Taking Care of Pets While Deployed
Posted by elaine.sanchez in Family Matters on January 27, 2012
Air Force Master Sgt. Robert Disney and his wife, Tess, gather their dogs, Sasha, Minnie and Wall-E, for a photo at their home, Feb. 24, 2011. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Jamal D. Sutter
Guest blogger Navy Lt. Theresa Donnelly, of U.S. Pacific Command, is the owner of Hawaii Military Pets, which provides pet resources for military families. She’s offered to share her pet-related knowledge in a series of blogs for Family Matters.
By Theresa Donnelly
Jan. 26, 2012
Although the wars are drawing down, the deployment schedules for our men and women in uniform aren’t easing up. Troops continue to meet multiple operational needs, such as theater security exercises with partner nations, Navy ship cruises and other training requirements.
Many military pet parents struggle with what to do with their forever friend when serving our nation away from home. It can be tough to stay focused on the mission at hand if family affairs aren’t in order.
Enter our partners in the nonprofit sector. For the past several years, many organizations have stepped up to the plate, providing foster pet services to our deploying troops.
“Military members have a hundred things to worry about when deployment or training comes up. The last thing they should have to worry about is the care of their pets while they’re away,” said Alisa Johnson, a Marine Corps officer and president of Dogs on Deployment, a nonprofit organization matching service members needing a foster pet family with volunteers who have agreed to take in their animals.
Alisa and her husband, Shawn, a Navy officer, observed the challenges military families face when it comes to pet care, which led to the creation of this service.
“We’re especially concerned with those military members that may live on one coast, while all their family lives on another, limiting those that they can rely on in their times of need,” Alisa said.
Since they launched the organization in June, more than 140 families have volunteered to be “boarders” and 20 dogs have been placed in temporary foster care.
Along with national organizations helping troops — including Dogs on Deployment and Guardian Angels for Soldier’s Pet — many local animal shelters are answering the call of duty and creating programs in their communities to help deployed service members with pet care.
The Hawaiian Humane Society’s Pets of Patriots program provides pet care assistance to military personnel deploying on short notice due to war. Families living on Oahu can sign up to be foster parents, while military pet owners provide food and medical care while away from their duty station. The society assists with the written agreements, provides sample forms and helps find suitable volunteers.
Additionally, the San Diego County Humane Society offered a low-cost seminar in December for military families to provide information on pet resources for relocation and deployment.
If you need a home for your pet while deployed, check with your local animal shelter to see if they might have a military pet outreach program, contact a national foster military pet organization or see if your command has a spouse communication network to seek temporary pet parents. The military in our own community can act as our second family, helping to provide resources for our furry friends.
Site Connects Kids Dealing With Deployment
Posted by elaine.sanchez in Family Matters on January 26, 2012
By Elaine Sanchez
Jan. 26, 2012
The Defense Department has launched a new website intended to bolster military children as they deal with deployments and the other stressors of military life.
Military Kids Connect offers military kids — from children to tweens and teens — an online community where they can learn about deployments, share feelings with each other and develop coping skills.
“We felt by connecting military kids with each other, through providing peer-to-peer support, they’d be able to build on the resilience they have already and learn new coping skills to deal with deployments,” explained Kelly Blasko, a psychologist from the DOD’s National Center for Telehealth and Technology. The center, dubbed T2, developed the site.
The site features tools for all stages of the deployment cycle — from predeployment to reintegration — and is packed with activities, games, information and resources.
To best suit kids’ age-specific needs, the developers created tracks for three different age groups: 6 to 8, 9 to 12 and 13 to 17. With kids who fall in two of those age groups — I have an 8- and 9-year-old — I decided to check out the site for myself.
One of my favorite features was the interactive map. Kids can click on the country where their loved one is deployed and learn about the area and culture. To further keep them informed, they can view the weather and time there and have it appear on their home page whenever they log on.
To foster friendships and connections, older kids can register for a message board where they can talk and share their experiences with other military kids around the world.
Another section is dedicated to videos of military families, with kids of all ages talking about their deployment experiences.
While the site is geared for the younger generation, adults shouldn’t hesitate to log on. A parent module explains behavioral changes they should keep an eye out for and parenting strategies to help their kids weather the tough times. Another module helps educators recognize in-school behaviors that may indicate deployment-related anxiety.
Blasko pointed one of the best aspects of the site. Kids learn coping skills, she said, “they can carry through their whole life.”
