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In this photo by Airman 1st Class Kimberly Barrer, Staff Sergeant Maria Monzi with the 4th Medical Readiness Squadron based at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina places a Red Cross arm band on fellow medical technician Staff Sergeant Candice Stafford as they prepare to administer COVID-19 immunizations. The military provides numerous avenues for recruits interested in a medical career.
Bethesda, MD. (July 24, 2022): Can you stand the sight of blood? Are you able to keep your cool while responding to medical emergencies? Have you ever pictured yourself as a doctor, registered nurse, or medical technician?
If so, America’s armed forces might be the place to start.
Sadly, American servicemembers are going to get hurt doing their duty, even in peace time. Our nation prides itself on providing state of the art medical care to our active-duty troops no matter where they serve in the world. That is why the Army operates one of the world’s elite medical training programs based at the famed Walter Reed National Military Medical Center at Bethesda, Maryland.
Read more: Ever Dream Of Being A Doctor? Saving Lives While Serving Our Nation
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In this U.S. Army photo by Janet Wychock, Army Research Scientist for Chemistry Dr. Patricia McDaniel, left, works with research scientists Brian Hauck and Janet Jensen to explore chemical and biological detection technologies to protect warfighters in the field.
Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD. (July 22, 2022): It made its ghastly appearance in the trenches of World War I. It wounded 1.3 million combatants on both sides, killing over 100,000 soldiers and civilians. The demon that caused all this destruction was chemical agents, mostly mustard gas, fired back and forth indiscriminately by both the Germans and the allies. This was the world’s introduction to the grisly use of chemical weapons in combat, and it would not be the last.
The Russians have vast stockpiles of these weapons of mass destruction and has shown a recent willingness to use them against civilians in Syria. America must protect its troops from this lethal threat using all available technology.
That is the mission of the U.S. Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command Chemical and Biological Center, led by Senior Research Scientist Dr. Patricia McDaniel and her highly skilled team of investigators/developers. Based at the Army’s testing facility at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, Dr. McDaniel directs two basic research and innovation exploratory science programs that are developing “Microsensors” capable of detecting the tiniest amount of chemical or biological agents. These low cost, light weight sensors alert America’s warfighters to the presence of chemical agents in time to protect themselves and their comrades.
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In this Air Force photo by Chris Farley, Staff Sergeant Darrell Anderson hugs his wife Felicia and son after returning from a three-month deployment to Europe. SSgt. Anderson is assigned to the 934th Airlift Wing, Minneapolis-St. Paul Air Reserve Station, Minnesota which deployed to Europe to practice tactical airlifts and aeromedical evacuations. Families like these learn to be resilient in the face of multiple relocations and long deployments overseas.
Minneapolis-St. Paul Air Force Reserve Station, MN. (July 9, 2022). Military families face challenges and stresses that dwarf those of average Americans, yet they also enjoy many advantages civilians should envy.
At a time in our history when Americans battled over school integration, our military schools were an amazing blend of students of all colors and faiths from every corner of the earth. In fact, the armed forces have been remarkably "progressive” over the years treating and promoting minorities fairly and honorably. Military families have longed enjoyed racial harmony as part of a the most diverse armed forces in the world.
By necessity, service families are resilient. Multiple deployments and a dozen relocations harden the resolve of servicemembers to maintain, as best they can, a “normal” existence for their kids. The children learn that life is impermanent and to grab for all the gusto they can before these fleeting relationships end. Constant, often radical, change forces military families to readily adapt to new environments and foreign cultures.
Service families are resourceful and self-sufficient. In these days of child-centered “helicopter” parenting, military kids are taught early to fend for themselves. During multiple deployments, they are expected to manage their own affairs while doing chores shunned by most American teenagers. They clean their rooms, mow the lawn, and do the laundry without complaint.
Military families reflect American values. Not surprisingly, military families are fiercely patriotic and consider public services the highest calling. Military brats are taught to revere their freedoms and the nation that makes them possible. They often follow their parents into the military when it is “their turn.”
Therefore, it is so important for Americans, like you, to support these patriotic families as they struggle to defend our nation. While military families may not be on the battlefield, they nonetheless are a vital link in our country’s defense. Please do your part by making a generous donation to Support Our Troops at our secure site supportourtroops.org/donate today.
