Leaving the military is such as big deal that we devote an entire issue to it every year. For most veterans, it is the only way of life you have ever known as an adult, and through osmosis, the same goes for the spouse who may have followed you on the journey.
Whether you chased that DD-214 for some time, or had to be gently-nudged out because there was nowhere left for you to go in your career, jumping feet first into becoming a full-fledged civilian may include a sense of loss and a feeling of being lost. And let’s face it, doing all this during a global pandemic is not pretty. The word uncertainty looms over the job market, economy, and every aspect of our lives. It is among the reasons why we pooled resources that go outside the standard TAP class, starting with the Marine on the cover: Jake Wood.
Wood is the CEO of Team Rubicon — an organization that helps veterans recover some sense of service they once found in the military. He leads a team of “Greyshirts” who are just like you. In fact, the whole premise of why he co-founded Team Rubicon in the first place is because he, too, was looking for something that life after the Marine Corps was not providing.
This month he released a new book called “Once a Warrior,” that takes you behind the scenes of finding value in disaster relief work. Read more about his life, service and story on page 10.
Jake Wood is the CEO of Team Rubicon, an organization that mobilizes veterans to serve in communities around the globe. Cover photo shoot by Samuel Lucas Gove.
Blake Stillwell
Andrea Downing Peck
Jessica Evans
Amy Pottinger
Maxine Reyes
Stephen Ruiz
Shelley Levitt Tiffany Lawrence
Stephanie Montague
Sarah Wilkening
Jessica Manfre Teal Yost Meredith Flory Lila Quintiliani Kate Horrell
Military Families Magazine by AmeriForce Media, LLC, is published 12 times a year for active duty service members and their families. Copies are available through participating family service centers, relocation offices, transition offices, base lodges, libraries, daycare centers, MWR activities and other locations by request. Unit distribution requests can be made online at www.AmeriForceMedia.com/ mf/print-magazines/
Individuals can order a free digital edition of this issue at www.AmeriForceMedia.com/ mf/subscribe-free/
Editorial comments can be emailed to managing.editor@ameriforcemedia.com
Military Families Magazine is published by AmeriForce Media, LLC, Bloomington, Indiana, a private company. Information and advertisements in this publication do not constitute endorsement by any branch of the military or the Department of Defense. No part of this publication may be copied without the express written permission of the publishers. AmeriForce Media, LLC, the publishers, and publisher’s agents make no endorsement of any advertised services or products and none should be inferred.
President and Publisher Todd Taranto
Managing Editor Bianca M. Strzalkowski
Assistant Editor Susan Malandrino
by by Tiffany Eve LawrenceDigital Editor Lauren Lomsdale
Design Open-Look Business Solutions
ADVERTISING
PLEASE CALL 703-337-8100
Todd Taranto Publisher
Todd.Taranto@AmeriForceMedia.com
Julie Miller Vice President, Sales Julie.Miller@AmeriForceMedia.com
Ursula Hirschhaeuser Germany Sales +49 (0) 69-15053980
Ursula-Hirschhaeuser@t-online.de
Photo contributions by Trish Alegre-Smith and Brian Alvarado.
Ginsburg’s husband, Martin, served in the Army Reserve, leading the couple to be stationed at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in the 1950s.
Libby Jamison, a Navy spouse, said Ginsburg’s ultimate success with an unconventional path is something spouses can relate to and should embrace.
Makeshift memorials took shape at the Supreme Court building in the hours and days following the passing of Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Sept. 18. She served the court for more than 27 years.
Ginsburg became a natural icon for women because of her experience in facing — and fighting — barriers.
“Justice Ginsburg never closed the door behind her. She always brought others up with her and we all have the power to do that every day,” Josie Beets, an Army spouse, said.
By Bianca M. Strzalkowski
“The Right Stuff” takes viewers back to America’s space race against the Soviet Union, with the U.S. placing its hopes on the capabilities of seven astronauts — all military test pilots. Two men at the center of the Mercury Seven are Maj. John Glenn (played by Patrick J. Adams), a revered Marine test pilot and committed family man, and Lt. Cmdr. Alan Shepard (played by Jake McDorman), one of the best test pilots in Navy history, according to a press release.