Blogger Joins Bidens’ West Coast Trip
Posted by elaine.sanchez in Family Matters on January 23, 2012
By Elaine Sanchez
Jan. 23, 2012
Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, participates in a roundtable discussion with educators, students and military family members at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, Jan. 19, 2012. The discussion spotlighted programs created through the Building Capacity in Military-connected Schools project, a consortium of eight military-connected school districts, the Department of Defense Education Activity and the University of Southern California. DOD photo by Elaine Sanchez
Last week, I traveled to California to join Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, as she embarked on a West Coast Joining Forces tour.
Dr. Biden had arrived with her husband a day earlier than me, so I caught up with her at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where she was participating in a roundtable discussion on military kids and how schools across the nation can better support them.
She sat amid a group of educators, social workers and students involved in the Building Capacity in Military-connected Schools project, which helps to create military-friendly environments in schools and to raise awareness of their challenges among educators.
The participants took turns sharing their consortium success stories for Biden. Gena Truitt, a prior service member, military mom and social work intern, talked about how she created the Pride Club at an elementary school to foster camaraderie among military kids.
Robin Williamson, a Navy wife and school liaison officer, described how she helped to create transition rooms in 11 military-impacted San Diego-area schools. Families use the rooms to learn about school and community resources, and to create connections with other military families.
Biden wrapped up the roundtable by thanking the educators for their work and for rising to the Joining Forces challenge. “What you’re doing is a perfect example of how we want to change things in America, where every state, every school district has programs like this,” she said. “You’re doing exactly what needs to be done.”
After the roundtable, I drove down the coast to Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, where Dr. Biden was headed the next day.
In the morning, I followed the media trail of cars down a very long and winding dirt road to the infantry immersion trainer. This state-of-the-art training complex simulates situations Marines may encounter in Afghanistan.
We were escorted to the top of a building, across the way from Dr. Biden, to gain a bird’s eye view of a live-fire exercise.
A Marine patrol entered a simulated Afghan bazaar and, moments later, a loud explosion echoed in the air. A female Afghan, whose leg had been “blown off,” fell to the ground screaming in pain. The Marines rushed to help her as a rocket-propelled grenade, shot from Biden’s rooftop, flew past.
The overall experience was incredible, Dr. Biden told us on her way out.
“It’s been an amazing experience to be here,” she said. “It made me realize just how difficult it is for our military when they go to Afghanistan and when they went to Iraq.
“Americans should be really proud,” she added.
New Spouse Employment Programs Unveiled at Career Fair
Posted by elaine.sanchez in Family Matters on January 19, 2012
By Elaine Sanchez
Jan. 18, 2012
Last week, I joined more than 1,000 career-seeking military spouses at the Hiring Our Heroes Military Spouse Career Forum in downtown Washington, D.C.
With more than 100 military-friendly employers on hand, the fair, hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Hiring Our Heroes program, offered D.C.-area spouses a wealth of career opportunities, as well an opportunity to hone their resume and interview skills.
The chamber has plans to host 100 veteran and spouse career fairs across the nation in a year, but this was the first dedicated solely to military spouses.
“Your presence here in such huge numbers sends a powerful message to the country of the value of its military spouses,” said Laura Dempsey, senior advisor of military spouse employment for the chamber’s Hiring Our Heroes program and a 14-year military spouse.
While the fair was geared for local spouses, several organizations unveiled new employment programs and products aimed at helping spouses worldwide.
Dempsey announced the chamber’s new Military Spouse Business Alliance, composed of nonprofit, government and corporate partners dedicated to lifting military spouses out of unemployment and underemployment.
Medical Colleges Step Up Care for Troops, Families
Posted by elaine.sanchez in Family Matters on January 12, 2012
Jan. 12, 2012
The nation’s medical colleges are the latest to join forces with First Lady Michelle Obama to ensure the best care for troops, veterans and their families.
The first lady yesterday announced the commitment, which is aimed at improving training for civilian health care providers so they can better care for veterans and their families. It also calls for more research on combat-related injuries.
The Association of American Medical Colleges and the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine, with a combined 130 schools between them, have signed on to use their expertise in education, research and clinical care to better serve the military population.
“Today the nation’s medical colleges are committing to create a new generation of doctors, medical schools and research facilities to make sure our heroes receive the care worthy of their military service,” Obama said in an article written by my AFPS colleague Lisa Daniel.
