My Life As A Military Spouse

Counseling Assistance & Behavioral Health Come 'Home'

posted by LoveMyTanker @ 7:25 AM 1 comments

Don't worry, just smile

posted by LoveMyTanker @ 7:59 AM 1 comments

Fuel economy suddenly improved - say what?

posted by LoveMyTanker @ 3:09 PM 0 comments

Weekend Fun

My new 'big boy' bike!

posted by LoveMyTanker @ 8:58 AM 0 comments

'Mental Wellness is Key'

Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli told more than 2,000 Army health-care professionals Tuesday that they must produce "mental wellness" through a multidisciplinary approach.

Chiarelli spoke at the annual Army Medical Symposium in San Antonio sponsored by the Association of the United States Army and U.S. Army Medical Command. He told the audience a spike in Soldier suicides during January and February was "appalling," and described his work organizing a task force to address the problem.

"I realized the problem is larger than suicide prevention. It's about mental wellness of Soldiers and their families," he said.

One key to mental wellness is the ability to spend adequate "dwell time" at home between deployments, he said.

"Dwell really matters. If you can keep a unit at home, they can get that knee operation done that they need to get done, they can get help for the musculoskeletal issues that they have, and have time to recover and not push themselves. It really matters," Chiarelli said.

He told of speaking to a training course for junior noncommissioned officers in which almost all the students had deployed to combat, many three or four times.

"That's stress. And, as much as it is stress on that individual Soldier, it is stress on the family," he said.

Chiarelli described changes in today's transformed Army, and said one of those changes is a tendency to maintain strength by keeping Soldiers in the Army rather than separating them because of drug, alcohol or similar issues.

"A lot of people have said to me, we don't need to boot people out, we need to get them help. I am in total, total agreement," he said.

He added that during a tour of six installations this spring to investigate Soldier suicides, he found "that is not necessarily what is happening in units today. We are not getting them help that they need, and that's what I find appalling."

Evidence indicates commanders sometimes do not report infractions in order to keep Soldiers deployable. As a result, those Soldiers do not get treatment, Chiarelli said.

The number of suicides by Soldiers now exceeds the rate in a demographically similar population of civilians.

"January and February was a [suicide] epidemic," Chiarelli said. "Through a lot of great work of folks here and the stand down that we conducted, I believe we have people started thinking about this problem and taking action. I've seen we have started to drive that number down. Knock on wood."

Chiarelli described a broad study of suicide the Army has commissioned from the National Institute of Mental Health, and a recent examination of a cluster of violent incidents at Fort Carson, Colo.

He said there are many programs to help commanders deal with behavioral-health problems, in fact, he added there probably are too many.

"The problem is there's a thousand flowers blooming, and unless you are a trained behavioral-health person you have no idea which one to pick," he said. "The NIMH study is going to help us in that area; we are going through those programs now and culling them out."

Chiarelli pointed out there are 32 organizations that play a role in suicide prevention, and he wants to reduce that to one organization.

"What we're trying to do in a short period is get this to where it makes sense to people working in the OPTEMPO of today," he said.

Chiarelli said the Army is doing well at assisting and treating patients, but needs to improve at assessment and education. He said the Comprehensive Soldier Fitness programs being developed by a team headed by Brig. Gen. Rhonda Cornum will help.

"This has the opportunity to revolutionize how we attack this problem," he said. "It is not just 140 Soldiers who committed suicide last year, it's all those others out there who will never commit suicide but who are suffering and need our help...this is the big idea."

The general also addressed a stigma associated with receiving behavioral-health care. He said the Army is experimenting with allowing Soldiers at some installations to self-refer for treatment without their commanders being informed. Another initiative is Web-based care.

"In the privacy of your home, you have the ability to go online and talk to a psychiatrist, psychologist or mental-health care folks. This is being done in Australia with great success. What they are finding is people who have access like this are much more willing to talk about what their problems are," Chiarelli said.

He said Tri-West, the TRICARE contractor for the Western Region, will begin such a program in August.

Chiarelli concluded by emphasizing five points: The force is stressed. Army Force Generation has effects on Soldiers and families. Mental wellness is key. It requires a multidisciplinary approach.

posted by LoveMyTanker @ 8:28 AM 1 comments

Military Basebook

posted by LoveMyTanker @ 8:16 AM 0 comments

Well Said.....

If healthcare reform, Obama style, gets traction and becomes the new reality in America, one completely overlooked consequence will be that the highly-popular television show, HOUSE, will have to say “yes, we can” and go off the air. Or at-the-least, the program will have to be shortened to one act, focused completely on a waiting room and with the only dramatic tension being just which one test the team will choose to run.

If you are not a regular viewer, what you need to know is that the fictional Dr. Gregory House, played by British actor Hugh Laurie, is a medical genius. He heads up a team of brilliant diagnosticians at a New Jersey teaching hospital and each episode necessarily involves a quest, via many tests and approaches, to figure out what usually-obscure illness threatens the life of the patient du jour.

It’s Sherlock Holmes in an emergency room stuff – sort of a “what done it?”

A few years ago, I had some pain in my chest and went to a local emergency room. I was admitted to the hospital for some tests. They put me on a treadmill, wired me for sound, and later did this thing called a “chemical stress test.” That’s code for: “Injection of weapons grade uranium into patient to cause meltdown.” There was one more test they could have done. In fact, one doctor strongly recommended it. It is called cardiac catheterization. A doctor inserts a thin plastic tube into an artery or vein in the arm or leg. From there it can be advanced into the chambers of the heart or into the coronary arteries.

