Apr 16 2009
Looking to transition out of the military?
Check out MOAA’s Career Placement Book Store on Amazon.com to aid you in your job search. Each book was chosen by our career transition specialists to help you market your military experience successfully in the civilian world.
Apr 16 2009
As the only gaming site dedicated to serving the U.S. military community, Stripes GAMER creates a vital link between the millions of geographically dispersed gamers in the military and their civilian counterparts by providing an online destination where they are free to congregate, socialize, and challenge one another — all in that special spirit of brotherhood and camaraderie that infuses this unique community.
Check out Stripes Gamer magazine, or join a gaming league and play against your friends or brothers and sisters-in-arms.
Apr 15 2009
Navy snipers killed three Somali pirates who had been holding an American hostage in an 18-foot lifeboat on Sunday. The SEALs fired from a Navy destroyer 100 feet from the pirates. Can a sniper reliably hit a human target on a small boat bobbing on the ocean, or were they taking a chance with the hostage’s life? Get the whole story at slate.com.
Apr 15 2009
To survive and thrive as a military spouse, it helps to know certain things. One of them, for example, is what makes the woman who gave birth to the uniformed love of your life tick.
As a young military spouse (admittedly some years ago) I was certain knowing this valuable nugget of information would help me comprehend some of the unique idiosyncrasies I noticed about my newly betrothed. It just didn’t seem fair to keep blaming some distant drill sergeant from his sordid past.
At least I thought this was the case until she told me, while we were home on leave and I was standing beside her in her kitchen, that she liked washing dishes by hand.
This nugget of information seemed highly unlikely to help me at all.
There was a perfectly good dishwashing machine right there in the room with us. I didn’t understand. She seemed like such a normal person. Perhaps, in some perverse way, this did indeed explain why her only son could be ever so slightly compulsive about certain things.
“You’ll figure it out one day,” she told me with a sneaky smile. She continued to wash the dishes for about an hour while we chatted on and on about so many things, big and small.
Twenty-four years and two daughters later, the “aha” moment finally hit me as I found myself hand-washing new dinner plates that (curses) wouldn’t fit into the perfectly good dishwasher.
My two extremely chatty daughters, standing next to me, sympathized (or maybe they were just afraid I’d put them to work instead). In any event, they were present in the room, by my side, sharing their diverse exploits of the day, keeping me very much front and center in their lives, a place that I am only borrowing for a few short years of their lives.
So, I continued to wash the dishes for about an hour while we chatted on and on about so many things, big and small. I didn’t mind, though.
I like washing dishes by hand.
About the Author: Janet Farley is author of The Military Spouse’s Complete Guide to Career Success (Impact Publications, 2007) and The Military-to-Civilian Career Transition Guide (Jist, 2004). Visit her Web site at www.janetfarley.com.
Apr 14 2009
“In 1986, April was designated as the Month of the Military Child, and I am proud to mark the special recognition the Department of Defense has given to military children. Like all Americans, I am grateful to the brave men and women in uniform who are serving our nation. They are the living embodiment of the ideals of sacrifice, honor and duty that have always made this nation great – and their sacrifice is their families’ sacrifice too. Their children, especially, display tremendous strength and courage each day, bravely bearing the burden of having a loved one serving in harm’s way. They may move many times – across the nation and even around the world – as they grow up. They may not see their loved ones for months on end. It is not easy, and Michelle and I, as well as the Vice President and Dr. Jill Biden, admire and are deeply grateful to each and every one of them. I call on all Americans to keep military children in their thoughts and prayers and to do their part to reach out to and support them and their families.”
Apr 14 2009
The recent dramatic increase in piracy off the coast of Africa has made news headlines around the world and now Spike TV has partnered with the Emmy Award-winning reality production house 44 Blue Productions (“The True Story of Black Hawk Down,” “Lockup”) and Adam Friedman (“Vertical Ascent”) for production on the pilot “Pirate Hunters: USN” (working title), an up-close and behind-the-scenes look at the US Navy operation to end this deadly threat of piracy in the Gulf of Aden.
These often-violent hijackings off the coast of eastern Africa not only pose a grave threat to the lives of sailors taking cargo through the region, but are also starting to add an exorbitant amount to the cost of worldwide trade. Now, television viewers will be able to see this dramatic, tension-filled and high-stakes military mission first-hand.
“Piracy off the coast of Africa is a real and deadly threat,” said Rasha Drachkovitch, president and founder of 44 Blue Productions. “With ‘Pirate Hunters: USN,’ our goal is to capture that drama for the TV audience in order to highlight the heroic work undertaken by the US Navy every day in this fight against terrorism.”
