Army Household6

Well last night our family attended the Military Family Appreciation Dinner at Walter Reed Med. Center (WRAMC). It is part of the a week long celebration celebrating Army families at Walter Reed and all over.

We were nominated as an Exceptional Military Family For Headquarters Company,  WRAMC Brigade by one of SGT Daddy’s friends, SGT Z. I’m was surprised that we were nominated as I know there are lots of other awesome Army families there in Headquarters Company. SGT Daddy and I were completely blown away that is was our family that received the honor. I

It was a wonderful event, very laid back for the Army LOL (lots of kids where there too) and the food was awesome. Even Becca ate the food and she’s super PICKY! We were seated with the several members of the Brigade Command Team, including the Brigade Commander COL Roberts, so I was a bit nervous that my kids were going to act up like little bratty kids. They did great and listened really well. I’m really very proud of them.  : )

The Army photographer took some pictures of us and I’ll be posting them as soon as I get them. While we were there, our whole family were also interviewed by the Pentagon channel during the event which was very cool. (I don’t have the link to video on the web yet but I’ll post it just as soon I do)

I thought that girls would be nervous by the camera but they LOVED it!  As soon as the camera and the lights went on, they were very chatty and interacted with the reporter from the Pentagon channel. They are such New Media Kids… wonder where they get it from?? As soon as the camera went off, they went back to being shy. (I wonder if we should start a video podcast for them?? hmmm )

After everything was over, the USO and Army MWR people passed out all our cool schwag! We got TONS of stuff like backpacks, stuffed animals for the kids, phone cards, t-shirts and even a $50 gift card to use at the PX. The thing I’m most excited was that I got our family was given a Commander’s coin.  : )

It was an awesome way to end an already wonderful day!

We just recently found out that we were nominated as an exceptional military family for Headquarters Company, Walter Reed Medical Center Brigade.  Thanks so much to SSG Z, SSG E and CPT L for the nomination.

The award dinner (as part of the Hospital’s Military Family Appreciation Week)  will be held on Thursday November 13 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The hospital newsletter, Stripes, is doing an article on all the winners.

I’m not usually one to toot my own horn, but I’m really excited about this. Of course , SGT Daddy told me that I would be the one giving the speech.

I’ll post an update about it next week as well as some pictures. (maybe even video)  : )

Happy Halloween to all! Can you believe it’s Halloween already? Wow time is just flying by! We will be packing up our stuff in just 3 short weeks! Dan starts out-processing on Monday. WOOHOO!

We have a lot of cool upcoming stuff here on Army Household6 :

Operation HASMO (Help a Service Member Out) has its own home now, complete with blog. Check it out: http://www.helpaservicememberout.org .

A really cool contest to celebrate Veteran’s Day and to win the book, Mrs Lieutenant : A Sharon Gold novel . The contest details will start on Monday so make sure to check it out. I’ll even have an interview that I did with the author, Phyllis Zimbler Miller.

Speaking of Veterans, did you know that November is Warrior Care Month? So, I’ll have a series of posts in November about our veterans, celebrating Veterans Day and taking care of our veterans and wounded warriors. I might even had a video interview or two with some special guests!  : )

WHEW! All that before we pack up and leave! Of course, during our “adventure” across the midwestern plains to Colorado, I’ll be blogging and Twittering our adventures (and probably misadventures as well)  : )

Have a fun and safe night tonight and don’t eat too much candy! : )

It’s a day for celebrations all around (besides my daughter’s birthday ) but also the 30th anniversary of Women in the “regular” Army. So, today let’s honor their service and sacrifice for our past and present Women Warriors.

“It’s important that we remember the generations of women, whose dedication, commitment and quality of service helped open the doors of opportunity for us today. There are so many talented women in our Army today … you would be impressed.”

- Lt. Gen. (P) Ann Dunwoody, in remarks given at her U.S. senate confirmation hearing, July 24, 2008 in Washington, D.C.