The test is really the gold standard when it comes to diagnosing a heart problem. It’s also apparently quite expensive. Alas, the good doctor who wanted to see it done was overruled by my HMO – I won’t mention the name of the company, let’s just say it sounds a little bit like “Permanent Czar.”

I passed all the tests – no heart problem – and headed home. But my wife and I had a nagging question: Would that heart catheterization test have been a smart thing to have?

Over the next several days I received calls and emails from friends all over the country and I began to notice an anecdotal trend. I heard testimony from people who had gone through what I had experienced, with all tests coming back fine, only to do the heart catheterization and find a serious arterial blockage requiring emergency surgery.

One such call was from my favorite liberal Democrat and good friend, Bob Beckel. He told the same story – test after test came back negative, then the heart cath and a trip to multiple by-pass land. He and others told me to pitch a fit with my czarist (Germanic form) health insurance company and keep doing so until they agreed to pay for the test. So I did.

Already-too-long story short, I had the heart catheterization test done four months after my hospitalization, and thankfully it also indicated that there was nothing wrong; except for the stress of having to go through that period, fighting all the way, to get what could and should have been done during my prior hospital stay. That would have saved time, maybe even a little money.

Now, here is my question: How is health care reform ala Obama going to do anything other than make it even harder to get such a test done?

Does anyone without a power-grab agenda seriously believe that government-run health care will make it more likely that an expensive test will be run after several others have indicated no problem? Calling Dr. House, Dr. Cuddy, Dr. House – I mean, really?

Many doctors already have to fight hospital administrators and health insurance companies en route to quality patient care. Just ask them. Will placing another level of authority over them, ceding more local turf to the feds, make things better?

Frankly, when I take a look at what health care could become in America if we don’t collectively say “No, we can’t,” I find myself pretty cool with my HMO. I know they get a bad rap, but if we don’t watch it, there will come a time when we look back and nostalgically refer to right now as “the good old days.”

Sure, some stuff is broken and needs to be fixed. Why not start with tort reform? Why are we not hearing about this from the White House and the Democrats in Congress?

Follow the money.

I actually think the whole issue is being framed incorrectly and therefore it is easily subject to misunderstanding, even manipulation. We don’t need health care reform. Our standard of care is pretty good. No, what people are really talking about is health coverage reform. But no plan on the table right now is able to even suggest the broadening of coverage to include those millions who don’t now have insurance, without compromising the quality of care.

We are at a crossroads on this issue as a culture. And many Americans – certainly many politicians – seem more than willing to trade our high standard of quality care for a model that dumbs it all down. We are on the verge of selling our national soul for a mess of perilous pottage, and in the end we will all suffer. Most of that suffering will be in long lines or crowded waiting rooms.

Has there ever been a situation in our history where increased government involvement in the actual running of something (not mere oversight, but managing the details day to day) has turned out to be a cost cutter? Anyone? Anyone?

Creating a system whereby a significant number of people can get a service for free that others must pay for does not tend to keep overall costs down. In fact, they skyrocket, placing an even greater burden on those who pay. It’s misguided compassion and inherently based on class-envy.

And don’t even get me started on the whole privacy-medical-records thing. Recently, I had a conversation with a family – military people – and they have been looking forward to a particular promotion. The problem was with a visit to the doctor a while back and the casual mentioning of “anxiety” to the physician. This led to the insertion of a comment on the computerized record that found its way to a decision maker on the promotion issue. Bottom line, the advance was nixed. Not because of any real issue, but because an annotation carelessly made, and subject to misinterpretation, became part of the record extant.

Welcome to your future if the Dems have their way with one fifth of the U.S. economy.

Finally, as I finish my health care rant, I can’t help but bring up the issue of evangelicals and Obama, at least in the context of so many younger ones lending him their support last fall. My conversations with many young-Obama-evangelicals suggested that the number one reason they were willing to, in effect, abandon vital conservative evangelical positions such as the pro-life issue, had to do with temporal concerns and compassion, particularly the idea of providing universal health care.

Now, six months into his administration, and as the details of his plan (or stealthy lack thereof) come into at least marginally better focus, I wonder if some of those hip “values” voters who bought into the mania have any remorse? And when his plans sink under the weight of their sheer audacity, will it have been worth it?

Maybe many will be dazed and confused and left to ponder life without utopian fixes and reflecting as Dr. House did in episode number 119: "It does tell us something. Though I have no idea what."

posted by LoveMyTanker @ 8:06 AM 0 comments

Smile and Laugh

posted by LoveMyTanker @ 12:17 PM 1 comments

“Sisterhood of the Traveling BDUs”

Two California teenagers are honoring National Guard parents who have had travel to overseas locations or natural disasters at home in a project they have named “Sisterhood of the Traveling BDUs.”

BDUs is military shorthand for the battle-dress uniform.

The goal of the project -- inspired by the 2005 movie “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” in which four girlfriends develop a plan to stay connected -- is to bring military daughters from across California together to share their experiences as military family members.

Moranda Hern, 17, daughter of Air Force Lt. Col. Rick Hern of the 144th Fighter Wing, and Kaylei Deakin, 16, daughter of Army Maj. Lorren Deakin of the 578th Engineer Battalion, plan to host a Military Girls Conference in Clovis, Calif., March 12 to 14. They hope 400 teens and 100 female servicemembers will attend the event.

