7:01:51 PM: New blog entry: July 30th You Served Live Blog http://bit.ly/dSyvy
7:03:53 PM: CJ, Troy and Marcus are all on the show tonight
7:19:20 PM: Dr. Picart is on the shopw
7:19:22 PM: show
7:19:55 PM: Dr. Picart is a military brat, and was a graduate of West Point as an ADA officer. He has also been a professor at West Point
7:21:41 PM: Dr. Jose Picart is the Vice Provost for Diversity and African American Affairs, and Professor of Counselor Education at NC Sate University
7:24:49 PM: To help soldiers with combat experience connect and find support at NC State, there’s a campus chapter of Student Veterans of America
7:27:54 PM: The Yellow ribbon program covers the amount of tuition not covered by the post-9/11 GI BIll program for graduate studies
7:32:01 PM: The Yellow Ribbon program is a VA sponsored program
7:33:43 PM: Dr. Picart is talking about how military veteran students stand out from regular students
7:35:47 PM: NC State is 2nd only to West Point in the number of Army Generals that have graduated from the university
7:42:29 PM: Dr. Picart is also the chairman of Military Veterans Task Force at NC State
7:48:48 PM: NC State has online and distance education capabilities
7:50:31 PM: You can search for Yellow Ribbon higher education schools at http://bit.ly/rRWnY
7:53:02 PM: Dr. Picart is now off the show.
8:05:04 PM: Listening to American Storyteller
8:09:15 PM: Talking with Clayton Merwin from the Untold Stories from Iraq and Afghanistan Graphic Novel
8:24:33 PM: Talking with Katie Glenn, creator of MilitaryBlogKids.com, Military Family Fellow at Families United, and daughter of Colonel Charlie Glenn
8:31:14 PM: Katie attended 3 different High Schools as an Army Brat
8:32:02 PM: According to Katies, military kids tend to be better at social interaction
8:35:27 PM: militarykidsblog.com has bloggers from 12-21
8:45:41 PM: Now talking to Travis G who is the current guest blogger on YouServed.com and he is on twitter as @htkpeeps
8:49:48 PM: Travis was investigated all because of the name of his website, howtokillpeople.com
8:51:07 PM: Cj just asked if Soldiers give up their 1st Amendment rights when they enlist
It’s no secret I’m a huge fan of the online video site, Great Americans. It’s one of the most patriotic places I’ve found that is dedicated to those in this country who seek to do something greater than themselves. It’s about service, sacrifice, patriotism, and love for our fellow citizens. They don’t focus singularly on the military, but include ALL manner of service from the DEA to the local police department and volunteer firefighter.
Site creator and executive director, Matt Daniels, recently answered the question posed in the title of this post that I want to share with you:
Did you know that volunteer fire companies are a uniquely American tradition? In Europe, it would be unthinkable for anyone but the government to engage in the dangerous work of firefighting. But in America, the majority of firefighters are still volunteers. Ordinary Americans save the lives of others in countless communities across America — simply for love of neighbor.
This fact speaks volumes about what has always made America great. As a nation, we have a tradition of ordinary people caring for one another – even to the point of risking their lives. We sometimes forget that in many other societies this would seem absurd. But when we forget that, we forget who we are. That is why I love this video portrait of one volunteer fire company in Maryland. It captures the greatness of the ordinary Americans who volunteer to serve as firefighters in every community in our country:
Notice how most of the firefighters interviewed say that they serve because they saw someone else in their family do the same. That is the power of positive role models – and the reason that that Great Americans exists.
I can’t say it any better. Are you looking for more great videos that will inspire and motivate? Check out Great Americans.
The Sisterhood of the Traveling BDUs is a project approaching it’s first full year. So far, according to the homepage it has impacted 5000 people and has 150 people who are directly involved. What is it and how can you help?
Taken from their site:
The problem? (Excerpt)
The affects of deployment on teenage girls are real; failing classes, depression, lack of confidence, moodiness, eating disorders, and cutting are real dangers. No, our problems are ignored; written off as normal teen angst. However, there is nothing normal about going through the motions of everyday life while your father is God knows where being shot at by terrorists. There is nothing normal about worrying if your dad will even recognize you after he returns home for a long deployment. There is nothing normal about falling asleep without knowing if your loved one is okay; or better yet, even alive. There is nothing normal about father missing his own daughter’s birthday because he is off protecting freedom. However, all of the afore mentioning harms of deployment are becoming common place within the lives of the thousands of military girls across California. We are in your classrooms, neighborhoods, and shopping malls. We may look like you; going to school, participating in sports, hanging out at movies, but we mask many emotional hurts unseen by society as a whole.
