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One More Challenge for Military Personnel! Post Deployment Driving
They just keep adding up for our military folks – challenges that is! But this one is pretty close to home and the safety of our service members and their families should not be compromised. Insurance industry giant, USAA has released the results of a study of post deployment auto accidents for military members and they have tagged a large increase for some groups following deployments. An educated guess of the results indicates a lot of habits formed while driving in convoys in combat situations (to stay alive) can increase the chances of having an accident at home. So the best convoy and combat drivers may be at risk at…
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VOW to Hire Veterans Act and “WOW” Come Together for Veterans Seeking Employment at Sears!
A VOW from Congress and a big WOW for Sears! Citing Labor Department statistics with 900,000 unemployed veterans in October this year and with more returning from Iraq as the war ends there, David Works, Senior Vice President Talent & Human Capital Services for Sears, excitedly explained to MilitaryAvenue how they were increasing vet hires at Sears Holdings. A Navy veteran of fast attack submarines, David highlighted the efforts of Sears to increase veteran hires by 10% in 2012 with veterans filling positions from hourly associates to store managers, global logistics, corporate level and more with military experience a plus for new hires! Challenging other corporations to support our veterans,…
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Your Voting Opportunities Just Got Easier! DoD Blogger Roundtable
Time does seem to fly! We are approaching Veterans Day 2011 so fast. Do you know that by next Veterans Day we will have had elections for President, Congress and local officials too! Why talk about elections now? Because so many of our veterans and in particular, active duty folks did not vote in 2010 or 2008! The folks with so much at stake with the direction of their government; either, made the choice not to vote, or had a problem getting their ballots. So… we talked to Mr. Bob Carey, director, Federal Voting Assistance Program during a Bloggers Roundtable yesterday and he outlined what the federal government and DoD…
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Heroes at Home – Helping Veterans One at a Time
It was an easy conversation, two veterans talking about what they both enjoy doing – helping other veterans, particularly those in need. None to be left behind… Tom AielloTom Aiello and I had met in New York during another great veteran event last year but now we were talking about the Sears Heroes at Home program. Heroes at Home had just finished the rebuild of their 1,000th veteran home in conjunction with Rebuilding Together. I could hear the pride in Tom’s voice as we talked about the program that has given back so much to veterans. Sgt Johnny Agbi was an Army medic, disabled, in a wheel chair, living alone…
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Life Insurance Awareness Month Quiz – Win an iPod Shuffle
September is Life Insurance Awareness Month. To celebrate USAA and MilitaryAvenue are joining forces to give away an iPod shuffle to one lucky winner! Simply COMMENT on our note at Facebook with your answers / “best guess” to the following questions. We will draw a random winner from those COMMENTS made by Sept 30th and announce our winner on Oct 3rd. Have fun! Life Insurance Awareness Month QuizCourtesy of USAA1. True or false. All active duty service members and Guard or reserves who are in a drilling status qualify for group life insurance.a. Trueb. False2. Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance stops: a. 90 days after you return from deployment.b. …
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From Military to Civilian
I just returned from a great visit to USAA in San Antonio and had the pleasure of meeting a lot of great people, seeing a lot of great things up USAA’s sleeve and doing some super networking with fellow bloggers, military spouses and financial gurus. (In fact, I frequently thought, “How was I so privileged to be invited seeing the room was full of such-experts.”) What a wonderful opportunity! The visit culminated with their 9/11 remembrance, “America’s Resolve”. Our emotions were tested and kleenex placed at the end of every row. Even saying the Pledge of Allegiance tugged at my heart and that was just the beginning. We listened intently to the keynote speaker; bated…
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Tasty Tuesday Blackberry Scones
Blackberry Scones. Right there, I am drooling!Warm, wet and wonderful hot out of the oven; berries popping out the sides of blackberry scones. From start to finish, these are ready to eat within the hour using everyday shelf items: with the exception of those juicy berries. We have berries growing and thriving and multiplying like 60. Dale picks them, I clean them; we eat them. Simple! Today we had oatmeal with blackberries for breakfast, a 10 o’clock snack was a blackberry muffin from last night and lunch will be a garden fresh tossed salad topped with… Yep! Blackberries, plump purple and delicious. The scone idea is new. Neighbors are coming…
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PCS from Iraq! Good Stewards of American Taxpayer Dollars – DoD Blogger Roundtable
PCS Fun 1 million pieces of US Government owned equipment still in Iraq! Imagine the most difficult PCS you ever faced? I remember one that was so complex it makes my head hurt! We had most of our household goods going into temporary storage and some into long term storage (3 years) and a small amount being flown to the overseas PCS location. We had to have family travel stuff and I was going to school and had personal items and professional goods being shipped to that location. I am sure my director of logistics (my bride who experienced 18 PCS moves) would have more details but then I took…
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Have You Had a Great Shopping Experience Lately?
Good shopping experience? Great shopping experience? Never happen! Hey! I am a guy after all! But recently I had the opportunity to enjoy a shopping experience that was quick, helpful and I walked out with the right products to help me be comfortable! Yep, it was a sports store but it was nevertheless a shopping experience I was not looking forward too. Have you had a great experience lately? Tell us about it in the comments section and share it with others! Read about mine below as I tell our MilitaryAvenue partners how to reach out to you: Sifting through my mail I was shocked to find a post card…
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“No Shame in Seeking Help” – Real Warriors Campaign DoD Blogger Roundtable
Staff Sgt. Meg KrauseStaff Sgt Meg Krause had her act together! Joining the Army in 2001 she served as a medical technician at Landstuhl Army Medical Center in Germany and then found herself in Iraq. It was according to her a “life changing experience for me”. Something she did not expect! Leaving active duty in 2006 to attend college at Penn State she stayed part of the military with duty in the Army Reserve. Then the problems came: alcohol abuse, tardiness, poor class attendance, attitude changes, bad decisions and more! The unit leadership and peers noticed, family and friends too! But she failed to respond until her First Sergeant sat…