“The conference will bring dependent girls from all [military] units in California together and link them … to share all of their experiences,” Deakin said.

The teenagers said they hope to help other servicemembers’ daughters by sharing their own experiences.

Hern and Deakin grew up differently, but connected as friends with common experiences, they said, which is what they want to show others through the project.

“At the conference, we want to connect on a deep level with our sisters by removing the mask and being a teenage girl,” Hern said.

Their experience as daughters in National Guard families is the teenagers’ common bond. They met at a National Guard Bureau symposium in St. Louis last year, and together they realized they had similar experiences as Guard children. For example, they noted, they did not live on a base like other military children, but they still dealt with a parent leaving on deployments or for natural disasters.

They put their thoughts and feelings together, they recalled, and started realizing that they could make a difference in each other’s lives and that they were feeling real emotions. They helped each other grow, get better grades and build each other’s self-esteem.

Once they focused their energy toward building positive experiences as daughters of servicemembers, they said, they found more opportunities.

Last fall, Hern and Deakin briefed their Military Girls conference ideas to Air Force Brig. Gen. Mary J. Kight, California’s assistant adjutant general, and Leslie Wade, wife of Army Maj. Gen. William H. Wade II, the state’s adjutant general. In April, at the Adjutant General’s Symposium on Family Readiness in Burlingame, Calif., the teenagers tugged on the audience’s heart strings as they briefed their plans for next year’s conference.

As a part of the briefing, they shared their childhood experiences as the daughters of Guard members. Noting how family separation can affect families, they said they struggled with their grades and self-image, but added that although their experiences sometimes were troubling, they also could be positive and full of opportunity.

Deakin received the National Teen Leadership Program’s National Teen Leadership Award for spearheading an after-school club for military children at her high school, and Hern was honored with the Air National Guard Youth of the Year award. Now, they said, they want to continue making a difference by sharing how being a military child has opened up opportunities for them.

Topics for discussion at the “Sisterhood” conference will include college applications, self-defense, making decisions and setting goals. After the conference, Hern and Deakin said, they plan to use social networking tools such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to maintain the bonds they expect to grow at the conference.

They also plan to travel throughout California to interview military daughters for a video production, and they said they’d like to create public service announcements about military children.

posted by LoveMyTanker @ 7:35 AM 0 comments

Wounded Warrior Diaries

posted by LoveMyTanker @ 8:39 AM 0 comments

MWR Survey Coming Soon

Defense Department officials are preparing to launch the first militarywide survey to assess morale, welfare and recreation programs.

“We’ve established standards for all the services,” said Arthur Myers, principal director for the deputy undersecretary of defense for military community and family policy. “Now we want to get feedback from the [servicemembers] on how we’re doing with our programs.”

Myers' office is conducting the survey with the help of CFI Group, an international customer-satisfaction consulting firm with headquarters in Ann Arbor, Mich. It will be e-mailed July 27 to about 600,000 randomly selected servicemembers and will appear as being from CFI Group "on behalf of DoD."

“So, remember, when you get that, it's not spam," Myers said.

Some 120,000 active duty servicemembers in each service will receive an invitation to participate, and another 120,000 surveys will be spread across the 26 joint-base installations.

Though the survey will collect data on participants' service branches and, if they choose to provide it, their ethnicity, the responses will be completely anonymous, Myers emphasized.

It's also important, he added, that those selected participate in the survey to ensure the best level of accuracy in the results.

Though the survey will be sent only to active-duty servicemembers, Myers encouraged those selected to take their families' opinions into consideration when responding. As more data is gained, future surveys will be open to the reserve components, he added.

Those receiving surveys will have about three weeks to participate. When the responses are collected and analyzed, the findings will be published on the Defense Department Web site, as well as on Military Community and Family Policy's Military OneSource and Military Homefront sites.

"This survey will actually tell us what [servicemembers'] needs are so we can meet those needs," Myers said. "We really believe our programs are a key thing in keeping our military ready and [in helping to retain them]."

posted by LoveMyTanker @ 8:33 AM 0 comments

Auntie LMT

posted by LoveMyTanker @ 10:03 AM 0 comments

Evolution Program

Symptoms of combat stress and post-traumatic stress disorder include continual nightmares, avoidance behaviors, denial, grief, anger and fear.

Some Soldiers, battling these and other symptoms, can be treated successfully as an outpatient while assuming their normal duties. For others, however, returning to work and becoming their old selves again were challenges recognized by several mental health professionals across the European theater.

"We were looking at how we can best meet the needs of our clientele, and we were identifying that a lot of the Soldiers needed more than once-a-week outpatient, individual therapy and probably needed more than once- or twice-a-week group therapy," said Joseph Pehm, chief of Medical Social Work at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.

The solution came in the creation of an intensive eight-week therapeutic Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Day Treatment Program called "evolution" that began in March 2009 at LRMC. During the eight-hour days, patients enrolled in the program participate in multiple disciplines and interests, including art therapy, yoga and meditation classes, substance abuse groups, anger and grief management, tobacco cessation, pain management and multiple PTSD evidence-based practice protocols.

"I am a great believer in the kitchen sink, meaning I throw everything, including the kitchen sink, and something will stick," said Dr. Daphne Brown, chief of the Division of Behavioral Health at LRMC. "And so we've come with all the evidence-based treatment for PTSD that we know about ... We've taken everything that we can think of that will be of use in redirecting symptoms for these folks and put it into an eight-week program.

