Category Archives: military

Our military family is preparing for re-deployment

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Our daughter’s upcoming deployment is just around the corner. Last month was challenging for me. Our daughter had to go through training and had no time to talk to my husband and I. At first I felt like my daughter was already deployed. I remembered that feeling of loss. It’s so strange how you have this feeling, even though you know they are alive and well. The feeling of  loss is knowing your loved one will not be with you,day to day.

I began to  feel so sad.  Knowing my daughter will miss her children activities, birthdays and holidays. I cried,  I guess I just had to let it out. Then I began to think, this is temporary and my daughter will return. I picked myself up and said, “What am I going to do to make this situation a positive experience for my family?”

I know what to do, focus on what I can do for my family.

My granddaughters and I have begun to talk about when I will be coming to help out. My husband, Alan and I are still working, so I will be planning on staying for lengths of time with my granddaughters in Arizona. Since my daughter  remarried, her husband will now face challenges of being a single parent to my granddaughters. So I will have another person to help support.

One thing I do know, this deployment will be different, but we have each other to get us through it.

Soliders returning home.Today’s families still face up coming deployments

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Recently our media  has been addressing our returning soldiers.  Yes the returning  combat soldiers are coming home.

Talking with my friends they are under the impression that our deployments will be over, yes that is true for our combat soldiers .

The US has presence all over the world and those military assigned to overseas bases  have a rotation time. When their time is up  this means someone has to fill those jobs. In order to do that we have to deploy our military.

I wish our media would explain to the public a little better of  what our military does do. I spoke to a Army Reserve MP CID Yellow Ribbon Event for  families facing an upcoming deployment.

War is ending, but military deployments will not end for our military.

What does it mean to be invited to the White House Community Leaders briefing?

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When I was notified that I had been selected to attend the White House Community Leaders briefing , my first thought was- “My wish is coming true!”

I have been wishing  to share with our government how we can better help our military families experiencing  deployments and returning home for sometime . I faced so many challenges at that time when my daughter was deployed and I knew other families must have faced the same issues, also. 

White House administration for the first time in history has opened up their doors. They have selected  community leaders to share  how they are improving their communities and in hopes of bridging government services to better serve our people.  I was selected because of my work in  educating our military families on deployment and reintegration.  And will be attending this briefing with the White House administration on August 12. It is an all day event.

I was informed by the White House Administration  prior to my visit, to select one of the four  departments to speak to -Small Business, Environment, Health Care /Human Services or Dept. of Education.  I selected the Department of Education.  I think informing the school administration on how to better understand and help the children of military families.  More than half of our military families are living in communities and  do not live on  military base.

I began to think back about the time when our  granddaughters came to  live with us during our daughter’s deployment. And the challenges I faced- changing my entire lifestyle, dealing with concerns for our daughter’s safety, the lack of communication, being a parent again,enrolling children in a new school, trying to find after school care( which I was unsuccessful due to limited space and being mid year), I had no support due to our location, and experienced many mixed emotions or being a parent, again.

Military families need help with many issues they face during deployment. So many of our families are on our own, trying to do the best job they can while their loved one is away.

I thought , wouldn’t it have been nice if I would have known where to get help. Have all the resources at my fingertips when my daughter was deployed? I would have loved to have had an after school care, homework helpers, babysitters -I could afford. Having other deployed children for my granddaughters to connect to, knowing what deployment was like. And maybe, a network of  other families in the same situation.

So now, here is my chance and I can’t wait to speak!

Want to share your story or do you have an idea on how to help other military families you would like to me share with the White House? I would love to hear from you.

Send me your comments.