Army Household6

(Hat Tip : SpouseBuzz) I saw this on SpouseBuzz and thought it was a really cool idea! 

MILITARY WIVES FIND SUPPORT FROM EACH OTHER MILITARY WIVES CONFERENCE TO BE HELD IN NASHVILLE NOV. 7-8

Nashville, Tenn. – No matter whom Americans elect to the White House this November, military wives will still be coping with the ups and downs of military life, including deployments.

While many families throughout the United States will be welcoming their loved ones home soon, there also be those saying goodbye for year-long deployments. But they don’t have to be on their own.

Wives of Faith is a faith-based military wives support organization that was started by a Navy reservist wife and an active Army wife in 2006 to connect, encourage and support military wives who do not live near a military installation or lack the resources or knowledge they need to succeed as a military wife in their marriages, families and deployments when they apply. 

The group will hold its first weekend conference in Nashville, Tenn., Friday and Saturday, Nov. 7-8. The theme, “This is the Day,” encourages military wives – active, reserve or Guard – to embrace the day God has for them now, instead of always looking to tomorrow for happiness.

“So often, we look at the next week, the next month, the end of this deployment, the beginning of the next one, and we never quite know what to do with today,” said Sara Horn, a co-founder and the executive director for the organization, whose own husband was deployed for most of 2007. She said several wives from as far away as Washington state and Pennsylvania have already registered. “Military wives are often on an emotional roller coaster, and if you live far away from a family readiness group or your husband’s installation, you can feel very alone and civilian friends don’t always know what to say or how to help. Our goal is to bring wives together and connect them to help each other.”

Whether military wives are going through deployment or not, the conference is open to all active, reserve or guard wives. Conference speakers include Babette Maxwell, founder of Military Spouse Magazine; Marshelle Carter Waddell, author of Hope for the Home Front; Carol McGlothlin, author of Medals Above My Heart; Judith Fuller, a Ft. Campbell Army wife; and Sara Horn, author of Weekend Warrior No More.  Sponsors include Military Spouse Magazine, Financial Peace University and the Milton Hershey School.

Registration is $55 for the Friday night and Saturday event, or attend Saturday only for $35. Both rates include a one-year subscription to Military Spouse Magazine and lunch on Saturday. A childcare option is also available. More information and registration is available at www.wivesoffaith.org, or contact the Wives of Faith office at  (615) 302-1932  

It’s been an intense, crazy-busy couple of days around here but in a good way! I have to say that I’m so proud of EVERYONE for jumping into action when it counted! Your cards, letters of encouragement,etc are definitely doing the trick and lifting Hunter’s spirits.!

I also wanted to mention that Hunter will be receiving a visit this weekend from actor Gary Sinise, whose making a trip up to the VA Hospital to visit with some of the guys at the VA hospital and Hunter is one of those lucky ones! : )

I’ll continue to be working on this directly with with Hunter’s foundation, Hearts for Hunter. The website is under construction right now and will be ready to go on Monday, October 27th!

All future updates about Hunter, his foundation and his progress will be over there… so head on over and check it out.

The biggest HAT TIP goes to 1SG Brian Disque! Brian made sure that one of his soldiers got the help and support that he needed by letting the blogosphere know about Hunter’s situation. Brian certainly is a shining example of what a 1SG should be!

I AM A FIRST SERGEANT
My job is people — Every One is My Business.
I dedicate my time and energy to their needs;
their health, morale, discipline, and welfare.
I grow in strength by strengthening my people.
My job is done in faith; my people build faith.
My job is people –EVERY ONE IS MY BUSINESS.

- US Army First Sergeant (1SG) Creed

Kudos to ParentsZone, Matt at BlackFive, Milblogs, Michelle Malkin, Some Soldiers Mom, Liberal Army Wife, Mark Levinfan.com, Calistalee , Jihad Gene, NiceDoggie.net, and Greyhawk and many many more! Also a big thank you to everyone who emailed others to let them know about it! You guys picked up Hunter’s story as ran with it! I’m so proud to be part of this awesome blogging community and our military family!

Also, thanks to the inspiration of Hunter’s story, I recently started a list called HASMO (Help a Service Member Out). It is an email list comprised of Rapid Response Team Members to be able to help out soldiers like Hunter and many others. It will also be available to help out service member’s immediate families as well.