The Plan Of Action
The problem is real, but the solution is possible. Representing tens of thousands of military girls across the California, two military teens are creating a change. Kaylei Deakin, an Army teen, and myself, Moranda Hern, an Air Force teen, are passionate about leaving a legacy of helping other military girls who walk in our boots. The change is this: create a conference to bring military girls together to share their struggles, triumphs, and experiences. Furthermore, create a network of social bonds between military girls across the state. Our project, The Sisterhood of the Traveling BDUs, will do just that. The Sisterhood of the Traveling BDUs will bring together 500 military girls from across the state for the first ever weekend conference for military girls to build self esteem, grow in leadership, build up their communities, and empower one another in sisterly support. The first conference will take place on March 5-7, 2010 in Clovis, CA. Initially, the conference will directly impact 500 military girls. However, think about the big picture. The conference will inspire military girls to come and lead their communities. The mantra for this event is, “UNITE, INSPIRE, LEAD.” The Sisterhood of the Traveling BDUs will do just that; bring military girls facing indescribable struggles together; inspire them with the tools to enrich their own lives, the lives of their families, and the lives of those in their communities; and to lead the Sisterhood into the next generation of change.
Watch the video and see if you can help the girls out. They are seeking coporate sponsorship for the conference they are hoping to have next year.
Most people may read the title of this blog and wonder what it has to do with the military. Well it is all about Mr. Salzman and what he has achieved since having his arm blown off by a massive Explosively Formed Penetrator IED. J.R. was one of the first milbloggers I ever started to read when he was in Iraq.
Sgt. J. R. Salzman remembers reaching for his ballistic glasses just as the roadside bomb blew apart his right arm. He remembers being unable to reach the handle of the Humvee’s passenger door and realizing that his arm was instantly shortened. He remembers the look on the face of the medic.
J.R. was wounded while I was in Afghanistan and I remember thinking “wow a pretty famous milblogger just got tore up”. I had no idea of his past and all of his prior accomplishments. I did not know he was essentially a lumberjack and a 6-time logrolling champion. I had knew him as a milblogger in Iraq that wrote interesting and funny stuff.
It wasn’t until I read the stories afterwards that I found out about his logrolling past. I felt bad for him thinking there was no way he would ever enjoy his logrolling passion again. I am so glad that I was wrong. J.R. has fought his way back and is now logrolling again. And not only is he logrolling again, he has in fact won his 7th logrolling championship title. I stand in awe of the way he has fought back and the inspiration he portrays to others. My hat is off to you J.R. and I hope one day I can finally meet you in person. You are an inspire to all soldiers (wounded or not).
There is an old adage that goes “Good fences make good neighbors.” I think it can be taken two different ways — either a person uttering this idiom is fed up with neighbors and only wants a fence nearby, or the person agreeing with this knows that having a clearly marked boundary around their home and the home of their neighbor can prevent future problems. It’s kind of the “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” mentality.
I live in a nice neighborhood. Some neighbors have fences, and some don’t. The one the thing that we all seem to have in common, regardless of the presence of a physical fence, is good strong personal boundaries. Of course those boundaries only give us peace when we are surrounded by others who respect them. This makes for a lot of harmony in the neighborhood.
This topic came up because in the last few months I have had a few friends solicit my advice on how to deal with friends/neighbors who do not respect personal boundaries — and, in turn, they do not have healthy boundaries themselves. My friends are struggling because they are kind and giving, but they have never defined how much is too much for them — they are missing a part of the fence!
People with blurred boundaries can really struggle to find a good balance when they become part of the military community. Military community dwellers share an enormous amount of life’s struggles together. We face separations from our loved one during deployment and training, we face injuries, and sometimes death together. We celebrate the birth of babies and the graduation of young adults, together. We also turn to one another for an empathy that we simply can not find outside of this tightly knit, and extremely necessary sense of community.
There still has to be boundaries though.
There is a distinction between supporting one another and allowing another person to sucker you into carrying the brunt of their daily burden of life. Some people have a gift for making their problems, your problems. Mind you, I am not talking about friends who just need a shoulder to cry on — I am talking about the person who shows up on your door step, completely expecting you to solve a problem they have while totally ignoring the fact that you have your own household to run and manage. This kind of person does not just do this once or twice out of desperation. This is the person who friends will pretend they are not home when she comes calling.
Many wives I know either cave in, and to the detriment of their own families, help. They start to feel resentment, anger, and disgust, but have a hard time turning the person away because of some misplaced guilt or some misplaced sense of responsibility. This is where healthy boundaries come in. Just like a fence that defines your property, healthy boundaries define your limits. There is an old saying “If you never say no, then your yes means nothing!” Being a doormat only gets you walked on!