McDorman and his fellow cast members had a wealth of research to lean on for the pre-production process, he says, but Alan Shepard
was also a private man — he was among the astronauts that didn’t write his own book. The other component of McDorman’s preparation for the role entailed inperson experiences.
“As far as the physical training part of it [the role], none of us did as much as we wished we could have — there was probably an astronaut bucket list that we all have,” he said. “We didn’t get to do the most exciting parts of astronaut training physically but educationally, by far, we did. We shot in Coco Beach, we shot in Florida where all of this stuff happened. We got to meet real astronauts at Kennedy Space Center
and tour the entire facility; we got invited to the 50th anniversary of the moon landing … and just kind of soak in this environment firsthand before we started.”
The Disney+ series also examines the astronauts’ families, who became instant celebrities. Among those under the microscope was Louise Shepard (played by Shannon Lucio), a wife and mother who refuses to let her husband’s [Alan Shepard] transgressions affect her home.
Lucio says “The Right Stuff” offers an opportune message for current matters facing the nation.
“The story is an inspiring one because it takes these people who are deeply-flawed, but very ambitious and also noble and honorable, in some respects, and it throws them together and they’re all jockeying for this position to be the first. But at the end of the day they realize this is so much bigger than them. This is for America. This is for humanity. This is for trying to push what we are capable of further, and I think that right now, especially with what’s going on and how divisive our country in particular is in this moment, coming together and accomplishing something that is unthinkable is a story I feel needs to be shared and watched right now, for the sake of our souls,” Lucio said.
Disney+ series is a throwback to an aspirational time in U.S. history that proved ordinary humans can achieve extraordinary feats.
When the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, Jake Wood was a student at the University of Wisconsin, playing football for the Badgers. A year later, when he heard about the death of Pat Tillman in Afghanistan, Wood felt compelled to follow through on a lifelong urge to join the military. He walked into a Marine recruiter’s office after his final football game of his senior year.
By Blake StillwellWood served in the infantry, then was a scout sniper before transitioning out. He had been out of the Marines for just two months when a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti, killing 160,000 people and displacing a million more on Jan. 12, 2010. It triggered a reaction within him that would set the stage for a future organization focused on finding purpose, community, and identity after the military.
“It points back to a moment on 9/11, which was nine years earlier. You know, on 9/11 I felt this urge to serve, I felt called to serve, I felt that within me and I just didn’t do it. And so, when Haiti happened, it was this other call to action in my life where I felt the urge to do something,” Wood said. “I realized, I’m not going to let another moment pass me by and it was that coupled with the fact that I was still only
60 days out of the Marine Corps. I was still trying to grapple with that. This idea that that part of my life — serving a mission — was over.”
Wood and co-founder William McNulty got to work. They assembled a team of eight veterans and doctors to fly into neighboring Dominican Republic with supplies. They then drove into the disaster area to do whatever they could —
all before the end of the week.
This was the birth of Team Rubicon, a nonprofit that mobilizes veterans to continue service by helping prepare, respond and recover from large-scale disasters faster than traditional aid agencies. Since the Haiti earthquake, the organization has grown to more than 130,000 volunteers — known as Greyshirts — across the U.S. and has launched
more than 700 operations both domestically and internationally.
Wood had no idea his small corps of eight volunteers would experience so much growth within 10 years.
“I don’t think we intentionally set out to disrupt anything,” Wood recalls. “I think what we intentionally did was build an organization that we’d want to be a part of, something inclusive that spoke to our generation of veterans, which only by happenstance cuts against the grain of some traditional VSOs because they were built for a different generation.”
With no prior experience in nonprofit management, Team Rubicon was built in a way that Wood thought an organization should be built, which would integrate veterans and their skills using a familiar environment. He says it was a benefit to start with a blank canvas.
“The reality is, we didn’t know what we didn’t know. I was a first-time entrepreneur and … in some ways I’m kind of still learning as I go. I think it was to our advantage early on that we didn’t have the experience of working with or engaging other nonprofits or veteran organizations because we got to start from scratch and say, if we can build the perfect organization for us — for me personally — then that was kind of the goal. Through that lens we really built a post-9/11 organization that appealed to the generation that we came from,” Wood said.