"Brown, Pehm and Sharon Stewart, a Red Cross volunteer who recently received a doctorate in psychology, said the program is designed from research into the effects of traumatic experience and mirrors successful PTSD programs at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as programs run by psychologists in the U.S.

"We are building on the groundbreaking work that some of our peers and colleagues have done and just expanding it out," said Brown.

During treatment, patients begin the day with a community meeting where they discuss how well they feel and any additional issues or concerns since their last meeting. The remainder of the day depends on the curriculum scheduled for that week.

The first few weeks focus on learning basic coping skills such as how to reduce anxiety and fight fear, as well as yoga and meditation for relaxation. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, or EMDR, an evidence-based practice for treating PTSD, is also conducted during the early phases of the treatment program.

"The concept behind EMDR is that, essentially, memories become fixed in one part of our brain and they maintain their power and control over our emotions as long as they are fixed there," said Brown. "And if we can activate a different part of the brain while we're experiencing that memory, we can help to remove some of that emotional valence from it. So we use physiological maneuvers to activate both sides of the brain.

"The goal at the beginning of the PTSD program is to provide patients with a number of tools they can use to help them calm down when feeling overwhelmed, especially before more intense therapy begins in the latter weeks. Cognitive processing therapy is used throughout the program. EMDR and prolonged exposure therapy are also available on an individual basis at the Soldier's request. All three techniques are research-based treatments.

When life-changing events occur, Brown said perceptions about the world may change. For example, before Soldiers experience combat trauma they may think the world is safe. Following combat, a Soldier's perceptions may change - a majority of the world may now seem unsafe. Cognitive processing therapy attempts to re-address experiences and reshift a Soldier's perceptions.

Prolonged exposure therapy is behaviorally based and addresses a Soldier's fears, which are seen as reflex reactions to a stimulus. To decondition the reactions, a patient is continually exposed to the stimulus by retelling the story repeatedly, minus the negative outcome. Brown compared it to riding a roller coaster over and over again to overcome a fear of roller coasters.

"So they're getting EMDR, they're getting cognitive processing therapy, they're getting individual therapy, they're getting group therapy, they're getting education, anger management, self-esteem, relationship issues, grief and loss, yoga, meditation exercise, skill building -- a little bit of everything across the board," said Brown. "Not everything's going to resonate with everyone who comes through, but something's going to resonate for everyone who comes through.

"In addition to the overall core curriculum, Brown and her staff have programs such as pain management, relationship enrichment and tobacco cessation to help individualize treatment.

"The core of the group and individual education is consistent for everyone," said Brown. "But we recognize that every patient is different, and we have to tailor-make it to give an individualized treatment plan. We don't keep people in pain management if they're not in pain. We don't give them tobacco cessation if they're not smoking. So we do try and tailor as much of it as we can.

"Spirituality, relationship enrichment and gender-specific issues are also areas of focus.

"The program is holistic," said Pehm. "It looks at people from different spheres, not just the medical model, because everything is impacted when someone has combat stress or PTSD - not just the individual Soldier, but everybody who comes in contact with them.

"The intensity, length and "kitchen sink" qualities are not the only aspects that make this program unique, said Brown. It is a joint military and civilian effort accomplished entirely by volunteers. The staff is as diverse as the therapy options, and includes chaplains, social workers, Red Cross volunteers, psychiatrists, a nurse practitioner, enlisted psychiatric technicians, and graduate students. Brown said having a sundry of personnel keeps the program fresh and the staff excited.

"The patients get perspectives from people from a number of different backgrounds," said Brown.

Thus far, the staff outnumbers the program's participants.

"By design we started out small, and we were able to establish a really good working relationship with the local Warrior Transition Unit people ... It's been a wonderful working relationship with them," said Pehm.

Evolution is currently on it second eight-week course, with five patients enrolled. The first class had four. The goal is to keep the class size small in order to benefit from the program's intensity. Thinking small also helps keep the impact large by successfully returning Soldiers to their units, while also expanding access outside the WTUs. However, Pehm said they would like to expand the program to include patients from throughout the European Command.

"Ideally, we'd like to max it at about 10 because it is so intensive," said Brown. "These are folks we hope to remediate and return to the Army to be functional members again. Also, if they go back to their communities and their providers or spouses see the changes that have come about, that will increase the willingness or desire of more people to be here.

"Though few have completed this young program, signs of success have already started to surface.

"With the last group, the shift from 'I have to be here' to 'I'm so glad I came' was really phenomenal," said Pehm.

"One of them said that he didn't think he was getting anything out of the program," Brown said. "It was about week six until he saw himself react differently to a situation that came up, and watched himself do it differently using skills that he didn't know he learned. He went 'Wow,' maybe I am getting something out of this.

"It is too early, and the numbers are too small, to generalize the early trends, but self-completed PTSD checklists showed a significant decrease in reported symptoms for three of the four patients in the first cohort. Additionally, anxiety and depression symptom measures decreased.

"The whole idea is that we know all the changes aren't going to take place here," said Brown. "But we hope we give them enough learning to send them in a different direction. My hope is that we can build a program to provide valid, effective treatment to folks who have put themselves in harm's way at the request of their country, and help them live happier and better lives."

posted by LoveMyTanker @ 8:28 AM 2 comments

SESAME STREET UNVEILS...........

