Archive for April, 2009
April 30, 2009 By Claire
Posted in Spouse and Family
I have a good friend whose husband rejoined the military recently. Her husband was a former Marine, but went active Army a year ago. When he was packing up the goodies they purchased for his packing list for OCS she asked me what to expect when he left. His time in the Marines was before he met and married his wife, so she had not experienced him being gone for any length of time outside of a full day’s work. Oh boy… where do you even begin?!
She was in for quite a huge life adjustment, and I think that any military spouse will tell you that preparation for a separation is necessary, but not sufficient. Every separation is a little different, so even experience is not the fool proof way to prepare yourself. You gain knowledge, wisdom and insight during each separation, but you have to go through an adjustment every time — there is no way around it.
There are so many things we could talk about in regards to adjustments around a separation, but the first thing that came to my mind to warn my friend about was the imminent loss of sleep. This is a common problem for those left on the home-front. I think that loss of sleep hit me before anything else, and if it’s not addressed it can make the other stressors of separations and deployments even worse.
According to experts stress is the number one reason for sleep loss. Of course not all stress is bad. Sometimes you lose sleep for nights before your soldier is due to come home or you are due to go and see him. Sleep loss is not good, and over time it can have negative effects on your health.
Although stress is the leading factor, it is not the only factor to consider when facing insomnia. According to the APA other factors such as:
Caffeine or alcohol consumption, Exercise or mind stimulating work too close to bedtime can also be a culprit. Other things such as shift work, change in routine or schedule (boy doesn’t that happen!) and environmental factors such as room temperature and noise levels can all impact the length and quality of your sleep.
So, what’s a girl to do? The advice I gave my friend helped me through, and she said it helped her too. She also told me about a few things she tried as well that helped her get through those long tiring nights.
1. You’ve heard me preach it before, but I can’t say it enough… exercise! Get at least 30-minutes of cardio workout (with your doctor’s approval first, of course) 3-days a week. The more often you work out the better you sleep. If you decide to incorporate strength training, be sure to take an ibuprofen or other anti-inflammatory after your workout to help with any aches and pains.
2. Keep a journal, a diary or have a friend you can call. If something is on your mind write it down or talk about it. Your spouse and confidant is gone and that can cause you to sometimes feel very isolated. Your sounding board is not available, so you may need a friend’s shoulder more often now. Be sure to pick a friend who will give you honest but merciful feedback. You don’t need a negative Nelly filling your mind with more concerns.
3. If you are a person of faith, pray. Read words that comfort you! Reach out to others and let them pray for you too.
4. Keep a routine. Do your best to keep the kids on a routine and keep yourself on a routing. Put the kids to bed first, and then have a set time for you to rest and have some down time. You have earned it. Sip a cup of caffeine-free tea, soak in a hot tub, read a book, etc. Do something to help yourself unwind, but keep it to a consistent time frame each night.
5. When all else fails, have a back-up plan. I struggled through many sleepless nights when my husband was gone and my son was deployed. I would wake up feeling scared or anxious and I was all alone. I blogged about it at times. I wrote letters to my guys sometimes. I listened to music or watched my favorite movie. Do not turn the television on if you are worried about your loved one in a war zone. Don’t watch the news. Watch something that will get your mind off of things and help you to be sleepy again.
6. Finally, leave sleeping for the bedroom and work for another room. This is called “Sleep Hygiene” and the belief is that those who keep sleep and sex alone for the bedroom will sleep better than those who bring reams of work into the room with them. Leave work at the desk. Also, be sure your rooms is quiet, dark and cool. A TV in the background may help you fall asleep but it will wake you up later.
If you go for nights on end and can’t get adequate rest, schedule an appointment with your doctor. It’s hard because when you are home alone with your children you will not be a good candidate for taking sleeping medication. If you need sleep medication to regulate your sleep again and you have little ones in the home, see if you can get a friend or family member to stay the night with you until you know how you are effected by it. That way if your little ones need a wide-awake and alert adult in the middle of the night or there’s an emergency, you have help.