As part of the initiative, Daniel reported, the associations pledged to:
– Train their medical students as well as their current physicians, faculty and staff to better diagnose and treat veterans and military families;
– Develop new research and clinical trials on traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder;
– Share their information and best practices with each other through a collaborative Web forum; and
– Coordinate with the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments.
This new commitment is one of many spurred by the Joining Forces campaign. The first lady and Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, launched Joining Forces last year to raise awareness of troops, veterans and their families, and to call on all sectors of society to support them.
“In a time of war, when our troops and their families are sacrificing so much, we all should be doing everything we can to serve them as well as they are serving this country,” Obama said yesterday. “It’s an obligation that extends to every single American. And, it’s an obligation that does not end when a war ends and troops return home. In many ways, that’s when it begins.”
Obama acknowledged the difficulties troops and their families sometimes face when they return home from war.
An estimated one in six Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans return home with post-traumatic stress or depression, and at least 4,000 have had at least a moderate-grade brain injury, the first lady said. While some seek treatment, the stigma of seeking mental health care stops many troops in their tracks.
“I want to be very clear today: these mental health challenges are not a sign of weakness,” Obama said. “They should never again be a source of shame. They are a natural reaction to the challenges of war, and it has been that way throughout the ages.”
For more on this commitment, read the AFPS article, “Medical Colleges Pledge to Care for Troops, Families,” written by my colleague, Lisa Daniel.
Career Fair to Focus on Military Spouses
Posted by elaine.sanchez in Family Matters on January 9, 2012
By Elaine Sanchez
Jan. 9, 2012
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is hosting a career fair in Washington, D.C., this week dedicated solely to helping military spouses find jobs.
The Hiring Our Heroes – Military Spouse Career Forum will feature a host of national and local employers specifically seeking qualified military and veteran spouses, as well as resume and interview coaching, and resources for starting a business. The forum is scheduled for Jan. 13 from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
Spouses of active duty and reserve members, retirees, veterans and fallen service members are welcome to attend.
Job seekers and employers can register for this free event and learn about other chamber-sponsored career fairs around the country at hoh.greatjob.net. Be sure to upload your resume when registering. For assistance with registration, email hiringourheroes@uschamber.com.
The Chamber of Commerce launched the Hiring Our Heroes program last year. This yearlong, nationwide effort is aimed at helping veterans and spouses find employment, with a goal of conducting 100 hiring fairs across the country.
The chamber also is involved with the Wounded Warrior Transition Assistance Program, Student Veterans Internship and Employment Program and a Women Veterans and Military Spouses Employment Program.
This “aggressive agenda,” officials noted on the chamber’s website, “focuses on one measure of success: jobs for the 1 million unemployed veterans in America.”
Obama Vows to ‘Keep Faith’ With Families
Posted by elaine.sanchez in Uncategorized on January 6, 2012
By Elaine Sanchez
Jan. 6, 2012
Family Matters Blog
Senior leaders yesterday underscored their commitment to caring for troops, veterans and their families, and the programs that support them, in a briefing that laid the groundwork for future defense spending.
President Barack Obama joined Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at the Pentagon to unveil the defense strategic guidance that will shape the Defense Department’s budget decisions for the years ahead. The department will cut its budget by $487 over the next 10 years.
The nation will “keep faith with those who serve,” Obama said, “by making sure our troops have the equipment and capabilities they need to succeed, and by prioritizing efforts that focus on wounded warriors, mental health and the well-being of our military families.”
The president pledged his ongoing support to veterans. “We’ll keep working to give our veterans the care, the benefits and job opportunities that they deserve and that they have earned,” he said.
Panetta acknowledged service members’ concerns regarding budget cuts and what they’ll mean for their families, and promised to continue to look out for them as the budget takes shape.
“You have put your lives on the line, and fought to make our country safer and stronger,” he said. “I believe this strategic guidance honors your sacrifices and strengthens the country by building a force equipped for the future.
“I have no higher responsibility than fighting to protect you and your families, just as you have fought and bled to protect our country,” he added.
For more on the defense strategic guidance, visit Defense.gov.
Airport Screening to Speed Up for Families
Posted by elaine.sanchez in Uncategorized on January 5, 2012
By Elaine Sanchez
Jan. 5, 2011
Family Matters Blog
Service members on orders and their families traveling with them will be moving through airport screening quicker in about six months.
Earlier this week, President Barack Obama signed a bill into law directing the Transportation Security Administration to develop a plan to expedite screening services for troops on orders and in uniform and, “to the extent possible,” their accompanying family members.
