Maj. Roy Whitley, the Army’s Project Manager for Retroactive Stop Loss Special Pay, will provide a status update on the Army’s first month of processing claims for this new benefit. The Department of Defense introduced Retroactive Stop Loss Special Pay last month when it announced that service members, veterans and survivors are eligible to receive $500 for every month they served under Stop Loss between September 11, 2001 and September 30, 2008. Maj. Whitley will explain the Army’s system for processing the estimated 120,000 eligible claims, as well as answer questions about receiving the pay.

LET ME KNOW YOUR QUESTIONS! I’ll be definitely asking about lack of responsiveness, how to check on the status, any deadlines (or lack thereof).

Today is the day we remember the Gold Star Families, those who have lost their service member in combat.

These families now have a new way to stay intouch, both with each other and with others, including the military family that has become so important to them.

As a story from Defenselink News reported,
a new Virtual Installation, such as the Army Strong Community Center that opened in Rochester NY in September, is a way for these families to maintain ties to the military. As three families who met with Army Reserve Chief Lt. Gen. Jack C. Stultz made clear to him :

What they said they’re lacking now is a way to stay tied to the military their sons died serving, and to get information and help when they need it.

These families have had difficulties with finding counseling who could help, in one case helping the fiancee of the fallen servicemember receive benefits for the daughter he never saw, and in assisting the siblings who were suffering with the death of their brother. This installation could be of service, could help this group of families who need to feel that we haven’t forgotten them.

I have a blog friend, who lost her son 5 years ago. I visit Ken at Arlington periodically, and think of his mother often. As a former Blue Star Mother, and a current Blue Star Wife, I honour her service and her loss, I honour the Gold Star Families around the country who grieve the loss of their servicemember, their son or daughter, who miss their brother or sister, the father or mother they will never see again. Our country needs to remember these families, we need to make sure that their sacrifice is never ever forgotten.

General Casey remembered these families Saturday at the 4th Annual Time of Remembrance at the US Capitol, spent time talking to them, especially the children. The White House Commission on Remembrance proclaimed that the purpose of this day is

To unite our citizens in remembrance, honoring all those who died in service to our country with a special tribute to America’s fallen in Afghanistan and Iraq and the families they left behind. To demonstrate to these families that in addition to their family and friends, their fellow Americans care about their loss.

We must never forget that each one of the names on the roll of the fallen have a family that will never be the same again, that have sacrificed so much.

LAW

Web Site Features Jobs for Disabled Veterans

By Sharon Foster
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, July 15, 2009 – With more than 3,000 job openings, the creators of a new Web portal are hoping to attract disabled veterans seeking employment.

“Our current project is to spread the word that we are here,” said Diana Corso, executive director of disABLEDperson Inc., a nonprofit group aiming to reduce the unemployment rate of disabled veterans.

“We launched a couple of months ago,” she said. “We have jobs on the site, but not that many resumes. We are hoping to attract many more applicants. These positions are from employers across the U.S.”

DisABLEDperson.Inc. hosts the nationally based online job board called Job Opportunities for Disabled American Veterans. The site is free for disabled veterans to post their resumes and employers to post their jobs.

“We are trying to make it as easy as possible for [disabled veterans] and employers to come together,” Corso said. “All positions are paid openings, some carrying benefits.”
To post a resume, job seekers must first fill out an online registration. The resume will post on http://www.JOFDAV.com for three months. After three months, job seekers are given the option to repost their resume, to modify it or to leave it inactive.

Corso encourages job seekers not just to wait for employers to find them, but to browse through job openings that companies already have posted.

Current job openings on the Web site include accounting, administration and clerical, business development, information technology, research, restaurant and food service, science, collections, public relations and security. Other than job titles, postings specify geographic location, job category, career level, salary level and job description.

“This Web site has attracted employers that are proactively seeking to hire disabled American veterans,” Corso said. “My desire is to find a way to get the word out about these openings to generate more disabled job seekers to fill the slots.”

Some Soldier’s Mom, in her previous post, listed a group of websites to assist Vets.  I’d like to add to that, and I’m asking you for help.  If you know a site, an organization, a group, that helps Vets, list them here.  We’ll set up a page for them as well (right, Tech Mama??)

The American Veteran video site

IAVA Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America

American Women Veterans ( this is a FaceBook based group)

LAW

********************************

My name is Sabrina and I’ve been put in charge of the military initiatives here at my Best Buy Store . I saw your site and was very curious. You see in my store, and I’m sure many others, we have quite a few employees who are either returning from deployments, returning from TBS/OCS, or are looking into joining the military. Although our store is situated near a military recruiting office, I don’t believe that there’s enough information for the parents, siblings, or children of those that are in, or seeking to go into, the military.

As we also have a volunteer mentoring program here at our store, and as part of our corporate community relations initiatives; I was wondering what assistance our military employees could be to the parents of someone looking to join the military and to the children of military parents.

