CDC-NIOSH:Heatstroke 24Apr09

 Karen, Proud Army Airborne Mom

“H-Minus”

Karen Estrada, MS  

Military Health Matters Resource Center. 

Not only is Homes for Our Troops one of my favorite charities, DD is (and has been) a favorite of mine and my family since I was in HIGH SCHOOL (and that was a long time ago!!) In fact, every morning of high school from sophomore year on (when we got our driver’s licenses and cars my twin sister and I and our friends went to the DD in Wheeling, IL and had 2 long johns and coffee before school EVERY DAY! and sometimes on the weekends as well!

So let’s all support Homes for Our Troops… every little bit helps!

x-posted at Some Soldier’s Mom

“Mommy, where is my daddy?” April is Military Child Month.

My grandson will turn three in June, he frequently is asking now: “Where’s Daddy?” “When is Daddy going to take me swimming?” “I miss Daddy”. “Mommy, why isn’t Daddy here?”

When my daughter-in-law told me this, it broke my heart. She tries very hard not to cry in front of the baby because she knows he’s too little to understand how much mommies miss daddies too. She is also worried how they should handle yet another good-bye when my son has to return back to Iraq after R&R.

What is the right thing to do? Take him to the airport so he can give his Daddy one more hug? Leave him at home with Grandmom and Grandpop taking away one more precious Daddy and son moment?

One of the most moving photographs I have of them was taken the morning my son left to Iraq (last deployment) back in 2006. My daughter-in-law, holding the baby (then only 3 months old) sleeping peacefully, my son crisp in a brand new ACU, hair freshly cut, paratrooper fade, scarlet airborne beret in one hand and his other hand gently touching the baby’s head with a look on his face that still brings tears to my eyes today.

How do you explain the complexities of the world to a young child? Base after base, in every branch of the armed services, this same picture appears in the photo albums of all military families. It doesn’t matter the child’s age; every phase of childhood development presents a challenge to the military family.

Military children face many challenges, additionally increased stress related to deployments, less time spent with a parent or sometimes both and frequent moves.

A few weeks ago I wrote an article about the Sesame Street Program on military families. Below, you will find an annotated list of resources, each was examined and annotated (author’s notes and additions].

I would like to thank my fellow blogger “militaryhealth” (DoD, Military Health System Website) for the website I based this list on and dug in deeper for even more sources. These resources will give you tools and valuable information on what you can do to help your child overcome the unique challenges associated with military life. This post will be abbreviated(otherwise it would be way too long for the blog) and graphics reduced in size. You may view the complete/list plus my additions on my page in examiner.com (I am the Military Health Examiner, Miami) or on my blog (”military health matters, the blog”) or the “Families and Children” Page on Military Health Matters Resource Center.) Some of the descriptions have been taken from the US Department of Defense, Military Health System, “Kids Corner” Web page, some I have added/annotated, others I have abbreviated for the purpose of this post].

For Kids:

Kids.gov – An official U.S. government kids’ portal that provides resources to children and parents, and contains a variety of interesting and educational content for kids. Kids.gov links to over 1,200 web pages from government agencies, schools, and educational organizations.

America Supports You – Kids Take Action – Find out how kids like you are supporting our American troops.

CIA’s Parents & Teachers Page – This section gives you additional resources, lesson plans, and discussion points for you and your children/students to learn more about the CIA and its history of intelligence. [There are other CIA pages for Grades: K-5th and Grades 6th - 12th).]

FBI Working Dogs – The FBI has some very special working dogs. Power is the newest addition to the group of Working Dogs at FBI Headquarters. His job as a Chemical Explosives Dog is to sniff out bombs, explosion debris, firearms, and ammunition. Other FBI Working Dogs find drugs, money, and people. Just how do they do it? There are additional pages, Grades K-5 and Grades 6-12.

Special Needs – Military Homefront – Resources for special needs children from military families — newsletter subscription, mentoring groups, Webinars, resources, checklists, advocates, support programs and more.

Veterans History Project – (Library of Congress) – The Veterans History Project relies on volunteers to collect and preserve stories of wartime service. You can browse the first-hand accounts from veterans of some of the wars America fought in. (Also has Youth Resources Pages).

MTOM – MTOM for Kids provides information to help children successfully make the transition when their family moves. The site covers saying goodbye, how to move and being a kid. Sections are divided for younger children and teens.

Deployment Kids – Deployment Kids offers children’s activities related to deployment, including downloads, a distance calculator, journals and games. Really Cool downloads!!