Agency officials said they’re working with the Defense Department to review options for these new procedures, so I’m sure we’ll be hearing more on this soon.
While the details are still in the works, the act does call for the agency to establish standard guidelines for the screening of military uniform items, such as combat boots, and for the agency to consider working these new procedures into an existing “trusted passenger program.”
The agency already has some measures in place to aid troops and families through the screening process. Troops in uniform and with a military ID aren’t required to remove boots or shoes unless an alarm goes off.
Also, families who would like to accompany a deploying military loved one to the boarding gate or greet them upon their return may receive passes to enter the secure area of the airport. Families should contact their air carrier representative at the airport for local procedures.
The agency also expedites the screening process for wounded warriors and their families.
Travel Stress-free With Pets
Posted by elaine.sanchez in Family Matters on January 3, 2012
(Guest blogger Navy Lt. Theresa Donnelly, of U.S. Pacific Command, is the owner of Hawaii Military Pets, a one-stop resource on Hawaii military pet information. She’s offered to share her pet-related knowledge in a series of blogs for Family Matters.)
By Theresa Donnelly
Jan. 3, 2011
Navy Lt. j.g Kirsten Davis greets her dog, Tressel, in Norfolk, Va., after returning home from a two-month deployment aboard the amphibious dock landing ship USS Gunston Hall in March 2011. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Kayla Jo Guthrie
Military moves can be tough on military families, especially if a spouse is deployed. It’s hard enough to get the humans in the family ready for a big move, let alone a family pet.
“Growing up as an Army ‘brat,’ I moved every three years from state to state and to Europe and back twice,” Kari Mendoza, owner of Island Pet Movers in Hawaii, told me. “We always had pets and our parents taught us that pets are part of the family.
“I served four years in the Navy,” she added, “and I can tell you it was hard to find an apartment off-base that would allow me to take my cat, but giving him up was never an option.”
Fortunately, many resources are available to ensure your pet stays with your military family and isn’t surrendered to a shelter, or given away.
A first step is to go online and research the pet policies at your next duty station. A quick call to your sponsor, family-service center or veterinarian at the next installation can help you better understand pet policies in housing, animal laws in that state or country, pet-friendly hotels and any transport requirements. For example, many states and countries are considered “rabies-free,” so you may have to start the process of preparing to ship your family pet several months in advance.
Now that you have fully researched information such as applicable breed bans and base pet policies, consider calling local airlines to see if there are flight restrictions for your pet, including months when your pet is restricted from flight. For example, some dogs have respiratory issues due to the structure of their face, making breathing at sea-level difficult.
Because of these restrictions, many airlines impose a “pet embargo” on certain dog breeds between May 15 and Sept. 15, which means you will have to ship your pet outside of this time frame. A visit to the airline’s pet transport Web page should give you information such as cabin temperature, weight requirements, approved airline crates, and what stickers and labels should be on the carrier.
Top 10 Military Family Moments of 2011
Posted by elaine.sanchez in Family Matters on December 28, 2011
By Elaine Sanchez
Dec. 28, 2011
Family Matters Blog
It’s that time of year when top 10 lists seem to proliferate across nearly every web and news page in the nation, proclaiming everything from the best movies and TV shows to the most memorable photos and celebrities of the year.
Since I find it tough to encapsulate a year’s worth of information into a tidy list, I typically steer away from the concept. However, this was such a momentous year for military families that I decided it was time to hop on the list-making bandwagon.
So, here’s my top 10 most memorable military family moments of 2011. It’s certainly not all-inclusive, but I’m hoping it at least hits the highlights.
10. JR Martinez – Warrior Inspiration. This Army veteran and wounded warrior danced his way to the top spot on ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” — and inspired a nation with his strength and resilience along the way. In 2003, Martinez was injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq, suffering severe burns to more than 40 percent of his body. He went on to share his story with audiences nationwide. In 2008, he landed a role as an Iraq war veteran on the ABC soap opera, “All My Children,” which led to his “Dancing with the Stars” appearances this year.
“I have been able to be a role model and a voice for a lot of [troops] who don’t feel that they have a voice for themselves,” Martinez said during a Pentagon Channel interview. “I’ve been able to be a source of inspiration to the families as well, to say good things do happen and you’ve just got to be patient and have a great attitude.”
Martinez recently scored another big win: he and his girlfriend, Diana Gonzalez-Jones, are expecting their first child, a girl, in the spring.