Goodrich-At about 2:45 p.m Sunday, Interim High School Principal Michael Ellis? cell phone rang.
‘Hold on for a message,? said Ellis, as he concluded commencement for 187 GHS graduates.
The lights dimmed? and a collective gasp resonated through the crowd of several hundred packed into the high school gymnasium.
‘Hello, class of 2009,? said David St. Aubin to boisterous applause. ‘I am so very excited for you on this special day.?
From a bunker in former Iraqi Dictator Saddam Hussein’s palace near Baghdad Airport, Lt. Col. St. Aubin, 47, a U.S. Army Reservist with 24 years of military service, and GHS principal since 2005, delivered the final message to graduates via satellite on two screens in the gymnasium.
‘Be proud to be an American, be proud to live in the land of the free, just don’t take these things for granted,? said St. Aubin to the graduates. ‘Remember, others like our Iraqi friends don’t have the same freedoms. So see these things as a gift, take adavatage of what we Americans have and excel on your own terms, excel on the freedoms that you were given.?
St. Aubin was joined by Stephen Colbert, host of the Colbert Report, broadcasting live from Iraq.
The plan since St. Aubin’s departure was to transmit a live interactive feed from Baghdad to the graduation ceremony in June.
No small task, said Ellis.
‘I had no idea how this was going to happen,? he laughed. ‘So I started e-mailing national news stations and local televison to get information. I found out satellite time is very expensive.?
Beverly Knox-Pipes, assistant superintendent for technology and media services for the Genesee Intermediate School District, coordinated the project.
‘This is a perfect example of how our infrastructure can connect anywhere in the world,? she said. ‘His commanders in the military made this happen.?
Knox-Pipes said Digital Video and Imagery Distribution System (DVIDS), an Atlanta-based company that facilitates communications between U.S. soldiers abroad and the American public, donated the satellite time for the broadcast, which also appeared on ABC News and CNN. Once the broadcast was sent up to the satellite from Baghdad, the GISD dish in Mundy Township received the information and moved it via fiber optics to the high school.
Ellis said the trek for St. Aubin from Numaniyah, a city on the Tigris River, located roughly 90 miles southeast of Baghdad in the Wasit Province, took about a week. Prior to the drive north, St. Aubin was training Iraqi police officers for future duty.
‘It’s still a very dangerous place,? said Ellis. ‘The trip was necessary since there were no facilities to do the transmission from Numaniyah. The last few miles David was escorted by a general’the military really wanted this to happen.?