Military Spouses’ Most Memorable Blog Entries

“Five Year, Two Kids and Four Deployments Later” – That phrase is from Jackie Dorr’s first blog post. As an Army Wife and former president of the MacDill Enlisted Spouses Club, she managed to capture the essence of military married life to a spouse who is deployed more often than he’s at home. Here’s a [...]

Military-Civilian Gap Continues to Grow and Why It Matters

“I fear they do not know us. I fear they do not comprehend the full weight of the burden we carry or the price we pay when we return from battle.” – Adm. Mike Mullen addressing the West Point graduating class Spring 2011. I began this blog with the mission of bridging that gap of [...]

An Iraq Veteran’s Thank You to All Who Served

A thank you message to all Iraq Veterans from Marine Corps Veteran Sgt. Deniz Emre. His words were originally published in the VA Blog – VAntage Point: With lots of press but little fanfare, the last remaining troops stationed in Iraq began packing up shop and heading home. After nearly nine years of conflict (the [...]

6 Tips for Getting Psychologically Fit for the New Year

Improve your memory, mood and get mentally fit. Dr. James Bender offers some tips on why and how to improve your mental outlook for 2012. He suggests making it one of your New Year’s Resolutions. Bender is a former Army psychologist who deployed to Iraq as the brigade psychologist for the 1st Cavalry Division’s 4th [...]

Military Service Academies See Increase in Sexual Assaults

Reports of sexual assaults increased in the past year at the military service academies according to the Department of Defense Annual Report on Sexual Harassment and Violence  for the academic year of 2010-2011 which was just released. The report shows an increase in 2010-2011 with 65 reports of sexual assault involving cadets and midshipmen, compared [...]

CENTCOM Investigation of Deadly Pakistan Border Incident

U.S. Central Command on Monday released an unclassified version of the investigation report into the deadly Nov. 25-26 incident near Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan. CENTCOM commander Marine Corps Gen. James R. Mattis directed the International Security Assistance Force to take a series of corrective actions after receiving the final report. As a result of the [...]

Veterans, Military Charities: Where to Check Before You Give

With 2012 fast approaching, you may be looking to make an end of the year donation to a non-profit organization that helps veterans, wounded warriors and military families. There are plenty of organizations out there helping, but Charity Navigator suggests before giving, check out the organization. The website has a ranking of non-profit groups that [...]

Veterans Affairs Focuses Outreach on Facebook, YouTube

The VA currently has more than 345,000 combined Facebook  “fans” and is looking for more. As of this week, each of the 152 VA Medical Centers has its own page. “This event marks an important milestone in the overall effort to transform how VA communicates with Veterans and provide them the health care and benefits [...]

Christmas Carolers Serenade Marines at Camp Leatherneck

Christmas caroling is a tradition that continues even in Afghanistan. Here’s a video produced by USMC 2nd Lt. James F. Stenger and USMC Sgt. Justin J. Shemanski. If you have a family member currently serving in Afghanistan, may listening to it make you feel closer to your loved one. The video shows an international band [...]

Top 6 Findings from Study of Women Serving in the Military

Here are some key findings from the Pew Research Center study of Women in the U.S. Military. Seven times more women are now serving and make up 14 percent of the U.S. Forces compared to only 2 percent in 1973 when military service became voluntary. The study found there are no differences between women and [...]