An important part of that was using a structure and protocols similar to the military, something Team Rubicon does by design. Wood says they wanted to create an atmosphere that feels familiar to its volunteers without overdoing it. Team Rubicon uses integrated plans and manuals; the way
military doctrine is designed. Those manuals are the result of collected best practices of emergency management, military humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations, among other sources. “We try to take the best out of the military and leave all the bad stuff,” Wood said. “The military does a lot of things really well, so those are some of the things that we took with us.”
Nowhere was the need for reintegrating veterans into civilian life more apparent than right in front of the founders of Team Rubicon. Wood was a longtime friend of Clay Hunt, a fellow Marine who served with him in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Hunt was one of the original members of the team who deployed to Haiti in 2010. Sadly, he took his own life in 2011, an event that shifted the team from a disaster relief organization to an organization that supports veterans in their transition.
Team Rubicon has since created a fellowship training program in his honor.
One of an estimated 38,000 veterans’ organizations that have sprung up since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Team Rubicon sees the post9/11 generation of veterans as more like its co-founder — motivated and skilled — with the desire to lead a service-oriented life.
“We were spurred to action through this sense of service, but back then we didn’t see it as defining the rest of our professional careers,” Wood said. “Being community oriented was always a little bit a part of who I was, but now service is part of my DNA and Team Rubicon will always be part of my life.”
The Clay Hunt Fellows Program is designed to help veterans redefine their purpose toward service after leaving the military. Any American veteran signed up with Team Rubicon can apply. It’s a six-month regimen of self-discovery that uses personality tests, focused discussion, reading and other means of selfreflection to help Team Rubicon members better lead in their communities.
Amidst the COVID-19 outbreak, Team Rubicon has not only pivoted to be able to continue to deliver disaster response and rebuild services in core mission areas, but it has also expanded the scope of missions to meet community needs brought about by the pandemic. This has required the development of extensive protocols that allow its Greyshirts to swiftly and safely continue to deliver on its core mission of disaster response which has recently included operations for Hurricanes Laura, Isaias, Hanna and the recent derecho in the Midwest.
To learn more about volunteer opportunities with Team Rubicon, visit https://teamrubiconusa.org.
“Clay discovered that service was going to be of importance to him,” Wood said. “He just didn’t know how. We take veterans and help them discover who they are, who they want to be and how to chart pathways in their life to continue to be of service and impact to their country. It made sense to do this in honor of Clay, because he was really the inspiration for it.”
Jake Wood’s new book “Once a Warrior: How One Veteran Found a New Mission Closer to Home,” details the development of Team Rubicon and the importance of giving meaningful direction to the lives of U.S. military veterans. Find it on bookshelves starting Nov. 10, 2020.
So, you want to be a millionaire? Here’s a surprising answer: Join the military.
A growing number of military millionaires are proving financial independence and the military lifestyle can go hand-and-hand. But like six-pack abs, a bulging net worth doesn’t happen without sacrifice and hard work.
Navy veteran Doug Nordman, author of the “Military Guide to Financial Independence,” has crunched the numbers and determined a 15% contribution rate to the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) is the golden ticket to a million-dollar retirement nest egg.
“An active-duty E-3 can grow a million dollars in their TSP,” Nordman said, “but they have to start today.”
Using a calculation that includes a 1.6% average annual military pay raise, 6% annual return on investments and typical time-in-grade promotions, Nordman’s super-saver service member would retire from the military as a 40-year-old E-7. By age 59, their TSP account would have grown to more than $1 million, despite zero new contributions after leaving the military.
Military financial experts maintain contributing to the TSP — the military’s version of a 401(k)retirement account — is step one on the road to building wealth. By contributing a minimum of 5% of base pay to the TSP, young service members maximize the Blended Retirement System’s (BRS) 5% automatic and matching contributions, leaving no “free money” behind.
“Imagine having an extra 5% in taxfree retirement savings every year,” said Navy reservist Carol Pittner, who left active duty in 2019. “That’s exactly what the BRS does for everyone in the program.”
Because wealth-building takes time, starting early is key. A 25-year-old service member who starts saving $100 a month in the TSP or an Individual Retirement Account will end up with nearly twice as much money at age 65 as someone who waited until age 35 to begin contributing an identical amount monthly.