Sleep is more than a good component of your beauty regimen. It is vital for physical, mental and emotional health. One bad night isn’t going to hurt you, but a whole deployment’s worth is another story!
Good-night, and good-luck!
No Comments »
By Troy
Posted in MilBlogger Interviews
4:44:20 PM: New blog entry: April 30 You Served Radio LiveBlog http://tinyurl.com/df664r
4:52:09 PM: Show starts in 8 minutes
5:04:31 PM: show is on, playing disclaimer
5:08:55 PM: talking to Scott Kesterson live from Afghanistan right now
5:13:38 PM: Scott has seen the Afghan Army Kandak progress really improve
5:16:05 PM: The Afghan Army is starting to show discipline during operations and have command and control on the ground
5:21:41 PM: @scott_kesterson just told us that the ANA professionalism is putting pressure on the ANP to do better
5:23:39 PM: @scott_kesterson is talking COIN-CLEAR, HOLD, BUILD
5:26:35 PM: Callers are calling in to ask @scott_kesterson questions
5:30:29 PM: @scott_kesterson just pointed out that if an Afghan lives to 60, then they are pretty old because of the life expectancy
5:41:00 PM: New blog entry: Sleep per chance… http://tinyurl.com/cem896
5:41:06 PM: Greyhawk from mudvillegazette.com is called in asking questions of @scott_kesterson
5:44:17 PM: Scott is announcing the distro plan for #AtWar
5:48:03 PM: @scott_kesterson is talking about the music in #atwar
6:09:44 PM: Talking with Wesley Gray, author of http://is.gd/vJhf
6:15:04 PM: Talking about how Iraqi Army abuses their own people
6:15:35 PM: The muslim culture is much more different than ours
6:29:50 PM: lots of callers on tonight’s show. About to start talking to Mark Baker, cartoonist of PVT Murphy’s Law
6:38:55 PM: Talking with Mark Baker about how PVT Murphy started out
6:50:39 PM: Will Murphy get promoted or busted next?
7:02:10 PM: Mark Baker was a great guest. check out http://www.pvtmurphy.com
7:03:04 PM: Closed the show with Home Again from Queensryche. Thanks for following along and hope you are listening next week, Thursday 7-9pm EST
7:03:18 PM: Goodnight All, This is You Served out…
No Comments »
By Troy
Posted in Life in the Military, MilBlogger Interviews, Podcast
Tonight we will be catching up with film-maker and embedded freelance journalist/blogger, Scott Kesterson, live from Afghanistan. Scott’s film, At War, was just shown at the Annual Milblog Conference last weekend and is showing at the Buffalo-Niagara Film Festival this weekend. He has been out on missions the last few days and will be giving us a fresh perspective of how things are going on the front lines of the Global War on Terror.
We are also talking with Mark Baker, creator of the popular Army Times cartoon “PVT Murphy’s Law” (http://www.pvtmurphy.com/). Mark and CJ are old friends so it should be a good time to find out any dirt on CJ from the past. We will be talking about his very famous comic strip, the feedback he gets about it and how Murphy has grown over the years from a Private to a Sergeant.
Last but not least, Wesley Gray, author of “EMBEDDED: A Marine Corps Advisor Inside the Iraqi Army” will join CJ and Troy to talk about his book and the story he is trying to tell the world through this book.
No Comments »
By You Served Editorial Staff
Posted in News, Uncategorized
For those of you not on CJ’s email list, you may have yet to see his article in the Washington Times. Congrats CJ, from everyone with You Served!
We just hope you still have time to remember your old pals once you’ve gone big time with a nationally syndicated column and a popular radio show. You’re on the way . . .
image courtesy of the Washington Times
No Comments »
April 26, 2009 By CJ
Posted in MilBlogger Interviews, Military History, Top Posts, Why We Serve
Saturday was really the ONLY day of the Milblog conference, but Troy and I got in early to be able to attend some of the events and spread our message of You Served domination. So, when I say “Day 2” it’s really Day 1 – the only day. Since I already did a Day 1 post, that would be quite confusing and I make you as confused writing as I am on a daily basis, our entire societal structure would collapse in on itself, anarchy would prevail, and the nature of man would be forever confounded to the pursuit of learning how to create fire all over again. So, for the purposes of simplicity and out of a sense of service to mankind, I titled this post “Day 2”.
