BSF Blog: National Guard and Reserve

In Praise of the Military Brat | Post date: 04/08/2010 - 17:07

Sometimes I feel like a fraud. Like I don’t belong here with all the other Blue Star Families members.

You see, I’m not married to the military like so many of our volunteers. I don’t have a good “story” to tell of deployments gone wrong, solo moves, and year long separations from my spouse. I got involved in the Blue Star organization as my husband was retiring from the Navy Reserves. His active duty years were long gone by the time I entered the picture.

While I’ve attended lots of “picnics” as a reservist’s wife, I’ve only sat through a pre-deployment meeting once in my life and I’ve never been forced to attend a Hail and Farewell. The only retirement ceremony I’ve attended was my husband’s, although I missed most of that because I was trying to keep my toddlers from climbing the giant bee (Seabee) out front!

I mean, yes, I’m the New Media Director for Blue Star Families. I do a lot of work for BSF because I feel so strongly that military families need more support. But the military doesn’t affect my daily life in any major way, aside from when my ID card expires and I can’t get on base to take my kids to their favorite beach at Little Creek.

I am, however, a military sister – my brother returned from deployment at the end of 2008 and is scheduled to head out again next year. Perhaps more importantly, I’m also a military brat.

My father spent 20 years in the Air Force and I grew up all over the world. One of the most problematic questions you can ask me, or any military brat, is “Where are you from?“ Frequently I don’t know how to answer. Sometimes I say I’m from Louisiana, where I was born and both of my parents are from. Sometimes I say I’m from Nebraska, where I went to high school, met and married my husband, and my parents still live. But most often I simply say, “I’m a military brat.” Most people understand.

Military brats are a feisty bunch and yes, we have a reputation. We’ve moved a lot. We make friends easily. We stop and stand at attention whenever we hear our national anthem. And yes, we love our country and its military, often fervently. We tend to join the military at higher rates than civilian children and, despite spending our childhoods swearing we would not, we tend to marry the military as well.

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Explaining War to Our Children | Post date: 02/23/2010 - 23:09

How do you explain war to a 3 year old?

My son, Hollis, will make pretty much anything (even his railroad track parts) into a sword and he pretends to shoot people all the time. But at this age he really has no concept of death, aside from the demise of his cat.

The whole discussion started because my husband is preparing for an exercise with his Navy reserve unit. (The last one he will ever participate in before retiring. WOOHOO!) As a reserve family, the Navy has not been a constant presence in our life. Our boys know that Daddy is in the Navy, but without the constant deployment cycle facing active duty families, that don't really know quite what that means.

While my husband was getting his uniforms ready, Hollis asked him what an army was and if he could see a picture of one on the computer. Aside from being amazed at his early grasp of the power of The Google, I realized that I hadn't shown Hollis any pictures of Uncle B lately. You see, "Uncle B" is off in the middle east having a grand old time in the insane heat, sand and dust. B's unit has a photo page for friends and family, so I showed Hollis a few of Uncle B that I had found.

Then Hollis requested a photo of an "Army truck." So we looked at a few shots of Humvees. On the back of each vehicle is a large sign with two stop signs and a message in Arabic and English. It reads "DANGER STAY BACK." Hollis, being in the midst of the Age of Why, wanted to know why they had the signs there. Oof.

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How Can BSF Help Military Families? Tell Us. | Post date: 02/05/2010 - 01:07
Blue Star Families needs your help. We want to know how we can make BSF better for you. We want to hear your ideas for helping military families.

And we're going to enter you into a drawing for helping us! Between now and April 1st, everyone who signs up for our mailing list will be entered into a drawing for a $50 gift certificate.

Even if you've already signed up on our website, you can enter here again. In fact, we encourage you to do so.

Blue Star Families Gift Card Giveaway

Blue Star Families is giving away a $50 Target or iTunes gift card! To enter, fill out the form below and tell us how we can make BSF work for you.
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Terms: The BSF Gift Card Giveaway is sponsored by Blue Star Families, Inc. Only one entry per person is allowed. Contest ends April 1, 2010. The prize will be awarded before April 8, 2010. Only residents of the Unites States may enter. You must be 18 or older to enter. No purchase is necessary and you may enter the drawing without filling out the online form by sending a 3x5 card labeled with "BSF Giveaway" to Blue Star Families, PO Box 6811, 7676 Richmond Hwy, Alexandria, VA 22306. You must include your full name, date of birth and a contact phone number or email on the 3x5 card. Questions? Email NewMedia@BlueStarFam.org. Void where prohibited.
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First Lady Announces New Funding Initiatives for Military Families | Post date: 01/27/2010 - 17:45

Yesterday, during remarks at Bolling Air Force Base, First Lady Michelle Obama announced that President Obama's 2011 budget will increase funding for military families by more than 3%, bringing funding for military family support programs to $8.8 billion. The additional funding follows increased attention to the unique challenges now facing military families.

