Deployment @ MindSay 
Now, I am her mom, and as such, naturally, I want her to be safe. Question is ... where can she go to be safe from "friendly" sexual assault? As her mom, I have 2 chief concerns:
- the wide reports of sexual assault from her comrades in arms, and
- the reasonable preservation of her tender and compassionate spirit
The honeymoon was great as well! We spent a week at the beach just relaxing and enjoying our time together. Then the following Saturday Jason has to leave to go back to NC to leave for the field and for training. Boo! I went up there a few weeks ago and we wen apartment hunting. That was fun! I keep imaginging all the different ways I want the apartment to look and how I will decorate it to make it OUR home! i cant wait! I got to see him this past weekend too. We had a few fights, I dont even know about what. They just kinda came out of nowhere. But overall the whole weekend was great! Emily came home and I got to go to the beach with her and we spent time together. I got to see my mom and my mother-in-law and our niece Sydney!
Came back and had a job interview yesterday. I think it went really well. I havent heard back from them but I am REALLY crossing my fingers and hoping I get the job! It pays $9.00/hr and it would be an AMAZING job!
All in all life is good. I am doing the school thing, job hunting and preparing for deployment, graduation, and moving. YIKES! I just hope to meet people in NC...
Anywho... thats really all the new news. Hope all is well with everyone!
Word to Big Bird!
Memorial Day is soon upon us, and as you may imagine, it has a fresh & heightened significance to our family this year. With this in mind, this book caught my eye ... and heart. It is a story about a child whose father is being deployed. The boy wishes to give his father something of himself to make the separation more tolerable, so he traces his hands, measures the distance from one hand to his other hand and cuts a piece of yarn that length. He sees it as a "paper hug." Anytime his Dad feels lonely, he just has to wrap the paper hug around himself and feel his son's love.
The child center where I work has agreed to share this project. We are making paper hugs and sending them to a unit about to deploy ... to any soldier who wants one, as many as we can make.
By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service
April 24, 2007 – Extended overseas deployments affecting soldiers serving in Afghanistan and other locales overseen by U.S. Central Command should help to alleviate the stress on the Army, a senior U.S. officer in Afghanistan told Pentagon reporters today. "I'm absolutely confident that that's going to work and that'll manage the pressure and the stress on the force," Army Col. Martin Schweitzer, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division's 4th Brigade Combat Team, said during a satellite-carried news conference.
All active U.S. Army units already operating within U.S. Central Command's area of responsibility, including Afghanistan, Iraq and the Horn of Africa, or en route there "will deploy for not more than 15 months and return home for not less than 12 months," Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced April 11 at a Pentagon news conference.
The change automatically increased the length of soldiers' overseas tours in those areas from 12 to 15 months.
A 22-year Army veteran, Schweitzer is on his second tour in Afghanistan, having previously served there in 2002. The colonel began his current tour of duty in Afghanistan in January.
The 4th Brigade Combat Team operates in Paktika, Paktia, Lowgar, Ghazni and Khost provinces in the southeastern part of Afghanistan, Schweitzer said, noting this is the brigade's first overseas deployment.
The 15-month deployments are needed to ensure that the Army retains the capacity to sustain the deployed force, Army Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, commander of Multinational Corps Iraq, said April 13 from Baghdad during a teleconference with Pentagon reporters.
The tour extensions will provide more predictability and stability for soldiers and their families, Odierno said, noting the policy "will ensure 12 months at home station between rotations."
Schweitzer acknowledged difficulty in measuring how the extended deployment affects individual soldiers under his command. However, he expressed strong support for the personnel decisions made by senior defense department and Army leaders.
The Pentagon's civilian and military leaders "put a lot of rigor and analytical analysis into this (tour extension) to determine what is best for the service and what is sustainable," Schweitzer said.
Article sponsored by Criminal Justice online leadership as well as police and military personnel who have authored books.
By Sgt. Sara Wood, USA
American Forces Press Service
April 18, 2007 – The Defense Department today unveiled a program that will reward administrative leave to servicemembers whose service in combat does not meet the department's goal for the time at home station between deployments. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates directed the development of this program Jan. 19, when he implemented a force management policy stating that DoD's goal was to give active-duty troops two years at home station for every year deployed, and reserve component troops five years at home station for every year deployed. At the time, Gates recognized that national security concerns would require servicemembers to be deployed more frequently than this goal, so he announced a compensation plan to make up for frequent deployments.
Under the new policy, active-duty servicemembers who are deployed for more than 12 months in a 36-month period will earn one day of administrative absence for each month beyond 12. If servicemembers are deployed for more than 18 months in a 36-month period, they will earn two days of administrative absence a month. Past 24 months, they will earn four days a month.
Members of the reserve components will earn one day of administrative absence a month for every month beyond 12 they are mobilized in a 72-month period. Members of the reserves will earn two days a month if they are mobilized past 18 months in a 72-month period, and four days a month if they are mobilized past 24 months in the same period.
Administrative absences are days off authorized by the commander, and are separate from normal leave accrued by a servicemember.
In a Pentagon news conference announcing the policy, Michael Dominguez, principal deputy undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said that this program is meant to recognize the sacrifices servicemembers make, but is in no way trying to put a physical value on their service.
"Secretary Gates and all of us honor the service of the men and women in uniform, particularly in these demanding times," Dominguez said. "This program can't be viewed as being commensurate with the level of service that they offer to the nation. In many respects, while it is substantive and it is tangible, it's also symbolic. It's part of our recognition that we're keeping them in our thoughts and we're trying to do something for them."
The policy is retroactive to Jan. 19, so any servicemember who was deployed or involuntarily mobilized from that day forward, whose service exceeds the time frame in the policy, will earn the days off, Dominguez said. Also, any troops who were deployed within the last three years, and are deployed now, will earn administrative leave for their current deployment, he said.
In deciding what compensation to give servicemembers who are deployed more frequently than DoD would like, defense officials considered a wide range of options, Dominguez said. Monetary compensation was considered, he said, but time off seemed the logical choice to reward increased frequency and intensity of service.
"We weren't trying to find some metaphysical balance between the service you were rendering and buckets full of gold, or any other thing we can do for you," Dominguez said. "This was about telling men and women of the armed forces that we know when we ask you to do something extraordinary."
DoD has had a policy since 2004 that pays servicemembers who are extended in theater beyond 12 months $1,000 a month, Dominguez said. That policy is still in effect, he said, and applies to Army personnel who now have to serve 15-month tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The new policy is meant to deal with frequency of deployments, rather than the length of each deployment, Dominguez said. The administrative leave servicemembers earn under this policy will stay with them through their military career and can be used anytime, with commander approval, he said.
"This is what we do; it is the job," he said. "This is the job of the men and women of the armed forces, from which they do not shirk, and the volunteer force is extraordinary. This is just saying, 'Look, we know what you're doing, we recognize what you're doing, we're proud of what you're doing, we're grateful for what you're doing.'"
Article sponsored by Criminal Justice online leadership as well as police and military personnel who have authored books.
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