What are healthy boundaries? Well, there is no special formula to figure those out, but if you are feeling taken advantage of or feeling resentful toward someone who leans too heavily on you, then that’s a good place to start. Start by figuring out exactly why you feel that way. Is it because the other person makes you feel like you have no choice (via guilt trip, surprising you with a request, or dumping and running?). You always have a choice and you can say no. The person may not like it, but that’s the beginning. Real friends understand when you can’t help out or give any more for a while.
Some of us struggle with guilt and feel the need to take care of those around us. I really identify with that, and it was not until I was much older that I learned how to say no and how to enforce good boundaries. I struggled with feeling selfish or mean when I would turn people down when they asked for help. Again, I am not talking about a friend in crisis — I am talking about people who live in crisis, and want you to constantly bail them out.
A good illustration to consider is one I have used before when writing on similar topics. When you board an airplane and are being given instructions on what to do if cabin pressure is lost, the flight attendant always tell you to help yourself first. If the masks drop and you have a child or an incapacitated person sitting next to you, then you are to put your mask on first. Why? Because if you pass out who will help the others? You are an important and vital member of your family and community. If you get burned out and resentful because another person is mismanaging her life, then how will you be there for your kids and your spouse? Priorities are another good indicator of where your boundaries need to be.
If you have someone in your life that you feel you need to draw your boundaries with, here are a few things to consider:
1. She’s not going to like it when you tell her no for the first time. She will probably take it personally. All you can do is state your position clearly and kindly — you can not control how she will respond. Don’t own it. Let her own her own behavior and her own response.
2. Don’t just stop dead in your tracks. Let’s say she’s using you for babysitting all the time and you are burned out. Simply tell her you are tired and can not babysit past (insert a date/time here). Maybe when you tell her the news you can hand her a piece of paper with the number to child care facilities or other known babysitters in the area.
3. Now, figure out for yourself what is reasonable and what is not. This varies from person to person depending on a lot of factors. What can you really offer? How many people can you help? When you offer to help what is your motivation? Do not say yes out of guilt or a sense of false obligation.
4. Honesty is always the best policy. Honesty does not have to be brutal, but it can be if she does not seem to get where you are coming from. Always bear in mind your goal is to preserve your dignity and preserve a relationship or connection if at all possible.
Do what you can do to be a good neighbor. If someone is not respecting your boundaries, then you respect yourself and reinforce them. Saying no is not being mean. You may do the other person a good favor by modeling healthy behaviors for her.
This story has been running around the internet for a few weeks now, but considering it’s really only being reported on in military circles I figured that maybe it was time to bring it out into the light of day.
If you don’t have time to click the link and read the story, here’s a quick synopsis:
Army Reserve Major Stefan Frederick Cook – who, for the purposes of this story we’ll call Major DoucheNozzle – volunteered to go to Afghanistan as an Individual Mobilization Augmentee. That “augmentee” part is pretty important to this story because it means that Maj. DoucheNozzle volunteered to work outside of his career field for this deployment. Volunteered is also important because it means a mobilization order didn’t come down from the top stating that Maj. DoucheNozzle would be forced to leave friends and family and spend a year in a foreign country. Volunteered means that this Major took a look at the deployment roster and said, without coercion, “That looks okay, I think I’ll go do that.”
a brief look through the Major’s rose colored glasses
Apparently after googling “Having fun in Afghanistan” Maj. DoucheNozzle realized that the closest Disney Resort is thousands of miles away. Promptly realizing that he might have made a mistake in his interpretation of “deploying to an active combat zone” he balked at his orders and decided that if he couldn’t bring cartoon souvenirs home to the family, he wasn’t going. As an Individual Augmentee, and a volunteer, the Maj. had the opportunity to revoke his orders at his whim. He could have walked into his mobilization office and yelled, “FOOLED YOU, I AINT GOING NOWHERE!” and walked out a man who wouldn’t end up spending a year picking sand out of crevices where sand should never go.
Instead, in a move to prove that he has bigger balls than the current administration, Maj. DoucheNozzle grabbed himself a lawyer and some press attention and loudly declared, “I aint going because Obama aint the President!”
AND HE GOT AWAY WITH IT.
A statement issued by LT. COl Maria Quona spokeswoman for the U.S. Army Human Resources Command-St. Louis, said “Cook was no longer expected to report today to MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., for mobilization to active duty, according to a report in the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer of Georgia.”
cajones THIS BIG!
Now there’s obviously a couple of groups that need to be addressed following this debacle. First is the United States Military.
Really guys? You’re going to let him get away with this? I understand that this was a voluntary deployment and he could have pulled out at any given time, but the precedent that you are setting is ABYSMAL! Certainly most people would want to get out of a deployment because of the familial hardship but you have officially opened the floodgates for any crackpot theory to be a viable excuse to get out of deployment. And unless you’re willing to wade into the murky waters of the tinfoil hat crowd in order to judge the relevance of every whack job conspiracy theory, be prepared to offer an easy out to anyone claiming any of the following:
1. Dinosauroid-like Alien Reptiles are dominating the World and I’m not fighting THEIR war!
2. 9-11 started all of this and since September 11 was orchestrated by the U. S. government the war is immoral.