Continue reading this post…
No Comments »
April 25, 2009 By Troy
Posted in Uncategorized
McQ of O&O moderates the 3rd panel
David Stanford moderates Panel #2
MG Oates talks to the Conference live from Iraq
Panel #2, Beyond Milblogging
2 Comments »
By Troy
Posted in Uncategorized
Lyndy Kyzer from Army PAO asks a question of the panel.
1st Panel of the day, Back to our roots
3rd panel of the day, Taking Care of our Veterans
1 Comment »
By Claire
Posted in Podcast, Spouse and Family
CONDUCT A LETTER WRITING CAMPAIGN FOR OPERATION GRATITUDE
American troops are deployed in hostile and remote regions of the world, including the Middle East, Afghanistan, Africa and on ships throughout international waters. The physical conditions they must endure are difficult and they may be separated from loved ones for long periods of time. OPERATION GRATITUDE seeks to lift troops’ morale, and bring a smile to their faces by sending care packages addressed to individual service members deployed overseas. These care packages contain food, toiletries, entertainment items, and personal letters of appreciation, all wrapped with good wishes of love and support.
Operation Gratitude sends 100,000+ packages per year.
PURPOSE
The purpose of a ‘Letters to Heroes’ letter writing campaign is to provide quality, heartfelt letters to include in each Operation Gratitude care package.
HEART
The Heart of this program is to bring a smile to the faces of the Service Members who receive and
read the letters and cards.
WHAT TO WRITE ABOUT
Be thankful ~~ share a little bit of yourself with them. Ask questions (but not about death or killing).
Avoid politics completely and religion in excess. Saying you pray for them is OK – don’t over do it.
It’s all about heart, appreciation and respect.
Ask yourself: “Will this letter bring a smile to someone’s face?”
BE CREATIVE
Involve your whole organization or school ~ award prizes for the most letters turned in. Students or group members can conduct their own campaign with family and friends. Feel free to include your child’s artwork, but bear in mind our boxes are only 8″ x 10″ so please keep them under that size to avoid folding.
Please avoid glitter.
MORE HELPFUL INFORMATION
No stamps are needed. ~~ Do not seal the envelopes.
Sample salutations include: Dear Service Member, Dear Hero, Dear Brave One, etc.
Please include your own contact information (mail or email) so recipients can choose to reply.
A self addressed envelope included with the letter is thoughtful… no stamps needed.
Hand Written letters or cards with nice notes are most appreciated.
All letters will be screened by Operation Gratitude, so don’t seal them.
Don’t be concerned about how many you send, but about the heart in each letter.
If you do not receive a reply, don’t be discouraged – remember they are busy.
WHERE TO SEND
OPERATION GRATITUDE
16444 Refugio Road
Encino, California 91436
For more information: www.operationgratitude.com
2 Comments »
By CJ
Posted in Uncategorized
UPDATE: The chat room bombed, so just follow us on Twitter @YouServed!
Liveblogging this year will take place at the You Served Radio Show and Podcast chat room. Join us at www.blogtalkradio.com/youserved!
No Comments »
By CJ
Posted in Charities/Contests, Military News, News, Top Posts, Top Posts - My Post, Top Posts - Shared
I arrived safely last night here in majestic D.C. for the annual Milblog Conference. As you know, Troy and I are covering the event exclusively for You Served. Hopefully, you caught the radio show last night.
Today kicked off the pre-event festivities. Some of us, myself being one of them, were invited to the White House to meet with members of President Obama’s National Security Council. Before we walked into the Roosevelt Room for our meeting, I used the Presidential Toilet again. There’s just something cool about taking a leak in the bathroom right outside the Oval Office!
This is me in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, literally right next door to the Oval Office.
Me outside the West Wing of the White House before the meeting.
Because the meeting was off the record, I’ll suffice it to say that we met with Senior Administration Officials. The reason we’re keeping it secretive is that we wanted to be candid in our discussions, which I can talk about.
