Relationships & Family

Volunteers Send Troops Valentines

batch — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 04:05:06 -0600

Hoping to make Valentine's Day memorable for the troops, a charity organization in Orange County, California, is creating cards and gift packages for soldiers to ensure they're not forgotten on the holiday, according to the Orange County Register.

Disaster Cake

jnalewicki — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:50:43 -0600

I was still in college when I married a serviceman. I hadn’t yet met his family, and because I’d heard stories about the in-law problems of other Army wives, I was plenty apprehensive about meeting mine.

After my husband’s discharge, we’d settled into our own home for a month or so when my mother-in-law phoned. “I’ve invited the relatives to Sunday dinner so you can meet them all,” she said.

Comrades in Arms

batch — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:20:45 -0500

Vietnam was called the land that God forgot.

I sure saw the truth of that, serving as a combat medic in the late 1960s. My first nine months of duty were spent taking care of casualties choppered in to Landing Zone Sally, a base north of Hue.

At 20 I'd seen more suffering and death than I'd ever imagined possible. A man's life had no meaning here. How could I still believe in a God who cared about us, a God who cared about me?

Group Makes Cards for Troops

batch — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 04:05:07 -0600

Some people take little things like buying a card for granted.

Soldiers overseas have a difficult time getting greeting cards to send home to their loved ones, a problem that inspired one woman to do something about it.

Dianna Putnam wanted to give back to soldiers but didn't know how. She decided to start the nonprofit organization Totally4Troops, which recruits volunteers to create greeting cards for soldiers.

The World My Son Saw

mcherkezian — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 09:22:00 -0600

I turned the flash drive in my hands, my fingers running over its smooth case. It didn’t seem right that the last months of my son’s life were contained in this tiny bit of plastic and metal and computer circuitry. It felt flimsy, inconsequential, the complete opposite of my Joseph, a natural leader with a big presence—strong, solid, comforting.

Christmas in Iraq

jbloustein — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:46:43 -0600

7:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve. Contingency Operating Base Speicher near Tikrit, Iraq.

I sat in a metal chair at a long conference table in my usual spot as Logistics Officer. At the head of the table, the Colonel called our weekly staff combat operations briefing to order. No sentimentality. No Christmas decorations. Certainly no Christmas carols. Stick to our mission and take care of serious business. That suited me just fine.

Injured Soldier Given a Dream Home with Help of Volunteers

batch — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:05:07 -0600

When Corporal Visnu Gonzalez returned home from Iraq five years ago, he was paralyzed from the chest down due to a sniper's bullet.

CBS reports that since then, he'd been in and out of hospitals, without really being able to settle down.

This recently changed when the non-profit organization Homes for Our Troops heard about Gonzalez' story and wanted to help. They recruited volunteers to help build Gonzalez his dream house that he would be able to fully function in.

Help for Fort Hood

mcherkezian — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:05:00 -0600

Last week’s tragedy at Fort Hood in Texas was a blow struck at all decent people but one that landed most heavily, I think, on members of the military present and, like me, past.

I spent my whole career in the army, retiring several years ago with the rank of Major General, Chief of Chaplains. I know Fort Hood well. It is the single largest U.S. military installation in the world, home to nearly 50,000 soldiers and 120,000 family members.

Wreaths for Fallen Soldiers

batch — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 04:05:10 -0600

This December, a Texas-based nonprofit group has the goal of placing more than 55,000 wreaths on the graves of fallen soldiers, in a movement that was sparked by a little boy's question.

When Alex deMasi was 8 years old, his father Scott deMasi took him to a remembrance ceremony at Houston National Cemetery.

As they watched the observance, Alex asked his dad why each burial site at the city's cemetery did not receive a live wreath like the graves at Arlington National Cemetery do.

Their Stories

admin — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 12:44:00 -0500

My name is Nicholas Rider. I'm 14 and last year I published my first book. How's that? you ask. Well, it started with my grandfather.

Grandpa was a veteran of World War II, and maybe because I loved building model airplanes, I always used to ask him about what he'd done in the war. He was pretty modest about it. "Not a whole lot," he said.