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Guardian Angels for Soldier’s Pet
It is an image which many of us hate to see! Military members saying good bye! We have to say goodbye to family and friends during deployments, long temporary duty (TDY) assignments and remote tours. It can be a heart ache for all involved but sometimes it includes our four legged friends! For some giving up a pet means never seeing the animal again! I had the opportunity to meet and interview some neat folks from Guardian Angels for Soldier’s Pet who help pet owners who deploy find a foster family for their pets. Guardian Angels for Soldier’s Pet has 3,000 volunteers from all 50 states who become a foster…
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Military Family Life Question of the week: What has your favorite assignment been and why?
We all have stories being military families… stories of places we LOVED living, stories of places we weren’t so fond of. Perhaps the dust-storms in Texas just aren’t your thing or perhaps you could have done without the humidity of South Carolina. Maybe you couldn’t get enough of the history of Charleston or the free museums and cherry-blossoms in DC. This is the life of the military. It’s more than an adventure, it is life-changing! You get to see the sites, opportunities to do things you wouldn’t have had you stayed & lived in your hometown. You have expanded your world beyond borders. My favorite place was Keflavik NAS, Iceland…
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Networking is Important! Your Next Job Could Depend On It!
Maintaining contact with friends and associates has always been a challenge for military personnel and their families due to their frequent relocations and changes to their address, phone numbers, etc! But…the internet has changed all of that with a worldwide resource for maintaining relationships! Add in Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Plaxo and other social and professional networking tools and the opportunities for maintaining a network of friends and employer contacts continues to expand! How important is networking? When was the last time you heard of a great assignment opportunity in the unit, or talked on the phone, emailed or responded to a friend on your Facebook accounts? All are networking opportunities…
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Leadership–One Aspect that Helps Everyone
I have heard the best speakers on military leadership; read mandatory books and articles and attended schools just to learn how to be a good leader. I would like to provide a view of one aspect of leadership that occasionally needs emphasis! Mentorship is a critical part of leadership and insures our follow on leaders receive the information, job skills, hard knock lessons and knowledge they need to meet the needs of their future units, country and even their families. I have also witnessed great and not so great leaders at work. One characteristic of a great leader that I admire is the one that provides opportunities for those they…
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Memories of a Wonderful Mom and Grandma
We have a daily flip calendar and we have written events on it as we traveled the world with new assignments, special trips, vacations, a flying mission to a far away place, change of commands, etc. It brings back so many memories of wonderful times and in some cases tough times too! This morning the calendar reminded us of the death of a dear mother and grandmother three years ago! You are sorely missed Mom! Everytime we plan a family get together, have a reminder of a previous fun event or add another baby to the family tree we wish you could be there to enjoy it! In the past…
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A New Way to Connect
I haven’t contributed to the “Letters to You” blog before today, but I’m excited to do so! I joined the MilitaryAvenue team in early 2008 and it has been fun to jump into a new and exciting project. If you are reading this blog, you are probably familiar enough with the Internet to have at least heard of Facebook. It has gained some popularity and success over the past couple of years – roughly 65 million users with an average of 250,000 new users signing up each day! That’s exciting for the people at Facebook, but what did it mean for us at MilitaryAvenue? In mid 2007, Facebook created the…
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A Winter Scene and the Weather in our Adventures
Or stories from a weather channel junkie Right now I am looking out the front sliding doors at beautiful trees covered with snow; cardinals, junkos, finches and blue jays quickly eating on the bird feeders; and wind whipping everything. It is a wonderful white scene but step outside those doors and it is awakening with a temperature of 0 degrees and a wind chill of -25! I sure appreciate the warmth and comfort of our house on a day like this one. I plowed the driveway with my small John Deere for a third time in 48 hours (the banks on the side are now higher than my plow) and…
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Favorite Assignment
What is the first question I hear from folks when they hear that we were an Air Force family and lived in 18 places? First, after the look of either admiration or horror is the inevitable “What was your favorite assignment/location?” How do we answer that one? After all we had assignments in Iceland and Panama and many “unfavorable locales” in some peoples’ eyes. I usually start out with “each was special in its own way” and provided opportunities for all of us. Some accept that; but others press a bit harder. That is when I say, well “maybe Iceland” due to the opportunity to visit Europe, teenage kids attending…
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That First Assignment
Doesn’t everyone want a clear view of Area 51? J You want New Jersey? Zoom – how about Nevada? Our first assignment after pilot training was an exciting one that demonstrated that the government, in my case, the US Air Force knows best! 😉 We had orders for Andrews AFB in Maryland and being a Midwest guy who had recently married an East Coast gal we were quite excited to get there and settle in for at least four years. We had delayed our wedding till Deb had finished her French degree. She would be able to use it in the multi culture area surrounding DC! I was a political…
