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“When are you going to get me my ID card?”

The questions started three years before she could even have one. Unimpressed by DoD regulations requiring her to be at least 10 years old, she continued nagging us about it for a long, long time.

Of course, it didn’t help when her best friends turned 10 and obtained the coveted card before she did. Indeed, that only upped the stakes as far as the card-less one was concerned.

“When are you going to get me my ID card? All my friends have theirs already.”

We reminded her that she was only nine and despite her identity crisis, it just wasn’t going to happen until she reached the big 1-0.

Her birthday finally arrived and somehow we successfully dodged the proverbial bullet. In fact, we became quite good at it.

There always was a plausible excuse.

Dad is TDY at a conference. Mom has a PTA meeting. Your sister is sick. It looks like rain. Don’t you have homework to do? Maybe tomorrow, honey…

Another card-less month passed by and yet another. She would be eleven in two short months and the excuses were getting harder to manufacture by the day.

There weren’t any more conferences to attend. The PTA meeting was long since over. Her sister was feeling much better. The sun was shining, and no, she didn’t have any more homework to do. Sadly, it would seem that tomorrow had arrived despite her parents’ greatest efforts to keep it at bay.

“It’s a conspiracy! You guys just don’t want me to grow up, that’s what it is!”

Busted by the brat.

Ten months, six days, seven hours and fourteen minutes after she was eligible, we caved and finally took her to get an ID card. To her horror and our consolation, we documented the occasion, step-by-step, using my cell phone’s camera.

Afterwards, on a trip to the PX to buy her a new wallet for her new ID card, I learned that we weren’t the only excuse-making parents out there as I overheard one mom loudly whisper to another, “I just don’t know how much longer I can get away with not getting her that ID card!”

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.

Dedicated to producing and promoting great American music from the nation’s most talented military personnel, To The Fallen Records (TTFR) joined Rolling Thunder, a non-profit organization for POW-MIAs and all American veterans, to support the Washington, D.C. community in tribute to American troops and their families at the “Saluting the Troops” program on Saturday, May 23, 2009. Held at the Reflecting Pool at the base of the Lincoln Memorial in the nation’s capital from 12 noon to 5 p.m., the event featured live headlining performances from To the Fallen Records’ artists Mike Corrado and Ted Painter, as well as a featured speaking engagement from the label’s founder, CEO and military veteran Sean Gilfillan.

The program’s Master of Ceremonies was once again Chris Noel, the former actress and voice of Armed Forces Radio and Television during the Vietnam War, who has been an active supporter of veterans since the mid-1960s. In addition to TTFR’s Corrado, Painter and Gilfillan, other special guests at the event included national recording artist Spike Ivory; “Ambassador of Laughter” Sheila Van Dyke; Vietnam Memorial Founder and veterans’ activist Jan Scruggs; keynote speaker Sgt. Patrick Campbell, the Chief Legislative Counsel for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) as well as a combat medic serving with the D.C. National Guard; and many more.

• U.S. Marine Corps Major Mike Corrado has proudly served his country with both the discipline of a Marine and the musical chops to create a pop-rock sound and proven radio success. Since 1995, Mike has released 6 CDs and a live concert DVD, and has developed a strong grassroots following by performing 200-250 dates a year across the country. He has opened for artists including John Mayer, Edwin McCain, Train and Derek Trucks, and his 2005 hit song “On My Watch Tonight” was featured on ABC’s Extreme Makeover Home Edition, becoming an anthem for service men and women worldwide. Corrado’s 2005 deployment to Fallujah, Iraq, leaving behind his wife and three-month-old daughter, inspired his song “Start Saving Me,” which was included on The Fallen Records Presents Rock: Volume I. Still on active duty, Corrado is currently in the studio working on his 7th CD release. Further details and updates at www.mikecorrado.com