“Every self-made millionaire started with zero,” says Air Force veteran Chris Lehto, author of “Military Millionaire” . “If you don’t understand and appreciate the power of exponential growth, you
don’t start saving and instead spend your money on depreciating assets” such as expensive cars, televisions and other lifestyle-enhancing toys.
Lehto suggests service members track their net worth monthly in order to stay motivated and “keep moving your net worth needle forward.” He’s a proponent of contributing at least 10% to a Roth TSP stock or age-based Lifecycle fund, which have low annual fees and allow tax-free withdrawals at civilian retirement age. He also has boosted his own net worth by converting two homes into rental properties.
Active-duty Marine David Pere is founder of From Military to Millionaire — a blog and podcast that helps service members build wealth through real estate investing, personal finance and entrepreneurship. Pere acknowledges enlisted families have a greater challenge finding “extra” money to invest in the TSP or real estate, but he maintains most people can unearth some additional money that could be earmarked for investing.
“Cut out the unnecessary expenses,” he said. “If you have a Disney+ membership you don’t need, maybe you get rid of that or, more importantly, if you have a $200 a month cable package, but you could spend $70 a month through a Wi-Fi connection on a Smart TV, that’s the way to go.”
While the BRS means almost everyone joining the military will take retirement savings with them whether they serve three years or 30 years, those retiring from active duty with a legacy “High-3” pension have an unprecedented opportunity to achieve financial independence. The Department of Defense’s 2018 Statistical Report on the Military Retirement System estimated the
Military One Source: Money Matters Course
https://www.militaryonesource.mil/ training-resources/money-matters
USAA Financial Readiness Advice
https://www.usaa.com/inet/wc/ financial-readiness-advice-toolslanding?akredirect=true
TheMilitaryGuide.com
https://the-military-guide.com/
Local base or installation financial readiness programs
FromMilitarytoMillionaire.com
https://www.frommilitarytomillionaire. com/
Certified Financial Planner™
Jeff Rose, author of Soldier of Finance https://jeffrose.com/
Ryan Guina, founder and editor of The Military Wallet
https://themilitarywallet.com/
projected value of an E-7’s retired pay at $758,603 while an O-5’s payout reached nearly $1.49 million.
“New [military] retirees currently have the richest retirement system ever,” said financial advisor Merle Jones, who founded Missouribased Jones Investment Group after retiring from the Army as a command master sergeant. “The variable nobody ever calculates is the VA (Veterans Benefits Administration) disability, and this generation of retirees has been at war for 20 years.”
Jones points out today’s military retiree with a 100% disability rating receives more than $3,100 per month in tax-free income–the equivalent of a $900,000 taxable annuity. Married retirees with dependent children would receive more.
Nordman, however, maintains the biggest benefit of saving and investing early in your military career is the freedom to walk away before reaching military-retirement age.
“Saving for financial independence gives you choices, and one of those choices is taking your military career one obligation at a time,” he said. “Stay on active duty as long as it’s challenging and fulfilling, but when the fun stops, then it’s time to consider transferring to the Reserves or National Guard. You can achieve financial independence without a military pension…Don’t feel forced to gut it out to 20.”
By Jessica Evans
O’Malley said everyone he has known who died by suicide had one thing in common: isolation.
Attending the funeral of a battle buddy who took his own life, O’Malley was struck by the grief of his friend’s mother who kept asking, “Why?” So, he set out to do something about it.
O’Malley researched suicide rates among transitioning veterans. When he realized how much it impacts the military community, he knew something had to change.
He reasoned that if he was able to get a bunch of people together laughing, it might lead them to talk, which in turn might lead them to feel less-socially isolated.
“Laughter connects us because it lets us know we both think alike and there are similarities in our experiences. And in the military, we have a very strong sense of community, but that’s often absent once we get out,” he said.
After medically retiring in 2017, O’Malley himself was missing that sense of community, so he reached out to some Marines in his last unit and organized a “Silkies Hike.” He and his buddies donned their silkies, strapped a 22 kg ruck on their backs and set out to walk 22 km to represent the 22 veterans who die by suicide daily.