HASMO already have some things in the works for other service members that you can help. We’ll be able to tell you more next week about it all. You can sign up for it on the left side of the page and its a free service!

So, thanks so much and keep up the great work for all the other soldiers, airmen, coasties, sailors and marines as well as their families! Also if anyone would like to help out with  HASMO, please email me at tammy.munson at gmail dot com

Hooah!
Tammy

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 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…

On Monday afternoon, AUSA held its first of 3 Family Forums during this week. This one featured GEN Casey and Mrs. Casey.

The room was completely packed with  Army spouses. It was pretty amazing to see as it was standing room only of FRG Leaders, Army spouses, soldiers and Army Spouse Employment partners. The vibe in the room was absolutely amazing!

Mrs. Casey talked a great deal of the stresses that we endure a great deal but we also get a lot too.  She suggested that ” we live in an attitude of gratitude.”  She also talked about about how our life is a balance of being mom, Army wife, Household manager, etc. She even admitted that after 38 years of Army life that she sometimes isn’t able to “juggle all the balls in the air.”

GEN Casey talked a great deal about soldiers and families as well as  his commitment to Army Families. He said ” we need to sustain soldiers and families , for its all about the people. ” He spoke of how he is working on implementing a 6 month reset from deployment (basically dry dock, no training, nothing).

He also mentioned that we are not going back to the ways of pre-9/11 and our need to transfer all our support programs to support soldiers and families as well as working to have 1 year deployments with 2 years at home.

GEN Casey also described FY 2009 as the year of deliverance! He stated that we have to do a better job of getting the word out. The Army is also going to focus on demystifying the healthcare system and making things standard no matter what location you are at. He did ask from a commitment from us ( Army families) that the Army needs our help to make this happen.. it’s a partnership after all!

GEN Casey also talked about our single soldiers too . He said that many of our programs focus on the married soldiers and their families but we need to remember our single soldiers as well. The Army is going to invest more time and opportunities into meeting their needs as well as the needs of those soldiers’ families. (parents, sisters, girlfriends, etc)

There is more information coming on this point in a later post . LAW (of ParentsZone) got to participate in a Bloggers Roundtable and we talked a bit about supporting parents.

I’m live blogging / twittering over at Twitter through out the day.. You can read all about it at http://www.twitter.com/tammymunson

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! 

The wonderful people at Lands’ End have sent a free shipping code and I’m passing it along…

Code: BACKPACK
PIN: 2784

It’s good till July 30, 2008

Yes you read that right.. Marines! I’m getting the task of speaking

at the Marine Family Conference later this month in Chantilly VA! I’m actually a little excited about this event as I’ll be talking about my favorite topics- blogging and military lifestyle. I just know that it will be lots of fun and I’ll be blogging live on here and via twitter! : )

Of course I’ll be there in my official role as Installation Ambassador for Military.com but we’ll also be handing out information about Parents Zone.

If you’re gonna be there, come on by the military.com booth and introduce yourself! : )

STATEMENT BY THE PRESS SECRETARY

President Bush understands that military families throughout our country are making great sacrifices as their loved ones serve at home and abroad. Throughout his Administration, he has been committed to ensuring that our service members and their families receive the highest level of support from our grateful Nation. After many of America’s service members requested the ability to transfer unused GI education benefits to their family members, President Bush called on Congress in his 2008 State of the Union to fulfill their important request.

Throughout the past five months, President Bush and members of his Administration have worked hard to ensure that an expansion of GI benefits includes transferability. Yesterday, House leaders reached a bipartisan agreement on a supplemental war funding bill that would deliver critical support to our men and women in uniform.

The President is pleased that Congress answered his call to ensure that military families will soon be able to transfer their unused education benefits to their spouse or children. This legislation will build upon the GI Bill’s historic legacy of ensuring brighter futures for service members and their families. We urge both the House and Senate to immediately pass this bipartisan agreement.

President Bush also continues to call upon Congress to support his other initiatives which would strengthen support for our military families, including expanding access to childcare, creating new authorities to appoint qualified spouses into civil service jobs, and providing education opportunities and job training for military spouses. President Bush strongly believes that these additional measures will help further demonstrate America’s strong appreciation for the sacrifices of America’s service members and their families.

So come on Ladies (and Gentlemen too) let’s all encourage our representatives in Congress to start doing their job and get the work done! If you don’t know who represents your area or their contact info, then you can find out by going to http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt

Let’s make them hear our voice!