TALK LISTEN CONNECT PHASE III:
HELPING FAMILIES WITH YOUNG CHILDREN COPE WITH THE DEATH OF A LOVED ONE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – In continuing efforts to support our military families with young children and help them stay connected, feel reassured and comforted, Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization behind Sesame Street, unveiled the Sesame Street Family Connections website and today rolled out thirty five “Sesame Rooms” across the United States. These new resources are part of Sesame’s ongoing Talk, Listen, Connect (TLC) initiative, which provides support and offers significant resources for military families with young children experiencing the effects of deployments, when a parent returns home changed due to a combat related injury and the newest phase announced today, helping children cope with the death of a loved one. The announcements were made by Brigadier General Loree K. Sutton, Director of the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, Patty Shinseki, Member of the Board of Directors of The Military Child Education Coalition, Gary E. Knell, President and CEO of Sesame Workshop and Sesame Street’s Elmo and his Dad today at the Military Child Education Coalition’s (MCEC) National Conference.

The Sesame Street Family Connections website (www.SesameStreetFamilyConnections.org) is a bilingual, (English/Spanish) child centered online space where both children and adults can interact and stay connected when distance makes everyday communication difficult. With the help of their favorite Sesame Street friends, family members can compose encouraging messages to each other, share artwork and videos, upload photos, and get answers to some questions they may have but didn't know how to ask. Sesame Street Family Connections will serve as the common and private online place to keep military families connected across the globe.

“This rewarding opportunity to collaborate in launching such a creative website provides a vital tool in the recovery, resilience and reintegration toolbox that our military families need and deserve,” said Brig. Gen. Sutton. “Families and warriors will be able to stay connected and share in a safe and nurturing place, joined by their special Sesame Street friends.”

Additionally, Sesame Workshop, with the support of New York designer Jonathan Adler and several generous partners, has created “Sesame Rooms;” a rich and engaging set of materials to brighten up spaces and provide a much needed child friendly place for military children to play. Sesame Street will send a “room-in-a-box” to thirty-five locations across the United States , including children spaces in military hospitals, libraries, child care centers, and family support centers. Major donations have been generously contributed by friends of Sesame Street including: Ball, Bounce, and Sport Inc. – Hedstrom; Blue Mountain Wallcoverings; Dalmation; Fisher-Price Friends; Idea Nuova, Inc.; Random House Children's Books; Paradise Press; Sandylion; TekNek Toys International L.P.; and Vandor, LLC. Additional donations provided by Benjamin Moore, Kolcraft, Fabrics by Spectrix, Learning Curve Brands, and Pictorial Offset Corporation.

Sesame Workshop is committed to providing our military families with the resources they deserve,” said Gary E. Knell, President and CEO of Sesame Workshop. “We hope that Talk, Listen, Connect, which reaches out to all families with young children, will continue to help families discover ways they can be resilient despite experiencing difficult transitions in their lives.”

“The Military Child Education Coalition is delighted to partner once again with Sesame Workshop on its initiatives, that have been uniquely beneficial to military children and their families,” said Patty Shinseki. “Elmo and his friends, Sesame’s beloved characters with whom children connect so well, serve as conduits for dealing with the difficult issues in nurturing and sensitive ways. These valuable tools and resources for fostering resilience help children to thrive during the good times and challenging ones.”

Talk, Listen, Connect: Helping Families With Children Cope With the Death of a Loved One will consist of bilingual (English/Spanish) multimedia materials for young children and adults starring the Muppets from Sesame Street . Sesame Workshop will produce and distribute materials at no cost through organizations that provide services to military families and the general public, including grief centers, social services, and other programs specifically addressing the needs of children and families coping with the death of an immediate family member. The kit materials will also be available online at www.sesamestreet.org/tlc

posted by LoveMyTanker @ 12:33 AM 1 comments

On Hold

The Defense Department is providing no clues about how long it will take before applications are accepted for a retroactive stop-loss allowance ordered by Congress and signed into law in June by President Barack Obama.

The payment will be $500 a month for each calendar month a person spent at least one day under stop-loss orders.

By law, the Defense Department can take up to 120 days from June 24, the date Obama signed into law the Supplemental War Appropriations Act for 2009 that included the payment. If they use all 120 days, an application process would not be announced until Oct. 22.

Pentagon spokeswoman Eileen Lainez said she could not speculate on when people could start applying. “We are currently working with the services to develop plans and procedures. When those procedures are finalized, the services will release the details of their plan and its implementation to the public,” she said.

But it is still important that the estimated 185,000 people who would be eligible for the allowances do not procrastinate: The law gives them only one year from the day applications are accepted to file a claim. If they miss the one-year window, they will not be paid.

Payments will apply to anyone who was held on active duty beyond their separation or retirement date between Sept. 10, 2001 and Sept. 30, 2008. The allowance already has been paid to service members under stop-loss orders since Oct. 1, 2008, under temporary authority that will expire in September.

Although the Army, the last service using stop loss, is phasing it out, there is legislation pending in Congress that would extend the payment from Oct. 1, 2009, through June 20, 2011, which would cover the full period when the U.S. expects to have ground combat troops in Iraq.

posted by LoveMyTanker @ 12:14 AM 0 comments

On Guns

posted by LoveMyTanker @ 7:35 AM 2 comments

Get your old school jam on!

To honor the military and provide a little fun and excitement over the summer months, the rock group Def Leppard and Raven Drum Foundation have started giving away 100 free concert tickets to military members and veterans with military ID for each show in the 2009 Def Leppard summer concert tour.