O’Malley said he expected about 10 people to show up but was so excited when 75 Marines arrived. Right away, O’Malley knew he was onto something special.
“I remember thinking that all we have to do is facilitate social connection among veterans of the same unit. They have a shared experience that will help them bond, and in turn, can help them heal,” he said.
What started as a local event quickly spread across the country, and O’Malley’s non-profit organization, Irreverent Warriors, was born. Irreverent Warriors is a nonprofit whose mission is to facilitate social connection and bring the military community together. To date, Irrelevant Warriors has helped bring over 60,000 veterans together.
Once the Silkies Hikes started taking off, O’Malley realized he could do something with all the energy and interest that the organization generated.
He made a video to market a book he wrote that was based on a post written while he was trying to get his foot in the door at a popular veterancentric blog. The blog post didn’t take off, but making videos sparked something else. While he realized it would be impossible for him to do it on his own, O’Malley saw the need for irreverent veteran-based comedy shows. But there was no market for it. True to form, he created it.
“I was trying to monetize it, but I realized I couldn’t sell two to fiveminute sketches individually. So, I
realized I needed to start my own Netflix,” he said.
That’s exactly what he did. With a targeted audience of “combat grunts,” O’Malley has launched the first-ever television network created for military veterans, by military veterans.
“There’s no one telling stories that are for us, with our voice, and making an effort to get it right. I saw that need and decided I should be the one to do something about it,” O’Malley explained.
Using an “attract your tribe” mindset, O’Malley created VET Tv as a streaming video on demand channel (SVOD). He said he and his team have literally googled their way to success.
“We’re one of the few SVOD production companies that does everything in house, from content creation to distribution. Admittedly, most of our programming is very dark and very irreverent, but everything we do is geared toward building social connection among military members, especially veterans, because as we’ve come to learn, when you build social connection, greater social connection leads to less social isolation (a common problem especially among veterans) and with less social isolation comes fewer veterans suicides. It’s pretty heavy stuff, but it’s what makes us what we are,” said O’Malley.
A Kickstarter campaign helped O’Malley and his team raise $300,000, which enabled him to hire full-time workers. Three years later, VET Tv has 21 full-time employees and 93,000 subscribers.
“We have the most incredible testimonies from people who directly attribute the discovery of our network to saving their lives through comedy. We provide them the kind of laughter
they haven’t had since being in the military. The military is full of absurd situations where you ask yourself how something is even real. That’s the kind of content we provide to our subscribers,” said O’Malley.
And true to his pledge to the mother of his fallen buddy, every sketch on his channel has a call to action at the end, asking the viewer to reach out to someone they served with and say hello.
“Asking our subscribers to text someone they served with helps lead to a connection, which might lead to rekindling a friendship, which eventually leads to getting the squad back together. And the less our veterans are isolated, the less at risk they are,” O’Malley said.
Visit
Still, in keeping with the absolute insanity that has been this year, I thought I would keep it flowing through this holiday celebration. I almost considered going full out rouge and having a pool-party themed turkey day, or why not space dinosaurs while I am at it? In the end, I decided to keep the tradition of lovingly prepared food intact, while just switching things up a little bit.
With COVID-19 this year, gatherings may look different than normal. So, whether you are cooking for two or 20, I wanted to offer these up to you for a slightly less traditional, but nostalgic Thanksgiving nonetheless. Instead of turkey, a rosemary and pistachio crusted rack of lamb. For sides, a wintery squash, kale and pomegranate salad as well as pearl couscous with toasted almonds and middle eastern spices. I have even included the most adorable little pumpkin treats for dessert.
4.4 oz pearl couscous (also known as Israeli couscous)
1 yellow onion, finely diced
5 cloves of garlic, finely diced
1 tbsp butter
2 cups of toasted almonds
2 cups diced butternut squash
½ cup mint leaves, chopped
½ cup cilantro leaves, chopped
¼ cup parsley leaves, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
3 lemons, juiced and zested
2 tsp salt
½ tbsp coriander
½ tbsp cumin
¼ tsp smoked paprika
½ tsp turmeric
1 cup feta
1. Cook the onion and garlic until translucent and fragrant and set aside.
2. Roast the butternut squash in the oven for 30 minutes and set aside.
3. Cook couscous as described on package until tender and set aside.
4. In a large bowl (large enough to hold all these ingredients once combined), whisk together olive oil, lemon zest and juice, all spices and chopped herb leaves. Add all other finished ingredients (cooked couscous, toasted almonds, roasted butternut squash, feta, cooked onions and garlic) and mix until well incorporated. Garnish with more herbs if desired.