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While they enjoy many advantages, military kids negotiate multiple schools, relocations and repeated deployments growing up. In this photo by Joshua Armstrong, U.S. Air Force Emily Adams embraces a family member following graduation from Preparatory School for the United States Air Force Academy.
Colorado Springs, CO. (July 13, 2022). Military kids grow up fast, are resilient and adaptable, and enjoy many advantages. They are well-travelled, receive a good education and enjoy free health care, safe housing, and parents with steady incomes. They are, nevertheless, children and subject to the same emotional roller coaster as other kids.
While civilian youth navigate first dates, bullies and school gossips, military kids must also contend with frequent relocations and long periods of separation from a parent during multiple deployments. The impact of repeated, back-to-back deployments has been called the “Military Families Syndrome”, a term coined during the Viet Nam War to characterize the behavioral and psychological problems of children of deployed parents.
According to Dr. Michael Faran, a psychiatrist, retired colonel and chief of the Child, Adolescent and Family Behavioral Health Office at Army Medical Command, "Kids often experience more anxiety and some studies suggest about 30 percent of children will have difficulties as a result of deployment. Dr. Faran cited increased rates of depression and anxiety, a decrease in academic performance, and sometimes the use of use of drugs and alcohol as evidence of this phenomenon.
Experts say military kids often suffer from separation anxiety, depression, excessive worry, sleep problems, and other physical complaints both during deployments and after parents return home.
This is especially true for children whose parents come home from war with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, depression, or who suffered a traumatic brain injury. For these children, multiple deployments mean family upheaval, personal chaos, and parents whose personalities change when they return home.
Read more: “MILITARY FAMILY SYNDROME”; MULTIPLE DEPLOYMENTS’ ADVERSE EFFECT ON KIDS
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In the photo by Navy Electronics Technician (Nuclear) 2nd Class Leland T. Hasty II, Senior Chief Sonar Technician (Submarine) Donald Mattes reunites with his family after seven months at sea, returning to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam from deployment with the 7th Fleet. Senior Chief Mattes hails from Crown Point, Indiana and is assigned to the Virginia-class fast attack submarine the U.S.S. North Carolina.
Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, HI. (July 12, 2022) So, who are these Americans military families and what is their world like?
First, and this cannot be emphasized enough, less than one percent of Americans serve on active duty in our armed forces.
Currently, there are 1.6 million American active-duty military families serving at upwards of 750 military installations around the world. Half are married with just over 36 percent having young children (under 5 years of age) according to the 2020 Demographic Report by Military Source One. Military spouses remain overwhelmingly female (90 percent) and are young (68 percent under 30 years of age) are most are just starting their families.
Service families have higher divorce rates than their civilian counterparts, mostly due to the frequent deployments, long separations, and constant worry unique to military life.
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In this U.S. Marine Corps photo by Corporal Isaac Cantrell, a “military brat” is fitted with a helmet during a tactical demonstration/community relations event at Kapolei, Hawaii. Service kids like these endure the instability and emotional separations common to military life.
Kapolei, Hawaii. (July 15, 2022). I was born at the U.S. Army’s 97th General Hospital in Frankfurt, Germany with a big green US stamped on my first diaper. The son of an Army officer, I would grow up a “military brat” until joining the Army myself at age 17, as is often expected of military youth. Army families were big in those days (ours had seven kids), and we learned early that we were “different” from our civilians hosts at whatever duty station we ended up.
Ours was an existence of radical change, constant uncertainty, and the instability of packing up our lives every three years. We marveled at folks who grew up where they were born and would live out their lives in one place. Military kids had to adapt to strange environments, quickly make new friends while settling into a new school every couple of years. This meant short courtships, fast friends and quickly passing enemies in the formative years that shaped our view of the world.
As kids, we had a saying “The first year you get to know someone, the second year you get to liking them, and the third year you say goodbye.” If you ask a civilian; “Where are you from”, they usually have a very specific answer. I went to three elementary, two middle and two high schools from Hawaii to Florida, never feeling “at home” anywhere. To us, home was where we laid our proverbial hats.
We grew accustomed to routine relocations, but we never got used to our father’s deployments during the Viet Nam War. Dad did two tours, each lasting nearly two years, during which we were glued to our television every night following nightly casualty reports as civilians do the weather.
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