Video link lets Marine in Iraq watch birth of his son in Las Vegas

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Little Julian Quintana visited his daddy in Iraq on Monday, the second such visit in his three days of life.

Nestled snugly in the arms of his mother in a St. Rose Dominican Hospital, de Lima campus conference room, Julian slept through most of it.

"Hey, Julian. What’s up, buddy?" asked his dad, Marine Lance Cpl. Jeremy Quintana, 20, who is stationed with a trucking company in Al Asad, Iraq. The baby went right on sleeping.

"What’s the little guy been doing?" Quintana asked his wife, Crystal. "Nothing but sleeping and eating?"

Crystal Quintana, 21, smiled, excited to see her husband for the first time since Julian’s birth at the Henderson hospital Friday morning.

Jeremy Quintana was thousands of miles away at the time. But he coached and encouraged his wife through the 10-hour labor, thanks to a satellite network and state-of-the-art video conferencing sponsored by Freedom Calls Foundation, a New Jersey-based nonprofit organization that helps troops in Iraq and Afghanistan keep in touch with loved ones in the United States.

Cameras were set up in both the birthing room and in Iraq so the Quintanas could see each other.

"He’d tell me, ‘You’re doing good,’ " Crystal Quintana said of her husband. "It really felt like he was here with me."

"I was really nervous," Jeremy Quintana said. "I just told her to keep strong, and I know she is. She’s very strong, so I know my baby’s good."

The labor went smoothly, resulting in 6-pound, 9-ounce Julian, who was born with a full head of dark hair.

Having her husband there meant a lot to the first-time mother, especially because he was absent for most of her pregnancy.

Jeremy Quintana was deployed to Iraq in January.

"I hoped he could come home, but I knew he wouldn’t be able to," Crystal Quintana said. "I’m excited for him to come home to a new family."

Jeremy Quintana is scheduled to return to the couple’s Bullhead City, Ariz., home in about eight weeks.

In the meantime, Freedom Calls will provide Crystal Quintana with everything she needs to have three at-home satellite video conference visits with her husband each month.

The charity, founded in 2003, facilitates hundreds of "baby conferences" for military families each month.

It also helps men and women who are in the service virtually attend weddings and other events, "enabling soldiers in the war zone to attend and participate in milestone family events," said John Harlow, the foundation’s executive director.

"Soldiers may now keep their commitments to their families at the same time they keep their commitment to their country," he said.

The foundation has arranged about 100 video conferences in Nevada.

Jeremy Quintana didn’t take his eyes off Julian on Monday morning, even as he took a few questions from reporters before hospital staffers ushered them out of the conference room so he could spend some virtual private time with his wife and new baby.

He announced that Julian looks "exactly like me," and said the first thing he plans to do when he gets home is "just hold him."

"He’s got a lot of hair, babe," he told his wife as she held Julian up so he could get a better view. "You should have spiked it up or something."

Julian kept right on sleeping.

"Is that all he does?" Jeremy Quintana asked his wife.

She answered, "When you come home, he’ll be fun."

Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis @reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0285.