Wacky Grownups! A great section for kids to understand how grown-ups feel during their loved ones deployment.

VA Kids – VA Kids offers a variety of games, resources, scholarship information and links for students in grades K through fifth and sixth through twelfth. Information is also provided for teachers, grades K-5, 6-12.

For Parents:

American Academy of Pediatrics - The American Academy of Pediatrics Military Youth Deployment Support Web site has been designed to support military youth, families, and the youth serving professionals caring for this population.

Our Military Kids – Provides support to the children of deployed and severely injured National Guard and Military Reserve service members. The site provides activities and tutoring that nurture and sustain children while their parents serve.

National Military Family Association – The NMFA educates military families about their rights, benefits and services available to them, and provides information regarding the issues that affect their lives. Excellent, information for all age children, teens, and spouses.

• Operation Military Kids – Operation Military Kids is the U.S. Army’s collaborative effort with America’s communities to support children and youth impacted by deployment.
• Excellent, with podcasts and YouTube presentations.
• 
• Military Child – Military Child Education Coalition is a non-profit organization that identifies and addresses the challenges facing the highly mobile military child.

Excellent resource: Publications : SchoolQuest; Military Parent Information; Child and Student Programs; Education, Training, and Resources; Coalition Partnerships; Blogs

Connect For Kids – Connect for Kids gives its Web site visitors the information and tools they need to learn about issues affecting children, families, and communities.

Transforming Kids’ Lives Through Free Arts Programs: Founded in 2001, ARTS is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization driven by people who believe in the power of the arts to heal, inspire and empower **check this site, has a form for children to communicate with their deployed fathers.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration – SAMHSA focuses on building resilience and facilitating recovery for people with or at risk for mental or substance use disorders.

For Professionals:

Zero to Three – Zero to Three informs, trains and supports professionals, policymakers and parents in their efforts to improve the lives of infants and toddlers. ZERO TO THREE Fact Sheet >Alerts of new content in the Zero to Three Journal

Military K-12 Partners – References and information for K-12 military education partners. Be sure to check out References & Guides and provides additional excellent resources! Military Life & Culture (2nd set of resources on page), includes studies and reports, legislative information, and a section on Grants & Funding.

Karen- Proud Army Airborne Mom!!

H-Minus!

Military Health Matters Resource Center,

Military Health Matters – “the blog”,

All children are precious, military children are precious angels.

Sending Music – Operation Happy Note

Chief emailed me today and  alerted me to this group. Now he loves music – plays guitar, is trying to learn the bagpipes (oh, the dog LOVED that one… howled in a descant!) and the mandolin, plays harmonica… and when he saw Operation Happy Note, he was intrigued. Then he saw – they are from Fergus Falls Minnesota, so there’s a “home state” connection for us.

The Baker’s, from Fergus Falls MN sent their son and a friend of his guitars when they were deployed in 2005.  Since then, they set up Operation Happy Note, and have been sending all kinds of instruments, guitars, violins, banjos, mandolins, harmonicas to deployed troops.  They have help from manufacturers, but the shipping costs – are up to OHN and can be quite high (as you and I know from sending our care packages!) It’s hard to know that there are instruments waiting to be sent to someone who could use that escape that can be found in making music, because of postage!

If you are feeling in the giving mood – think about Operation Happy Note

Hello, from a proud Army Airborne Mom…

Hi LAW, thank you for such a warm welcome! I am happy to be blogging with you all and hope my posts will provide information, inspiration and some humor. 

My eldest is a SFC (mortars) in the 82nd ABN, currently in the OIF Sandbox…4th deployment (3 Iraq, 1 Afghanistan, 1 New Orleans). My younger son, a SPC currently Med Boarding out. What I will tell you is ‘Airborne Holding’ is far worse than med boarding!

I have run a support group for 3rd BCT, 82nd Airborne families since the 3rd BCT was formed (Army unit reformations, 2006). Prior I was co-moderator of 82nd Airborne “Family & Friends” Group (2003).  Since my son’s enlistment I have provided medical /health information to military health care professionals, family members and soldiers/military members themselves both stateside and deployed. I started “militaryhealthmatters”, an on-line resource that provides information and resources on a variety of health issues affecting our service men and women. (this is not a ‘per click site’, I pay to have the site hosted (no advertisements). The resource site also has an accompanying blog (I call it ‘information lite’) and I write for examiner.com (military health).  