The US Navy is allowing Spike and 44 Blue Productions in-depth access as they embark on their mission from the military base in the seaside nation of Djibouti (bordering Somalia and Ethiopia) and on the open water. Cameras will capture every element of life aboard two US warships, the USS San Antonio and USS Boxer, as they patrol 1.1 million square miles of ocean for the pirates who call this region home.
Check out Spike TV’s Web site for more information on this upcoming show!
Apr 14 2009
General Ray Odierno, Commander of the Multi-National Force- Iraq, has a facebook page with more than 3,400 supporters! Check out his statements to the troops, status updates, YouTube videos of his television appearances and more.
Become a supporter of Gen. Odierno on Facebook to keep up with all the latest reports and updates from the U.S. Commanding General in Iraq.
Apr 14 2009
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have demonstrated that the U.S. military is ill-equipped to strike at extremists who hide among civilians. Using deadly force against these extremists can harm and alienate the very people whose cooperation U.S. forces are trying to earn.
In a new study from the RAND Corporation, David Gompert, lead author of the study and a senior fellow at RAND, proposes a ‘continuum of force’- a suite of non-lethal capabilities that includes sound, light, and lasers, the intensity of which can be calibrated from mild to moderate to intense, depending on the situation. Given the importance of timely and accurate information in urban operations, this ‘continuum’ also should include the innovative use of cell phones and video cameras.
The technologies for these capabilities are available but have not been recognized as a solution to this strategic problem and, consequently, need more high-level attention and funding. For example, although the U.S. Department of Defense has a Joint Non-lethal Weapons Directorate, the $50 million it spends annually is only a tiny fraction of the department’s overall budget.
The study also recommends that junior officers and non-commissioned officers be given additional training in how to determine when nonlethal force is required and to what degree. Gompert and his colleagues at RAND, a nonprofit research organization, also recommend that the U.S. pursue international collaboration on how best to implement these new technologies and tactics.
The study, “Underkill: Scalable Capabilities for Military Operations amid Populations,” is available at www.rand.org
Apr 13 2009
Ten finalists from the nation’s most prestigious universities were selected to compete in the annual National Security Innovation Competition (NSIC) in Colorado Springs, Colorado, May 1.
The competition is presented by the National Homeland Defense Foundation and sponsored by the Colorado Homeland Defense Alliance and the Colorado Springs Technology Incubator.
The top three team projects will receive cash scholarship awards and will be featured at the 2009 National Homeland Defense Foundation Symposium. The entries selected promote national security-related innovations and expose novel technologies in areas such aerospace, defense, security, and first responder activities. Finalists include:
The final round of the competition will consist of oral presentations given to a panel of homeland security and defense experts. The following is a list of industry organizations with officials that will participate in judging:
Apr 13 2009
A college specializing in technical education for students with hearing loss is reaching out to U.S. troops who have suffered significant hearing loss as a result of exposure to gunfire and explosions during their military service.
The National Technical Institute for the Deaf, a college of Rochester Institute of Technology, has established the Military Veterans with Hearing Loss Project at RIT/NTID. Recent veterans with hearing loss can earn bachelor or graduate-level degrees at RIT with access services – such as real-time captioning and notetaking in the classroom – from NTID.
A Web site for the initiative has been created to offer prospective students more information about the college and details the services available.
Nearly 1,300 deaf and hard-of-hearing students attend NTID. They receive access services as needed in classrooms throughout the RIT campus, including live captioning and notetaking services as well as sign language interpreting.
The Department of Veterans Affairs reports hearing damage is the most common disability for veterans. More than 46,700 veterans from Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom have reported hearing loss. That damage is permanent for many veterans.
Exposure to more than 85 decibels continuously or 140 decibels for any length of time can damage hearing. A rifle can produce 160 decibels of sound.
The first veterans may attend an orientation program this summer and begin classes this fall. As many as 10 veterans could be admitted each year, growing up to 50 veterans over time. The same standard academic requirements for admission to RIT/NTID would be applied to veterans.
RIT recently announced it will become a “Yellow Ribbon” college, offering significant discounted tuition for recent veterans pursuing their educations at RIT. More than 300 RIT students are currently receiving veterans’ benefits. The amount of the discount depends on their length of service.
NTID was established by Congress in 1965 to offer deaf and hard-of-hearing students a technical college education. Students from every state attend RIT/NTID. Students live, study and socialize with more than 15,000 hearing students on the RIT campus.
For more information, visit www.rit.edu/NTID.