Poison and Cheap Trick also will perform on the entire tour.

“Def Leppard’s involvement came through a desire to give something back, and what better way to honor these heroes than with a night of music?” said Rick Allen, Def Leppard’s drummer and Raven Drum Foundation founder. “We wanted to thank these heroes in a meaningful way for their service.”

The summer tour kicked off in Camden, N.J., June 23 and is scheduled to run through Sept. 12, with concerts in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Michigan, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, California, Nevada, Massachusetts and Washington.

“To date, there have been nine U.S. shows,” said Jennifer Buzza, director of the Raven Drum Foundation. “Approximately 100 tickets have been given to military families and veterans for these shows. There are approximately 100 tickets for each of the remaining 33 shows. Nearly half have already been claimed.”

Military personnel and veterans with a military ID are eligible to receive two tickets to one Def Leppard show. Tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Register at http://ravendrumfoundation.org/news-events/free-dl-tickets-for-veterans.html to be placed on the guest list, then show military ID to a representative near the box office before the show. In addition to checking ID, the representative will ensure the person picking up the tickets is registered and on the guest list.

“We are working closely with the Wounded Warrior Project,” Buzza said. “For many shows, one of their volunteers or staff people will be the representative handing out tickets.” The Salute America's Heroes troop-support group also is helping with ticket distribution.

The free concert tickets are directly related to the Raven Drum Foundation’s mission.

“Music is just one of the tools we use to promote healing -- to serve, educate and empower veterans and people in crisis through the power of the drum,” Allen said. “It is so exciting to have my band, family and so many others contributing to this effort. I thank everyone involved, especially the veterans.”

Buzza said the band and the foundation want to brighten some lives. “We wanted to offer an evening of pure entertainment, an evening free of normal troubles,” she said. “This venture allows Raven Drum and Def Leppard to do just that.”

Concert dates and venues are listed on the registration Web site.

posted by LoveMyTanker @ 6:56 AM 0 comments

Caregivers

On good days, Michelle Briggs has to remind her 40-year-old husband to shower and eat. On bad days, she lifts him out of bed and picks him up when he falls.

Robert W. Briggs, a former Army sergeant, was severely injured in Iraq and needs constant monitoring because of traumatic brain injury, blindness in one eye and paralysis on one side. He walks with the help of a service dog. Briggs gave up her job as a veterinarian technician to care for him and their two kids.

With tissue in hand, Michelle Briggs huddled Monday in a hotel conference room with 15 other caregivers who shared hugs and exchanged stories. They will go to Capitol Hill this week with a message to Congress: We need help.

"Mentally, it takes a very big toll on you," said Briggs, 34, of Hillsboro, Iowa, whose husband was injured in a rocket grenade attack in 2005 while serving with the Iowa National Guard. "You have to be a very strong person to get through a lot of it. It's a choice whether you stay or not. It's very much a choice."

Briggs said she's met other spouses of injured veterans who sought a divorce.

"It doesn't make them a bad person at all, but they just couldn't handle the situation because it's very, very stressful and you have to fight for the things that you're entitled to," Briggs said.

The caregivers say parents, spouses and siblings of the disabled have given up jobs, health insurance and college to care for a loved one. Yet they get no compensation to ease the burden.

"We're providing them with such a better quality of life and we need support in order to provide that," said Tracy Keil, 31, of Parker, Colo., whose husband, Matthew Keil, was paralyzed from the chest down from a sniper's bullet in 2007 and now needs around-the-clock care.

The two married six weeks before he was injured. She said she gave up the job she had as an accountant for 11 years and makes $60,000 less working from home part-time for a nonprofit organization.

The caregivers seek passage of legislation that would require the Veterans Affairs Department to offer more training to primary caregivers of severely injured veterans from the recent wars.

Those certified would be eligible for benefits such as health care and a stipend of a few hundred dollars a week.

The alternative, they say, would be life in an institution for some veterans now mostly in their 20s or 30s.

Sen. Daniel Akaka, chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, who authored legislation in the Senate to address the issue with Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., said there are more than just an isolated few families asking for help.

"This has been growing, growing to the point now where we can not ignore it," Akaka said.

Akaka, D-Hawaii, said he's waiting for a final analysis about how much the legislation would cost, although he's confident keeping a veteran in the home is cheaper than a nursing home.

The VA has expressed concerns about the cost of the legislation. It has also said it would divert from the agency's mission of providing care to veterans and training clinicians, and said some of the same services are provided in other programs.

Phil Budahn, a VA spokesman, said in a statement the agency would continue to look for ways to "appropriately support these compassionate providers."

Steven Nardizzi, executive director of the Jacksonville, Fla.-based Wounded Warrior Project, which organized the caregivers' effort this week, said what the VA provides simply isn't adequate.
He said the VA needs to adapt its primary mission to include helping families of the wounded, and providing health benefits and a stipend would go a long way.

"If the VA thinks they're already providing or the administration thinks they're already providing support, it's because they're simply not paying attention and not listening to the families right now," Nardizzi said.

His group estimates that under legislation it's seeking, about 750 caregivers would be eligible long-term, whereas several thousand would participate for about one to three years.

Briggs said she's thrown out her back at different times lifting her husband. She said she went through a period of depression as she adjusted to their new life but has learned to find comfort talking to other caregivers. She said she's dedicated to making their arrangement work but could use more resources.