Beginning Oct. 20 through Nov. 14, the U.S. Army will honor the achievements of its women warriors as part of a three-week “Celebration of Women in the Army.” The commemoration coincides with the anniversary of the full integration of women into the Army for 30 years, with the disestablishment of the Women’s Army Corps by former President Jimmy Carter.

Did you know?
Women represent 14.0% of the active Army, 23.2 % of the Army Reserve and 13.3 % of the Army National Guard (Sep 2006)

As of 3 October 2006 there were 15,226 women serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. (statistics found at http://www.army.mil/women/ )

You can read about many significant women in the Army’s history as well as find out more information at http://www.army.mil/women/

(photo courtesy of Army.mil’s U.S. Army Signal Corps Collection)

Sorry for the delay …

Most of the 2nd day of AUSA i spent with LAW of Parent Zone. We started off the day attending another Family Forum that mainly focused on the Army’s National Guard and Reserve component.

It was really interesting to see all the National Guard/Reserve families that were there. Since this forum mainly focused on them, there was a multude of information and resources available for them. General and Mrs Stultz talked a great deal about the how the citizen soldier see that their community if partnering with the Army and that gives them some comfort.

They also discussed how some soldiers and families were falling thru the cracks. It was also acknowledge how they don’t follow “family readiness” and the Army realizes that they need too.

The forum talked about “Beyond the Yellow Ribbon Program which was started by Minnesota National Guard after they realized things were lacking for the Reserve and National Guard soldiers after they came home as compared to the Active component.

Secretary Geren signed an order earlier this year that states spouses, children and parents of single soldiers allowed to attend re-integration programs at the Army’s expense to better prepare families to support  their soldiers when they do come home. They can anticipate additional training for the individual with a multitude of resources at their disposal.

During this family forum, they also talked a great deal about the Community Covenant. Basically, its the engagement of our communities with the Army .. to provide support for our soldiers within their communities.You can find out more information about it at Communitycovenant.army.mil It has lots of information about ways for community to support the military  and  best practices at state and local level.

After this, LAW and I headed down to the Expo floor to check out all of the vendors in the Family section of the expo. There were all kinds of awesome resources for families. One in particular, was Operation Life Transformed which is an organization that provides education and resources to our war wounded caregivers and military spouses through private and corporate entities.

After lunch with LAW, I headed back to Blogger’s Row to hang out for a bit. I eventually ran into my new media friend, Jim Long and got to chat with him for a brief minute before Gen Petraeus’ speech.

Gen Petraeus was quite funny! He was even cracking Chuck Norris jokes!  : ) Gen Petraeus talked all about the great work that soldiers are doing in Iraq , what it takes to sustain what they currently have, etc. It was truly inspring to hear that we are doing good and making a difference in the lives of the Iraqi people.

I ended up not attending Day 3 as I had some client things that needed to be taken care. Believe me I’d rather have been at AUSA!

I’m definitely looking forward to attending next year’s event! I highly recommend it if you can make the trip. Thanks Andi for give me the opportunity to attend!

I was recently interviewed by Debba Haupert of Girlfriendology about being Household6 and our military girlfriend relationships.I had so much doing the interview and I lived being interviewed for a change! : )  Debba has a ton of great information over there all about our girlfriends… so make sure to stop by her site!  : ) 

You can listen to it at  http://girlfriendology.com/1363/podcast-72-girlfriendology-interviews-tammy-munson/ or click the media player below.

PS. Also I’m going to be on Spouse Buzz Radio tonight (October 9) at 9pm ET talking about my newest JV project, Parent Zone . I’ll be joined by LAW (Parent Zone founder) and Some Soldier’s mom (Military Parent Blogger of the Year) So make sure that you tune in for that! 

I got to the event a bit early and was wowed at the site of the all the people that are here at the Washington Convention Center… soldiers, family members,etc. I haven’t made it down to the exhibitor floor yet as I stopped to watch the opening ceremony of conference. I have to say that was pretty cool.

Secretary of the Army Pete Geren was the keynote speaker. Sec. Geren spoke a lot about soldiers and their familes. He talked the strength of the Army were soldiers and families taking care of soldiers and families.

