter was never received. The military wanted to make family notifications its own way.

From surgery to phone

Times have changed.

It’s been a little more than a year since Army Reserve Sgt. Jared Myers was wounded in Iraq when his Humvee was hit by a roadside bomb. The blast killed Myers’ captain and wounded another reservist. Later, after leaving the surgery recovery room and with assistance from a fellow soldier, he called his mother, Judy Hammond, in Lawrence, to tell her he had been wounded.

Hammond said she preferred hearing her son tell her about his wounds instead of hearing it from a military representative. Even before her son was wounded, Hammond said he usually called about twice a month. A captain had a satellite phone and the men in his unit would pay him for the time they used, Hammond said.

“Generally, I got calls from him when he’d had a pretty bad day and he needed to vent or he needed to let go some emotions,” Hammond said. “Sometimes he was cut short because of gunfire.”

Phone cards cherished

Hammond recalled talking with her son once and hearing popping sounds in the background. Her son told her it was gunfire but not to worry because it was in the distance, she said.

About two minutes later Myers abruptly cut short the conversation and said he had to hang up, Hammond said.

Being able to pick up a phone and call home or communicate by e-mail during World War II would have lifted morale tremendously, Wulfkuhle and Fisher said.

“I’m glad they can do that,” Fisher said of today’s military personnel. “I’m sure it not only is good for the soldiers but also for the families back home.”

One of the most cherished items military personnel have are paid phone cards donated from the public, Ryan Chapman said.

“I get to keep in touch with my family because of people who have donated these cards,” he said, holding one up.