"I love him and we've been married — it will be 15 years in November. It's like your marriage vows for better or worse," Briggs said. "This wasn't his fault, and there would be no one else to take care of him properly. He would be in a nursing home."

Resources:

Wounded Warrior Project: http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/
Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee: http://veterans.senate.gov/
Veterans Affairs Department: http://www.va.gov/

posted by LoveMyTanker @ 6:14 AM 2 comments

Spouse Handbooks

Staff Sgt. Anthony Evans, a drill sergeant with Company B, 3rd Battalion, 60th Infantry Regiment, said his wife knew very little about the Army before experiencing it with him.

But the Directorate of Combat Training has developed a Cadre Spouse Handbook aimed at giving spouses, like Evans', some insight on what to expect before coming to an installation like Fort Jackson.

Col. Craig Currey, DBCT director, said the handbook was developed as a way to inform Soldiers and spouses about the rigors of working in a training environment.

"We've been thinking about this for a long time," Currey said. He and his team surveyed both spouses and Soldiers to find out what they would like to see. "One of the things they wanted was booklet to better prepare drill sergeants' spouses," he said.

He added, "families know the Army, but they don't know (Initial Entry Training). What we tried to do was to give the IET slant on things."

Staff Sgt. Angela Wasson said she and others involved in creating the handbook tried to make it broad enough to make it relatable to any family member. She said the handbook is also meant to dispel misconceptions some may have upon coming to a training installation.

"Families come here to an IET environment and think they will see their (spouse) all the time now because they don't deploy and they don't go to the field," she said.

Currey added, "It can be grueling ... it is just non-stop training."

As a dual military spouse, Wasson thought it was important to include how the IET environment would affect family time. The book focuses heavily on describing those effects, even including examples of daily schedules for company and staff cadre, stay-at-home and working spouses, and even children. The book also includes resources for education, religion, employment and transition tips, among others.

Though the book is aimed at spouses, Currey stressed that Soldiers should avoid simply leaving the spouse alone to look through it.

"It would be beneficial for the spouse and Soldier to go through it together," he said. "Some of it is designed to be interactive between husband and wife."

Evans, a father of four who has been a drill sergeant for 15 months, said his wife thought the book was helpful.

"I showed it to my wife and she asked, 'Where was this book when I came in?,'" he said. He said the book should be handed out to the installation's newcomers. "They should get a welcome packet when they first come in, and this book should be in there."

The book can be found at http://www.jackson.army.mil/Units/handbook/spousehandbook2.pdf.

Another book, this one aimed at family members of Basic Combat Training and Advanced Installation Training, can be found at http://www.jackson.army.mil/units/ handbook/index.html.

VOICES: A Leader reporter sat down with Jan May, Cheryl Stall and Beth Shwedo, spouses of Fort Jackson's commanding general, command sergeant major and deputy commanding officer, respectively, to get their take on the new Cadre Spouse Handbook.

All three women said the handbook is one of many tools Fort Jackson provides to prepare spouses new to a training installation.

"For me, it's just one tool that a spouse can use to identify some of the challenges and expectations," said Stall.

Shwedo added, "It's helpful in the fact that most people's point of reference is not in a training environment."

May said having a handbook prevents spouses from having to "learn the hard way."

"I think with this, it lays it out step-by-step what is involved. I think it's honest. That is what caught me about that book," she said.

Stall said knowing in advance what to expect allows families to schedule time together.

"We ask a lot of our Soldiers, and by virtue of that, we're asking a lot of our spouses," she said. "It helps to be able to plan. I think some families aren't going to get much time together if they don't plan."

May said the book is also a way to get a lot of information in one place. "(It's) one-stop-shop information in here," she said. "Take your time and digest it. I wish I had it when we came in (the Army)."

Shwedo said having the information at hand can be empowering for spouses, and knowing in advance what to expect is powerful. "The unknown is what can sometimes be scary," she said.

"What's good about this is it touches on every aspect of life."

She added, "The bottom line is ... the Army's looking out for the families to make sure they know what to expect."

posted by LoveMyTanker @ 6:52 AM 0 comments

Wanna save some cash?

posted by LoveMyTanker @ 8:40 AM 1 comments

Question of the day

posted by LoveMyTanker @ 10:56 AM 0 comments

What do you get when.......

posted by LoveMyTanker @ 8:44 AM 0 comments

MHS and Social Media

The Military Health System is one of the many Defense Department organizations embracing social networking in order to provide information to and receive feedback from servicemembers.

Dr. Michael Kilpatrick, director of strategic communications for the Military Health System, detailed the organization’s work in social networking at an event for federal communicators July 9 in Washington, D.C.

More of an effort was needed, even after the organization developed a robust and interactive health.mil Web site and blog, Kilpatrick said. Less than 10 percent of health.mil visitors are under 25 years old, he said, while 80 percent of the entire military community is between the ages of 18 and 25.

“So we’re not reaching the people we need to reach using that Web site,” Kilpatrick said.

To provide health information to servicemembers and their families of all ages, it’s necessary to use a variety of communications platforms, he said.

“We want them to receive the information they want, in the way they want to receive it, when they want it,” Kilpatrick explained.

Security concerns have been one of the most significant speed bumps to promoting social networking in the Defense Department. Many military Internet domains block access to social networking sites, though the Army recently has reversed a policy that blocked many popular Web sites from bases in the United States.

At the moment, there is no hard-and-fast method to measuring social media success. People can track how many fans they have on Facebook or how many are following them on Twitter, but it is difficult to quantify the impact of an organization’s presence in social networking. For now, anecdotes may say it best.