• Capt. Ted Painter, originally an Army Ranger in 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) who transitioned into the National Guard, is an acclaimed country singer/songwriter and frontman of his South County Band. The group has played numerous gigs, recorded an EP and video, and has received airplay throughout their central Massachusetts home base. Painter’s song “Livin’ For Tomorrow” is a featured track on To The Fallen Records Presents Country: Volume I, and was inspired by a friend and fellow Army Ranger’s experience serving in Afghanistan, as well as Painter’s own family back home. For updates, check out http://www.myspace.com/thesouthcountyband

Kimberly Allers, author of The Mocha Manual to a Fabulous Pregnancy, pairs with Pamela McBride, a military wife of over twenty years to bring us this accessible, informative guide for navigating life as a military spouse, girlfriend, or service woman- with tips on everything from how to financially and emotionally handle deployment to how to carry oneself at official gatherings.

From Kimberly Seals-Allers, the creator of the Mocha Manual series and coauthor Pamela McBride, a seasoned military wife, comes the ultimate guide to life, love, and logistics for military spouses, girlfriends, and female service members. Whether you’re just beginning a relationship with a military personnel and are pondering the ins and outs of a long distance relationship as he moves from base to base or are a newly wed military wife, or are full swing into the life, The Mocha Manual to Military Life has a host of tips and insights to optimizing your romance. Beyond matters of the heart, this guide also offers advice on everything from how to master military protocol to how best to build friendships among military wives, a group that can seem club like and exclusive to the uninitiated.

Accessible and witty way, The Mocha Manual to Military Life is a fresh and timely must-read for all women – but particularly black and Latina women – affected by military service. Written in the same informative tone as the other books in the Mocha Manual series (The Mocha Manual to a Fabulous Pregnancy and The Mocha Manual to Turning Your Passion into Profit), with sidebars and testimony from women who have experience navigating military life, this book is sure to be essential reading for all women engaged in some form or fashion with the military.

REQUEST YOUR REVIEW COPY TODAY!

Amistad
on sale June 30, 2009
ISBN 9780061690488
$14.99, Trade Paperback

For a review copy, contact:
Barbara Teszler
(212) 207-7727
barbara.teszler@harpercollins.com

Heavily protected targets require special attention, and that’s just what the U.S. Air Force has in mind with its Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), a 15-ton, GPS-guided weapon carrying more than 5,300 pounds of explosives.

Developed by Boeing with the assistance of Northrop Grumman, the MOP is designed to defeat hardened facilities used by hostile states to protect weapons of mass destruction production, storage, delivery systems, and command and control.

According to the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), a DoD combat support agency and the project’s manager, the MOP will provide a first-time capability to conventionally defeat hundreds of the most important weapons of mass destruction that are hard and deeply buried targets (HDBTs) in the world.

The MOP is part of DTRA’s Hard Target Defeat Program, which develops and demonstrates technology to defeat military missions protected in HDBTs.

The MOP is approximately 20.5 feet long, with a 31.5-inch diameter. The explosive material it can carry and deliver has more than 10 times the explosive power of its predecessor, the BLU-109.

The MOP is all-weather capable, guided by GPS navigation, has cropped wings for improved agility, and has storable grid fin controls that facilitate internal carriage. It’s designed to be carried inside both B-2 and B-52 bombers deployed at high altitudes.

Technology demonstration test drops are under way and are expected to be conducted from B-52s. The tests are designed to measure the penetration and lethality performance of the MOP on bunker and tunnel targets constructed at DTRA’s weapons of mass destruction national testbeds at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

The Air Force reports MOP is expected to penetrate 200 feet underground before it explodes.

DTRA partnered with the Air Force Research Laboratory Munitions Directorate, which executed the Boeing contract and provides management and technical support to the technology demonstration.

About the author: Alan M. Petrillo is a Tucson, Ariz., freelance writer who works in a wide variety of fields, writing for national and regional magazines and newspapers. He’s also the author of the historical mystery, Full Moon.