The White House reached out to us as military bloggers because we tend to have our ear on the pulse of what is going on within the services at the troop level. The messages we put across on these blogs are unfiltered and told from a raw, rounded perspective. There is no Public Affairs “spin” or party line glossing over on most milblogs. The administration wanted to give us the philosophy of its national security policy and see what kind of input we may have. Can you believe it? Military bloggers are actually being sought out to provide some input to national security strategy. Not policy, mind you, but strategy. Only the President establishes policy and we are NOT in the advisor chain.
We spoke about the pirate issue, but didn’t get into the nuts and bolts of all the decision-making behind what really happened. One of the issues I brought up for discussion were all the gaffes by the administration and the perception is that they don’t care about the troops. With the scrapped possibility of charging veterans for private insurance, the DHS secretary calling us potential terrorists, the release of the OLC memos, scrapping military projects at a time of war and the upcoming release of yet more Abu Ghraib photos (still not sure what good that will do), it’s not too hard to draw a line straight to the administration and come to the conclusion that they don’t have our best interests at heart. I asked what the administration is doing to do more than just talk about supporting the troops and actually encourage military service. The answer was that this was just perception, not reality, on our parts. President Obama has met numerous times with Wounded Warriors that he has invited to the White House. But, I pressed, why isn’t the President going out there and directly speaking out about how his administration has falsely portrayed our troops thanks to DHS? While a political, non-direct answer was given, I could tell that I made my point and rested my case. And here’s the kicker, I have a “glimmer of hope” that what I had to say will be seriously taken into consideration.
To his benefit, however, President Obama has chosen a recently separated Naval Special Warfare officer, Matthew Flavin, to head the new Veteran Policy and Wounded Warrior Committee – or something like that. Matt served tours in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq. Having him and other military detailed personnel on the NSC can’t hurt. General Jones was another good choice, I think.
After the meeting at the White House, several of us proceeded directly to the Pentagon. Lindy Kyzer, from Army Public Affairs, had arranged a special tour of the Pentagon for milbloggers. After the tour, we met with the Secretary of the Army, Pete Geren. He noted that he hadn’t fully appreciated the military blogosphere until the whole Dan Rather incident pertaining to President Bush’s service records. Shortly before the 2004 elections in which President Bush won reelection, 60 Minutes, with Dan Rather as the anchor, presented documents challenging President’s Bush’s service in the Air National Guard. Thanks to milbloggers, myself included, these documents were exposed for the forgeries they were.
Geren was impressed that the man who was at the top of his game wasn’t brought down from the traditional adversaries in competing networks. He was brought down by bloggers. We had succeeded where others had failed and it cost him dearly and it only a day or two. When he became Secretary of the Army, he decided he needed to know more and instantly began a drive to reach out to us. The Army is leaps and bounds ahead of the services because of him.
We also met with the others senior Public Affairs officials from each branch of the military: Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard. The contrasts amongst the services couldn’t be more start. On one end of the spectrum you have the Marine Corps who is still looking at what to do with the whole blogging situation. They are taking a sort of wait and see approach by studying how the other services are handling it and plan to take the best practices from each for their policy. On the complete opposite side is the Air Force who seems to be micromanaging every aspect of Air Force bloggers with the publication of their “New Media and Air Force” guide. It’s 31 pages of “do this” and “don’t do this” micromanagement. Meanwhile, the Army is so organized and advanced in accepting the blogging community that it just sits back and enjoys the show. The Navy seemed like it could not care less about the medium and basically told they have no time to deal with our requests. “I have to choose between the New York Times, the Pensacola Tribune, or a blog,” said Admiral Thorpe while raising his arms like a scale and placing the MSM on a higher plain.
After the nearly two-hour meeting at the Pentagon, thankfully punctuated with some of Lindy Kyzer’s absolutely delectable cookies, we headed back to the hotel to prep for the screening of the “At War” film. Check out the You Served Twitter (@YouServed) for my remarks about that. Otherwise, I’ll leave those thoughts for Troy to flush out.
The panels begin tomorrow, so I’ll have more then. It’s almost 4am and I need to get some sleep!
7 Comments »