Kilpatrick described to the audience how a recently relocated military spouse was seeking care for her autistic child and “tweeted” her inquiry to the Military Health System’s Twitter account. Staff members were able to contact an expert and quickly provide local resources to her. A regular visitor’s comments went from critical to complimentary.

The Military Health System is currently using “DotMilDocs” audio webcasts, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, and other social networks that it links to from its Social Media Hub Web page located at www.health.mil/connect.

Related Sites:
Military Health System

posted by LoveMyTanker @ 8:15 AM 0 comments

Stories Sought

Exceptional Parent Magazine is looking for stories from parents and health care professionals. Topics for the stories include: Education, Employment, and Disability, to name a few. These individuals deal with and face challenges on a daily basis, and Exceptional Parent Magazine feels these viewpoints, if they are shared, can make a difference in readers’ lives. If you or someone you know has a story they would like to share, please send them to Mr. Riley Miller at the address located below:

Riley Miller
Military Editor
EP Magazine
EP Global Communications, Inc.
Email: mailto: rmiller@eparent.com
Office: 830-660-7655

posted by LoveMyTanker @ 10:56 AM 0 comments

I swear

posted by LoveMyTanker @ 8:58 AM 2 comments

RFID

Also see the article - Chips in official IDs raise privacy fears

posted by LoveMyTanker @ 8:28 AM 0 comments

Military Kids Blog

posted by LoveMyTanker @ 10:15 AM 0 comments

Child Quotes

posted by LoveMyTanker @ 8:35 AM 0 comments

When the new GI Bill kicks in Aug. 1, the government's best-known education program for veterans will get the biggest boost since its World War II-era creation. But the benefit is hardly the "Government Issue," one-size-fits-all standard the name implies.

In fact, depending on where service members and veterans decide to attend college, they could receive a full ride, or very little.

An Associated Press review of state-by-state benefits under the new bill shows huge discrepancies in the amount veterans can receive.

For example:

• Veterans attending New Hampshire colleges like Dartmouth might get $25,000 from the government each year, and in Dartmouth's case essentially a free ride, thanks to an additional grant from the Ivy League school. But in neighboring Massachusetts, it is a different story. At that state's numerous private schools — many just as expensive as Dartmouth — the government's baseline tuition benefit is only about $2,200 a year.

• Veterans who choose a private school in Texas could get close to $20,000 a semester from the government for a typical course load. Those picking schools in California will get nothing for tuition.

The explanation stems from the formula the government created, as well as a much-criticized decision by the Department of Veterans Affairs on how to implement the law.

The new GI Bill covers full in-state undergraduate tuition and fees at any public college. That's far more generous than the old GI Bill, which provides a monthly stipend that is the same from state to state.

But Congress also wanted to help veterans attend often pricier private schools. So the new bill offers them an amount equal to the tuition at the most expensive public college in the same state.

That penalizes veterans going to private colleges in states that have kept their public university tuition low.

As a result, the new GI Bill is a great deal for such vets in states like New Hampshire, New York and Texas; a pretty good one in states like Ohio; and hardly any deal at all in Massachusetts and especially California, where the state constitution prohibits public universities from charging tuition. Instead, California's public universities typically charge "fees" of several thousand dollars per year.

Critics argue the Department of Veterans Affairs misinterpreted the law and should have combined tuition and fees in coming up with reimbursement levels. That would have put the total California benefit at around $13,000 per year.

Anthony Brooks, a 26-year-old former Army Ranger who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, will get a mere $5,000 toward the $38,570 tuition charged at the private University of Southern California — and half of that comes from USC through the government's Yellow Ribbon matching-grant program.

"It's depressing, actually. It's putting states up against each other," said Brooks, who plans to become a doctor. He added: "We all fought for our country. It just seems unfair."

The VA says its hands were tied by Congress.

"It is a valid question concerning why we would pay X in State A versus how much we would pay in State B, but the statute defines the kinds of programs we would account for," said Keith Wilson, the department's director of educational services.

Congress passed the Post 9/11 GI Bill last year, offering veterans the most significant expansion of educational benefits since the original GI Bill in 1944. The VA expects nearly half a million veterans to participate in the coming year.

The benefits — including new, separate stipends for housing and books — kick in after three years of active duty, and some of them are transferable to family members.

Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., has introduced legislation that would correct the discrepancy in California.

"California's generosity on state tuition was intended to keep college costs down, not inadvertently increase costs for the state's veterans," said Lindsey Mask, a spokeswoman for McKeon.

In the meantime, education and veterans groups are fielding calls from veterans confused over how much they can get.

"What should be a simple number has turned into some kind of Frankenstein-like monster that nobody will be able to understand," said Terry Hartle, senior vice president of the American Council on Education.

About 80 percent of veterans tapping the new bill are expected to attend public institutions. But some of the remaining 20 percent — those planning to attend private colleges, graduate schools, and the for-profit institutions that are hugely popular with veterans — are angry.

"On paper, this is an amazing new GI bill. It's an amazing plan," said Matthew Collins, a former Army specialist who started a Facebook group criticizing the system.

He plans to attend California Baptist University, affordable only because it is making a $10,000-per-veteran contribution under Yellow Ribbon — something many California colleges are unable to offer.

"I just don't think they truly thought it through," Collins said.

posted by LoveMyTanker @ 8:45 PM 1 comments