The areas I am most concerned with are PTSD, TBI and mild TBI. We are only beginning to see the ‘tip of the iceberg’ of this issue, as time goes on I believe (based upon studies/research on concussion/brain injuries in athletes) the multiple ‘mild’ brain injuries sustained throughout multiple deployments will manifest themselves three-fold as our current military force ‘ages’. I have written several articles already on mTBI, suicide and PTSD and will share this information with you on this blog too. Currently I am writing a set of articles for the Sarah Jane’s Brain Project from both perspectives, as a military ‘mom’ and as a researcher/analyst.  For those of you familiar with the SJBP you may be wondering about the relationship between ‘pediatric’ brain injuries and our military. Studies and research have shown the brain does not completely finish development until around 25 years of age. Think about the ‘average’ age (more/less) of our service men/women who are serving in combat?

 It is up to each and every one of us …to make sure the attention to this issue and other military health issues does not go ‘away’ for the convenience of a ‘fickle’ public moving on to the next headline.  We need to speak out for those who cannot speak for themselves. 

I do have to share the ‘humorous’ on-line chat/conversation I had with the AKO (Army Knowledge On-line) help desk person earlier this evening (I have a sponsored account, set to expire April 17th). Prior to the account’s expiration your sponsor is notified via AKO e-mail so they can ‘extend’ their sponsorship. Guess where my sponsor is? 

Part A (95%):  the help desk person gives me someone else’s password BUT then proceeds to tell me she ‘could not give me my son’s password” (I didn’t ask for it…), and that “he would need to call or go on-line to give them his ‘permission’ to change/extend the expiration date”.

Normally I might have typed in “duh” but thought better of it …wasn’t it obvious if he could ACCESS a CAC computer he would have just responded to the ‘reminder’ e-mail and extended it! In fact, (I told her)… he can’t even change his password because he can’t access a “CAC” computer!  I think someone in the battalion was supposed to submit ‘paperwork’ to make them all “CAC Exempt” (deployment).  That was probably the same person who ‘mis-placed’ an entire company’s paperwork (the same papers my daughter-in-law needed to submit for base housing), that would probably also be the same person … who didn’t bother sorting the mail two weeks prior to their last deployment (keeping the mailroom locked up as well). 

Part B (4%): Finally getting the AKO help-desk person to let me know what my younger son needed to do in order to ‘approve’ my sponsorship.  

Part C (1%) (after typing thank you, have a very nice evening…  ”DU….”

Off to write “Wednesday’s on the Web”     -     Any ideas? What web site would you like me to highlight?

Karen

Marine Corps – Making Warriors

Predeployment Training: Making Warriors

LCpl Honda is currently training for an upcoming deployment. Since I am always interested in what he is doing, I decided to ask him some questions and get his take on the training he is receiving.

Predeployment training is very intense and designed to teach the Marines what conditions could arise on a combat deployment. Marines train in realistic towns with actual Iraqi people playing citizens and terrorists alike. These “actors” prepare the Marines to react a certain way when they are deployed to places like Iraq and Afghanistan. It is vital that the Marines learn how to interact and in turn to watch reactions of the people playing these parts in order to ensure the most utmost safety conditions.

Marines learn how to conduct raids under live fire-like conditions. They learn the safest ways of securing a town or building. One technique is using buddy rushing by running and covering each other while advancing on a target. A squad may start out together but end split up into two “buddies” teams.

Jumping out of helicopters is another vital training exercise because that might be the only means of getting the Marines to a location. Marines are trained to slide down a fast rope and be able to land without injuring themselves on the ground. They are instructed on how to deal with the rotor wash air coming down from the rotors and the brown out dirt that is kicked up from the ground. LCpl Honda says that the instructors are very good at helping the Marines to jump successfully.

LCpl Honda says that the most important thing about the training is working together. This has been emphasized since the Marines were recruits in Boot Camp. “You have to look out for the guy next to you and he has the do the same.” said LCpl Honda. The training is really a dress rehearsal for the actual theater.

The Marines have no idea what will happen during training. There could be a riot, a sniper on a roof or terrorist hold up in a building. The element of surprise prepares them to expect anything during deployment. Better to make a mistake during training than during actual combat situations.

I asked LCpl Honda if he felt he was ready for deployment. “Well,” he said, “I am not through with training yet so not quite.” but he continued, “I will be.” He also said that most of the Marines feel the same way as him.

He closed with, “We get the best training possible.” and more importantly, he added, “Our leaders and instructors prepare all of us to come home.”

Proud Mom 3

We will all keep LCpl Honda in our thoughts that he comes home safely. LAW

Next Page »

Have you taken our survey?