With the Military recruiting offices being so close to so many locations of BBY stores, quite a few of the younger employees who have considered a military career go over and ask for information or talk with recruiters. While this helps them, I don’t believe it provides enough information to their parents and/or siblings who need to understand what their children/siblings/family member will be going into. So many of what I overhear from the ones with concerns are questions like: Is my child going off to die? How will TBS/OCS change who they are? Will I know my child when they come home from training/deployment?

I’d like to be able to offer the concerned parents/family members some kind of resource or forum that they can go to attain the answers they need. Someplace where they can talk to other parents with the same concerns, and others who have been through this and know what is the best way they can be concerned while still being supportive of their loved ones decision. Most parents worry about their children going off to college, but when that child wants to discuss joining the military it becomes a whole new ball game. I’d like to be able to offer what support and resources I can.

Here’s the link

Army Wife Talk Radio is a great interview show, and you can chat online at the same time.   Army Wife Network is a fun and informative  site for Army Spouses – so if your family members don’t already know about it,  send them the link.

Talk to you there.

LAW

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

One of the services that we promise to provide as a member of the BSM is to educate, another is to support.  While we as parents have always done this for our own children, not all of us have done this for others.  It’s just not an easy thing to do, to reach out when you, yourself are hurting inside.  I find that this is my own way of healing and dealing.  Healing the hurt of not having my “baby” with me because he is stationed elsewhere and dealing with the worry, hurt and anger that I feel some times about his being in harms way.  Many times we don’t want to give voice to what we are trying to deal with, and it’s damned hard to recognize that we cannot protect those who we have carried for 9 months.  That’s why, when I received an update from militaryHOMEFRONT regarding April being the Month of the Military Child, that I decided to request the DVD’s from them (free) to share with my granddaughters.

I wanted them because my oldest granddaughter had asked her Dad just before he left for his first sandbox tour, “what if you die? What will I do?” And for the other two, one who began bedwetting because her sister started Kindergarten and having one more person “leaving” and being separated from her was more then she could take at the time. I wanted to help them be able to see that they are not alone, that other childrens daddies and mommies were not at home too.

Little did I know that so much more would come of this.

After emailing for the free DVD’s, I received an email from, and later had the pleasure of meeting Col. Patrin, MIL USA MEDCOM CMONT one of those who has worked so hard with Maj Lemmon (and many others) to create these free DVDs for the children (and families) of the deployed and who is trying to get the word out about them.  My mind began going into overdrive when I started to think of how useful and far reaching this could go in my own hometown.  Beginning with just 3 little girls, reaching out to local schools, counselors, mentors, FAMILIES!!!  The list is practically endless as to who should & needs to view these DVDs.  We are all affected by what is happening, as adults we are able to express how we feel, sometimes effectively and other times, well, not as effectively as we would like.  But, imagine being 4 years old and not being able to see Dad or Mom and not really knowing why they are gone or where they are at.  Or being 12 years old and having to take on chores that used to be taken care of by one of your parents, as one young man states “having to man up”.  Or being a young child or teen and hearing your Mom cry when she thinks you don’t hear her and not being able to help console her, feeling helpless and defenseless.  That is what our children and grandchildren are going through, we are not the only ones.

Our BSM’s previewed the teen/young adult video last night.  What struck me was that all of the children interviewed in the teen/young adult DVD expressed the same feelings that we, as parents, have given voice to when we reach out to each other.  Yet, they hold it in, feeling that they are alone in one way or another while their parent is deployed.  I don’t know why I was surprised. Believe me, as a former Scoutmaster, Cubmaster, School Bus Driver and youth camp director, not to mention a MOM, I know when a child is not happy.  Finding out what they are unhappy about however, is not always easy.  Getting to know them can be a struggle if they don’t want to let you in.  But, it is up to all of us, as members of the military community to seek out these families with children of the deployed to help them through this difficult time in their lives.  To connect with each other as well so that we stay healthy, physically, mentally and emotionally.

What even surprised me more was how it affected our Moms who were previewing the video.  An awareness dawned on all of us, that maybe, we could do something to help our military families with children.  It opened up discussions about how we feel as well.  My proposal to them was to ask them if they would be willing to work with me in educating our community, carrying forth our mission to help not only our Troops but those courageous ones left behind.  So that is what we will be doing during the Month of the Military Child and beyond, we will be helping in any way we can, to educate the community through the use of these DVDs and their handouts and promoting other programs that are available like the Operation Purple Camp.

I believe in the old saying “it takes a village to raise a child.”  If we don’t help to ease the minds of our Soldiers while they are away from home by helping to care for the most precious people in their lives, who will?

Thanks to Andi at Spousebuzz (h/tip Andi!) I contacted Sgt.  Maxwell and asked him if this was directed only to spouses and children.   He has assured me that there is something here for everyone in  the family!

If you have this book, or if anyone in the family has one, let us know about it.

LAW