The funding increases will bring spending for counseling and support for military families, including National Guard and reserve families, to $1.9 billion and includes $1.3 billion to reduce shortages in military child care and additional money to fund the effort to repair or replace more than half of the DoD schools currently in service. Mrs. Obama reported that the budget will include an increase of $84 million for spousal career development, tuition assistance and a federal internship program as well as $14 million in new funding for Coast Guard housing.

Mrs. Obama also spent much of her remarks thanking military families for their service, stating, "When people ask me what I am most proud of this first year, I have two responses: As a mother I’m most proud that our two girls have adjusted and built a new life here and are happy and healthy. As First Lady, at the top of the list is the time I have spent highlighting the service of our incredible military families."

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A Day in the Life of a Tireless BSF Member | Post date: 01/20/2010 - 00:03

by Kate Reynolds

What an exciting day today it was for me personally, as well as BSF. I started my morning at the ungodly hour of 4:30, so that I could check email, get dressed and slam a cup of Joe down, before I headed out the door at 5:30. I spoke at the Roswell Optimist Club, where I had a very warm reception, and was asked by a member to speak at another club the Korean War Veterans Association.

I was invited to attend a Question and Answering Session at GA Tech, by yet another one of my veteran friends, LTC Vern Staum. He is on the board for the Sam Nun School Of International Affairs at GA TECH.

Today's speaker was GEN David Petraeus. What an exciting opportunity for me, I was thrilled, it was not until we were on the trolley that I found out, Vern had given up his ticket for me. I was very upset that he would have done something so sweet for me. He is a two time Vietnam War Veteran as well as a Korean War Veteran with three bronze stars all with V devices. As soon as we got into the school I made sure LTC Staum was to have a seat, they were very kind, especially since he was all dressed up in his dress blues from 1966. Although, Vern was not able to to sit with me. I felt such relief knowing he too was in.

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This Emotional Life on PBS | Post date: 01/04/2010 - 21:14

Blue Star Families members,

Tune in tonight to watch the first installment of "This Emotional Life" on your local PBS station. Blue Star Families is an advisor to the project and has worked closely with production team on military family outreach. Check out BSF's listing under resources: http://www.pbs.org/thisemotionallife/resource-finder

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1436th Engineer Company Holiday Party | Post date: 12/23/2009 - 22:32

by Karen Alma

It is very common for most National Guard and Reserve Family Readiness Groups to have families more than 200-300 miles apart. This creates a sense of isolation for the service members and their families, and causes a difficult situation for FRG's, whose purpose is to connect and communicate with families.

So, the 1436th Engineer Company celebrated their 2009 Holiday Party in early December, bringing families together and giving everyone the opportunity to get to know each other a little better.

One of the highlights of the party was a cookie decorating table. The Blue Star Families Michigan Director brought over 650 cut out cookies, along with all types of colored icing and decorations. Parents joined their kids in spoiling their dinner and were able to meet many National Guard families in their unit that they may not have had the chance to meet before.

The cookies disappeared and it looks like fun was had by all!

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BSF Attends Yellow Ribbon Event in Wichita | Post date: 12/23/2009 - 21:22

Blue Star Families recently attended a Yellow Ribbon event in Wichita Kansas.

Brittany McKee assisted Mary Nesbitt with the event. They also handed out Thx Boxes to families at the event and signed up new members.

Thanks to Target for donating the gifts for families!

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Blue Star Families and Target Spread Holiday Cheer | Post date: 12/07/2009 - 23:07

This weekend launched the holiday season for Blue Star Families. On Veteran's Day, Service Nation, Target, PBS's This Emotional Life and BSF held an event to pack "thx boxes" for military families. Now comes the fun part - handing out hundreds of gift bags to excited military families!

To kick things off, BSF members and Target representatives were on hand at holiday parties to distribute the thx boxes in Virginia and Kansas.

Photo left: BSF members Brynn Bird, Michelle Galvez and BSF Membership Director Vivian Greentree pose with Santa.

In Virginia, BSF joined the USO for a holiday party at NAB Little Creek in Virginia Beach, Virginia, distributing dozens of gift bags to military families with a deployed service member. We have to give a special thank you to Samantha Hand, Beverly Conrad and Vivian Greentree for coordinating the BSF portion of the USO event.

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Behind the Scenes with Operation Appreciation | Post date: 12/01/2009 - 01:54

BSF members in the Tidewater region of Virginia - Norfolk, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake - have been working hard on Operation Appreciation. We thought we'd give you a sneak peak of what happens behind the scenes to get your letters of appreciation out to service members, veterans, parents, military spouses and children.

Remember, if you'd like to send thanks to a military family, we'd love to hear from you. If you're part of a military family and would like to receive letters, sign up as a BSF member! If you are already a BSF member and are interested in helping out or distributing correspondence to military families in your area, please contact us at members@bluestarfam.org. Check out the Operation Appreciation page for more information.

Boxes and boxes of cuteness! This drawing and letter is from a 2nd grader in Baltimore County, MD.

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