3.Hitler is still alive living on his moon base and that’s the real threat we should be fighting.
4.My underpants out rank you and they say I don’t have to go. (followed by a crisp salute to their nether regions)
I hope you’re ready to deal with this, because the only thing most people took away from this news story is “crazy talk gets you out of a deployment.”
And finally; Major DoucheNozzle himself. Aside from being a disappointment to your superiors, and a chickenshit to your subordinates, I really only have one thing to say to you:
I got you a present.
It’s a bag of dicks.
And you can eat as many as you want.
Travis i would’ve gone easier if he’d just admitted he was scared
Military Basebook, a Facebook application for military members, is growing by nearly 200 members each day.
RELEASE:
Military members are finding it easier than ever to stay connected to family members and friends across the globe thanks to “Basebook,” a new social networking tool that utilizes social networking site Facebook.
The web-based application allows members to post information about when and where they’ve served and connect with others who served on the same bases or with those who have similar military backgrounds or experiences.
Basebook has already struck a chord with hundreds of military families. More than 1,000 people have added the application in its first three weeks, with military spouses helping lead the charge.
“Long distances and constant relocations can take a toll on military members and their families,” said Basebook creator Josh Kayser. “Basebook is a great way for loved ones to stay in touch with their soldiers. But it’s also a simple way to create an online community rooted in mutual support.”
Basebook members begin by creating a personal profile, which can include information on medals, ribbons, badges and other awards they’ve received. Next, members input their base history, listing where and when they have served or if they are preparing to relocate. The application then helps match members by their base histories or even their similar awards and honors.
In addition, Basebook also features special pages for its most popular military bases. More than 600 people have already become fans of Fort Bragg in North Carolina, which is home to the 82nd Airborne Division and the U.S. Army Special Operations command.
The application is open to all active and retired military members and their families. Users can log on via Facebook or through Basebook’s website at www.militarybasebook.com.
In a move to assure the American people that it can prioritize its workload with all the grace of a monkey banging on a type writer; Congress recently decided to draw its attention away from real problems and focus on making a change to something that I’m sure has been bugging many of us: The Homeland Security Terror Alert Graphic.
The system was created by Homeland Security Presidential Directive 3, six months after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, to provide a “comprehensive and effective means to disseminate information regarding the risk of terrorist acts to Federal, State, and local authorities and to the American people.” It’s basically the Crayola Crayon Color Chart for American Populace Freak Out. I can understand, to an extent, why Congress would want to ratify this visual metric of American Security so I have decided to help them out in their design process. I have combed the internet in search of design alterations to The Homeland Security Terror Alert System in order to give Congress a look at all of the options available.
Some of the ones I found were hyperbolic in both color scheme and warning convention.
Some of them reflected the pop-culture sensibilities of our modern world
And for reasons I have to been unable to discern; one of them revolved around hot dogs.
And while each of these designs has merit I think that they may still be overly complicated and in some cases confusing. I believe that any infographic used to alert the American public to possible danger should be both simple and to the point. Which is why I’ve designed my own version that I’ll be sending off to my Congressman/woman/cymbal banging monkey as soon as this post hits the internet.
Following this land mark decision Congress has promised that it will appoint a $14million dollar committee to review and revise the kids menu at Denny’s to include more pictures, a wider selection of food choices and, according to one Congressman who wanted to remain nameless, “A maze that doesn’t take an hour and a half to finish, causing me to lose all my concentration and spill my ‘moons over my hammy’ all over my lap.”
On May 29, 2009, Staff Sgt. Scott Kenyon was awarded the Silver Star for actions in Anbar Province, Iraq.
Under cover of darkness, Staff Sgt. Scott Kenyon and his squad moved up approximately 200 yards undetected, closing in on two Iraqi insurgents planting a roadside bomb. As Staff Sgt. Kenyon was going around a corner with a row of roadside shops, he was spotted and engaged by one insurgent with a silenced 9mm submachine gun.
Unaware that he was spotted and unable to hear the muffled rounds whizzing through the air, Staff Sgt. Kenyon’s head was suddenly turned to the side by a bullet that struck his Kevlar helmet, and struck a second
time in his chest plate. Upon the impact of the rounds and uninjured, Staff Sgt. Kenyon quickly returned fire hitting both insurgents while continuing to advance. Staff Sgt. Kenyon hit the Iraqi with the submachine gun in his wrist forcing the weapon to clatter away and wrestled him to submission while the other was killed by another squad.
For his exceptional gallantry in action, Staff Sgt. Scott Kenyon is this week’s Warrior-Soldier.
