Week in Review: July 24 - 30, 2011 (Military News)

Popular Military Family Articles for the week of July 24 - 30 on

MilitaryAvenue.com

One Thousand Posts - Let's Celebrate It has been an amazing journey at 'Our Letters to You', a military family blog. I started writing in 2007 and now just a few short years later our team has written a thousand blog-posts! Blogs full of empowerment, support, education, fun and a bit of 'been there done that'. One-thousand posts; This calls for a celebration! Which is just what we are going to do. We have some great prizes thanks to some wonderful companies that support our military families. ...

Debt Ceiling Crisis: How USAA Is Prepared Help Members:  Should the federal government not reach an agreement by Aug. 2 to raise the debt ceiling — and therefore not be able to pay its bills — USAA has solutions in place to help our members who might not get the federal pay and benefits they need to meet their daily obligations. Here's how we are prepared to help members who are impacted and request assistance: ...

U.S. Women's Sailing Team Takes Bronze: The U.S. women's sailing team took home the bronze medal yesterday here at the 5th International Military Sports Council's World Games.  This is the third medal that U.S. teams have garnered in the competitions, all earned by female teams.  The team, made up of Navy, Coast Guard and Marine Corps service members, has only sailed together for a total of 11 days, including the competition. The group met during their training week in Annapolis, Md., before flying here for the July 16-24 competitions. ...

The Man-Bag: My son has a man-bag. This sends me into fits of hysterics every time I think about it.  It all started out with a dad-and-son trip to Sports Clips. You see, I am frugal. We do our best to save around here where we can, when we can. This way I can enjoy some of the 'finer things in life' with less guilt. (Like fulfilling my need to close the kitchen and eat out once in awhile.) As my eight-year old starts to care more and more about 'style' my handy-dandy clippers are failing him. (I'm sure it has everything to do with the clippers and nothing to do with my ability. Just saying.) I have tried to use scissors. ...

Face of Defense: Recruiter Saves Life on Dallas Freeway: When Army Staff Sgt. Marcus A. Stone saw cars suddenly braking and swerving ahead of him on Interstate 35 East in Dallas, he knew something bad had just happened on the freeway he was driving on. In the minutes that followed, Stone pulled a victim from a burning vehicle. Those actions that December day prompted Stone’s commanding officer to nominate him for the Noncommissioned Officers Association of the United States of America Military Vanguard Award, presented annually to recognize acts of heroism. ...

Staying Healthy: Get those endorphins going: Health experts call endorphins "feel-good hormones." Endorphins are natural chemicals released by the brain that improve your mood, relive pain, reduce stress, and produce an overall feeling of well being. They also help you sleep better. The easiest way to get your body to release endorphins is to exercise. Even a moderate workout eases tension and improves mental and physical health. More vigorous exercise really gets those endorphins going. The positive effect of endorphins can last for several hours, according to some endocrinologists. ...

Military Discounts: Are you interested in Military Discounts in your area? Did you know we have numerous companies sign-up to be part of MilitaryAvenue every day? We call them MilitaryAvenue Partners. The Partners can have a free ad on MilitaryAvenue.com as long as they offer a military-discount, which we call Military Rewards, to our well-deserving service-members and families. (That's you, military spouses and military members!)...

101 Ways to thank a Veteran: One of our most popular pieces here on MilitaryAvenue, 101 Ways to Thank a Veteran is not just for Veterans Day. Have you thank a Veteran today?  Here are some ideas to get you started...

French Government Honors Special Forces Soldiers: They are used to their deeds pass as unnoticed as their battlefield movements, but six Special Forces soldiers took the limelight here last night to receive a French military award roughly equivalent to the Silver Star. Five National Guard soldiers and one who serves on active duty were honored with the Croix de la Valeur Militaire – or French Cross of Military Valor -- in a private ceremony at the French ambassador’s residence attended by senior leaders including Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, Army chief of staff, and Army Maj. Gen. Timothy Kadavy, deputy director of the Army National Guard. ...

New Office Aims to Strengthen Families Financially: A government office dedicated to protecting service members and their families from financial predators and pitfalls officially opened for business this week.  As the military arm of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Office of Servicemember Affairs is intended to strengthen military families financially and to serve as an advocate on their behalf, explained Holly Petraeus, who was tapped to head up the new office in January. “Military families have special challenges,” said Petraeus, wife of Army Gen. David H. Petraeus. “There are 50 different states with 50 different laws, and military personnel may not be aware of the protections in the state where they live.” ...



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