I found a couple of things today that might have eased the pain of deployment just a little bit…   #1. The Husband Pillow. I know, I know, this thing has been around forever…. but it certainly takes on new significance for  anyone facing a year of sleeping alone! I love that this one has an actual […]

Here’s an article from ABC News about what a soldier needs in the field. It’s written by someone stationed with troops in Afghanistan. I agree with most of it – mail is super-important while you’re overseas. Chow was a little more difficult for me since I’m a vegetarian, but Katie and her mom sent me […]

I read an interesting blog post today on the difference between unfounded worry and legitimate concern. Wow! It was eye-opening…. and I wish I’d read it during Paul’s deployment! While Paul was in Afghanistan, I was a nervous wreck. I spent many sleepless nights and many afternoons unfocused and aimless in my life. I did […]

By Walter Pincus / The Washington Post Outside the military, not much attention is paid to the personal problems of families caught up in the endless rotational deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan that mark serving in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. Last Friday, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates dealt with a handful of […]

I read a great article today about how celebrating the tiny moments in your life can raise your happiness level, increase your resilience when bad things happen, and help ward off depression. You can see the whole article here, or I pasted the text below this post. This study confirms what anyone who has survived a deployment […]

A nice editorial from the Washington Post…. I lost many of my civilian friends when Paul left for Afghanistan because they didn’t support the war and couldn’t make the leap to support him as a soldier and us as a military family. It baffles me that people can’t see that the reason they have the […]

By Barbara Rothschild / Courier-Post After the fireworks of July Fourth, South Jersey was the setting for a very special parade on Sunday. To celebrate the recent return of New Jersey National Guard members who had been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan — the largest deployment of the state National Guard since World War II […]

By The Associated Press About 1,700 Hawaii National Guard soldiers are preparing to come home this summer from their Middle East deployment. The 29th Brigade Combat Team is expected home in August. Officials haven’t said when the unit will leave their Kuwait base. The soldiers were sent to Kuwait for nine months to provide security […]

By Seth Robson / Stars and Stripes While the Army has been working to gauge the mental health toll of multiple deployments on soldiers, some Army leaders and spouses say the service is moving too slowly to address similar effects on military family members. Spouses face day-to-day pressure while soldiers are away and very little is […]

By Amanda Nalley / Tallahassee Democrat “Any load, any where. Drive it like you stole it,” shouted the 67 men and women of the Florida Army National Guard 144th Transportation Company of Marianna before being released for lunch during a deployment ceremony Sunday at the Max L. Thomas National Guard Armory in Marianna. The group […]