During the Press conference, GEN Casey talked about what they were going to do as an entity. THere was some brief discussion about what lies ahead. It seems that Gen Casey and the rest of the Army is going to focus on the Army families, among other things.

The thing i was most impressed with are the number of initiatives that they have proposed that will help all Army families, not just the Army spouse and the Army brats under 18. For we all now that the “Army family” extends beyond just that. It includes soldier’s parents, brothers and sisters

After the big press conference with Secretary Geren and GEN Casey, I ventured down to the Expo floor. I was completely wowed at the amount and caliber of the  vendors that were there not to mention the amount of “brass” that was there . Everytime I turned around I was bumping into some member of Senior Army Leadership.  : )

The highlight of the day was definitely meeting Mrs. Casey. I tried to ask a question during their presenation and didn’t get a chance. I approached her Aide about asking a couple of questions to her. We talked for a few minutes about being an Army wife, and some of things that she and GEN Casey talked about. I talked to her about the website that LAW and I have been working on and she was very interested in providing more support for parents of our single soldiers.

The day ended with a Bloggers’ Roundtable with several members of Army leadership, including MG MacDonald (Commanding General of MWR Command)  .  We talked about several key topics from casualty assistance to more support for parents of our single soldiers. We talked a great deal about doing more for our single soldiers and the Army is going to be creating some publications and information specifically for those parents of our single soldiers. Make sure to check out Parents Zone for more information.

Overall the theme of the day was that if the family isn’t ready, the unit isn’t ready. I wholeheartedly agree with this. We need to make sure that all soldiers and their families are truly ready for the mission, whatever the mission is.

I’ll be posting some of the pictures tomorrow along with a recap of day two, so stay tuned…

Yep I went over to the Covention Center in DC yesterday to pick up my press credentials with my personal asssistant (aka Rebecca). First of all that place is quite big(hope I don’t get lost)  and the AUSA folks were already doing a great job with navigation and getting things set up.

Lindy, the press coordinator, give us the low down on all that will be happening as well as a brief tour of the facilities. We couldn’t go down on the Exhibit floor yet as they were still constructing the exhibits and I had Rebecca with me.

I did take a picture of Miss Becky in the “official ” Conference room” I think she’ll be ready for the press conferences in a few years??

I received this info from the editors at Military.com –

We want to know how you plan to celebrate Veterans Day. Record a short video message detailing how your family or your local military community celebrates this holiday. Then, upload your video titled, “How I Plan to Celebrate Veterans Day,” to Military.com’s Shock & Awe channel. Videos will be featured on our Spouse Network and the Family Newsletter.

I asked one of the editors (Kelly Johnson) over there about parents, family members posting their videos as well. She said that ” Anyone from the military community can upload a video — kids, spouses, servicemembers, etc. ”

So go ahead and post your video over at Military.com and then make sure to tell me about it. I’ll be posting mine here as well and we loved to feature a few on the blog as well. If you want to just send it to me directly, feel free to post the video URL in the comments section or email to me at tammy dot munson at gmail dot com

Yes I spent Saturday with a bunch of Marines…parents that is! As part of my duties with Military.com, I was asked to speak about blogging and some of the blogs that we have at military.com as well as other MilParent blogs that are out there. 

I have to say at first I felt a little nervous being around so much “Marine” stuff. I mean I’m definitely all Army! The attendees at the conference were amazing and certainly made this Army wife at home and very welcome. Every single one of attendees were a parent (or parents) of a actively serving military member. 

There were several new organizations that I found out about serving the needs of the milParents, so they can better support their son or daughter. I’ll be posting a few of those resources over at Parent Zone in the next few days. 

My boss, Vince Patton, and I even did a video segment on Talking with Hereos Radio Show. As soon as we get the video URL I’ll post it here!  : ) Our show will air LIVE on August 28, 2008

It was so great talking with those parents and how blogging can help them in a variety of ways. I’m so excited to see what kinds of things they start doing with their blogs.  :) 

A special thanks goes out to Mariann Jordan - Marine Parents United President - who made sure we had everything we needed as well as the rest of the event team! You all put on a great event!