He was there, but at the same time he wasn’t.

It was Christmas morning at the Demers’ household. Junior Ben Demers and the rest of his family were woken up by his little sister in the early hours of the morning before sunrise. They gathered together in the family room around the Christmas tree to open presents. Their father, Jeffrey Demers, happily watched his children tear open gifts, but he couldn’t help them. He couldn’t reach out and hug his children because he was watching the whole scene from Sicily, Italy through a computer.

He had been deployed with the United States Marine Corps in September 2011 to fly aircraft for the Marines. His duty was to refuel helicopters as they travelled in and out of the country. Their mission was to support the people of Libya in their struggle for freedom. Jeffrey was Skyping with his family, something he did almost every day for about seven months.

“I miss a lot of Christmases so actually seeing it was very important,” Jeffrey said.

He said it hurt to leave his family, but it was a little easier to leave his older children because they were old enough to communicate with him and let him know what was going on at home. It was a little harder to leave his daughter Danielle. To overcome this hardship, one of the things he did was perch his computer on his bed so that he could wake up and see in his family. They Skyped him when it was 2:00 a.m. in Italy and 6 a.m. in Texas. Danielle was the one who often had these early morning meetings with him.

This is the first time since his children were born that he was deployed. Ben said had it not been for modern technology, his experience when his dad was gone would have been a lot different.

“It made it a lot easier on everybody,” Ben said. “It was as if he wasn’t really gone… we could still see him all the time.”

In the beginning, when Jeffrey was first in the military, he said there was nothing technology-wise in comparison to today’s.

“There were no cell phones,” Jeffrey said. “Computers were just beginning; now everything’s done by computer. Everything’s done by cell phone… so there’s been a huge leap of technology on how I communicate with the family and… with my commanding officer,” Jeffrey said.

Earlier in his life, Jeffrey said he and others in the military used the telegram system, which was limited to 35 words a message. This made the messages short. Jeffrey received one message from his wife in 1994 that got straight to the point: “I am okay. Got in accident. Car is totaled. What do you want me to do?”

Because of technology, Jeffrey has been able to do much more. For example, he was able to refinance the house when he was in Italy, check his kids’ grades, help with homework and listen to his daughter read to him after school. He said it was huge to be able to communicate in this way. But being able to constantly talk to his family created somewhat of a disadvantage as well because his family started to expect to be able to talk to him all the time. It created worry when they couldn’t reach him.

“When you’re deployed and [say] ‘Hey, I’ll be back in four days’ and you don’t show up in four days everybody thinks the worst,” Jeffrey said.

But any anxiety of his dad’s safety came to an end for Ben as April approached. After about seven months, Jeffrey came home and landed in Fort Worth on April 4, 2012 in the middle of a catastrophic storm. That day three tornadoes touched down right outside Fort Worth. Jeffrey’s plane was barely able to land, but managed to right between two huge thunderstorms.

“The good Lord looked out for us because he made a hole to land,” Jeffrey said.

His wife, four kids, parents and brother rushed to the plane when it landed. With tears falling from his eyes, Jeffrey could finally do more than just watch his family like he had done that Christmas morning. He could finally reach out and hug his family. The computer image Ben had talked to for months finally came home.

“You’re whole again,” Jeffrey said. “You’re back where you belong.”