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Happy to be Home! DoDLive Blogger Roundtable
Photo Credit: Real Warrior Campaign“Happy to be Home”Normally you start a blog with the beginning and work your way to the end; today, I started with the closing comments of Master Sergeant Aaron Tippett, US Army. The Blogger Roundtable had the opportunity to interview and listen to the comments of an American hero and how he dealt with the challenges of PTSD. Listen up military spouses! He responded to his spouse after she saw the cumulative effects of multiple deployments. Stay in touch with your spouse! His advise for spouses was, “be there, listen, be supportive,” but don’t push it, each soldier is different. After his wife encouraged him to…
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Are You Making the Right Choices for Alcohol Use?
See Below for Photo CreditDecisions! We make them every day – active duty, reserves, guard members, retirees, military family members – all of us are faced with small or critical decisions every day of our lives. Sometimes, they are almost routine; like, what shoes do I wear today? Well, that might be a bigger decision for some than others. Sometimes a decision leaves us with a ‘I wish I had done it differently” or “What if” or a WTH (I prefer “heck”) moment or maybe, “Wow, I made the right choice”. Alcohol (for everyone over 21) can be a big decision. If you have not reached your 21st birthday, you…
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A Chaplain’s Walk through Post Traumatic Stress (PTSD) – DoD Blogger Roundtable
Summer is here! Our Nation somberly celebrated Memorial Day with parades, cemetery services, speeches about sacrifice and news articles and opinion pieces about service. We also had picnics, barbecues, time off from work and family gatherings. During one of our family times the topic of discussion centered around Post Traumatic Stress (PTSD) and how it was treated from WWI and WWII through Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and now Afghanistan. With a number of veterans in the family ranging in age from WWII, Korea and Vietnam, plus the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan; it was a lively discussion. I was reminded of Colonel Chris Robinson of the Deputy Director for Psychological…
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Week in Review: June 12 – 18, 2011 (Military News) #MilitaryMon
Popular Military Family Articles for the week of June 12 – 18 on MilitaryAvenue.comHow Did I Miss this Great Information Resource?: The USAA Educational Foundation: What do you know about the USAA Educational Foundation? I have been a USAA member for over 40 years and have to admit that I knew little about this non profit resource provider! They are totally separate from USAA since USAA donated a one time gift to establish the foundation and have completely separate missions, leadership and absolutely no ties for products or services, etc. With an opportunity to talk to Barbara Gentry, the President and Steve Finley, the Director of the USAA Educational Foundation,…
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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…
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You Are Not Alone! Help for Mental Health Issues such as PTSD and TBI – DoD Roundtable
You Are Not Alone!” “Every warrior is exposed to combat stress of some sort!” “Reaching out is a strength, not a weakness!” The DoD Bloggers Roundtable met with three great panel members to talk about the signs, symptoms and treatment of psychological health concerns, such as PTSD, and traumatic brain injury. Staff Sgt. Meg Krause, retired Commander René A Campos and Lt Col Christopher Robinson all brought a different prospective to the table and shared their story/information with me and the other members of the Roundtable. Staff Sgt. Krause (US Army Reserve) suffered with PTSD after a tour in Iraq and during a challenging time of her life began showing…
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Summer Time Safety for the Military Family
Summer is really here and with it comes those outdoor activities we all love to participate in and enjoy to the maximum! Because of their youth and nature, I think military personnel and their families tend to do adventurous activities. The kind that keep you young and give you an exuberance for life! However, they also tend to be the type of activity that can lead to injury or even death in some instances! So, I’d like to share a few tips on how to avoid some of those injuries (not foolproof but they never are). Some of these are based on training I received on active duty and some…
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Roller Coasters
What a week! I have never been on such an amazingly, terrifying roller-coaster in my life. But this isn’t one you find at Cedar Point or Disney World. No this is emotional. Saturday was my husband’s going-away party for his upcoming deployment. Friends and families came to wish him farewell. Of course I looked at it more as “See ya later” then “Good-bye”. I had a nice time. Our neighbors were here, my family came in from Michigan, Hubby’s family was here (most happen to live in the area) and friends from work and small-group all dropped by. We had a Taco Bar with all of the fixings. My mom…
