My son is over there now and so is his best bud from highschool. Your friend probably has internet access when he comes in off the field. But it would depend on how often or if he checks the e-mail address the mil gave him. My son's buddy has a myspace account and that is one of the ways we all keep in touch. Levi can also access yahoo messenger, but my son hasn't been around enough to do so.
(Levi is Army and Jer is Air Force, the AF is a bit stricter than the army about internet.)
This is a site that is better than CNN if you are checking the lists of those lost:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/
The list is part way down on the right. My son just lost his supervisor and friend a short while back and was himself injured.