The frosting recipe can be halved for this recipe, but feel free to make it all in case you want an excuse to make something else that needs frosting.
1 box vanilla bean cake mix
1 16-oz can pumpkin pie mix
1 ½ cups salted butter, room temperature
½ cup cream cheese, room temperature
4 ½ cups powdered sugar
3-4 tbsp heavy whipping cream
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
Cinnamon sticks for decoration
1. In a stand mixer, combine the cake mix and the pumpkin pie mix.
2. Generously spray a mini Bundt cake pan with cooking spray, and add the mixture into each tin spot.
3. Bake for 17 minutes at 350. Remove from tray, set aside and allow to cool. Once cooled, carefully take a bread knife and slice the excess cooked tops off. (You can keep these and make pumpkin whoopie pies with them.)
4. Make your frosting by combining the rest of the ingredients into a stand mixer and whip until fluffy and well incorporated. Transfer to a piping bag.
5. When you are ready to frost, put your frosting on one Bundt cake and then sandwich with another piece.
6. Pipe “leaves” on the top and stick a cinnamon stick down the middle.
(There are no real specific measurements for this one, just a friendly suggestion of ingredients that go really well together.)
Kale, stem removed, torn into small pieces
1 pomegranate, arils removed
1 acorn squash (slice into 1 ½ inch thick rings, drizzled with honey and sprinkled with salt and cinnamon. Roast for 30 minutes at 350 degrees)
1 honey crisp apple, diced into ½ cubes
3/4ish cups pepitas (pumpkins seeds)
feta
Favorite vinaigrette dressing (something apple cider vinegar based would be great)
1. Start with your base of the kale, add the cooked acorn squash, diced apples, pomegranate arils, pepitas and feta. Dress when ready to serve.
3 lbs rack of lamb
2 tbsp olive oil
4-5 sprigs rosemary, stem removed
¾ cup shelled pistachios
1 tsp salt
1 small jar stone ground Dijon
3 cloves garlic
1. Trim excess fat from lamb.
2. In a food processor, blend all other ingredients until smooth.
3. Generously slather all over the lamb and allow it to “marinate” for 45 minutes or more.
4. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and place your lamb onto a sheet pan, preferably with an elevated rack.
5. Cook for 30-45 minutes, depending on desired doneness.
6. Allow the meat to rest for 8-10 minutes before serving.
With four associate degrees, a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree on his resume, Air Force Reserve Lt. Tyler Trease is equal parts student veteran and veteran student. Trease’s next education milestone is a Family Nurse Practitioner Post-Master’s Certificate from the University of Cincinnati Online.
Trease, who could be a poster child for maximizing G.I. Bill benefits, is among a growing number of student veterans choosing to continue their higher education at the University of Cincinnati (UC). UC’s 46,798-person student body includes nearly 1,000 military-affiliated students.
Since the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill was enacted in 2008, nearly 800,000 veterans and eligible family members have received education benefits.
To be eligible for Post-9/11 GI Bill (Chapter 33) Bill https://www.va.gov/education/about-gi-bill-benefits/ post-9-11/ benefits, service members must:
• Serve at least 90 days on active duty on or after Sept. 11, 2001, or
• Receive a Purple Heart on or after Sept. 11, 2001, and be honorably discharged after any amount of service, or
• Serve for at least 30 continuous days and be honorably discharged with a service-connected disability, or
• Be a spouse or dependent child using transferred benefits
Veterans qualifying for the maximum benefit will receive up to 36 months of tuition and fees at in-state public institutions and up to $25,162 per year at private and foreign schools. Students also may be eligible for a location-based housing allowance and annual $1,000 book stipend. In addition, some universities, such as UC, participate in the Yellow Ribbon Program https:// www.va.gov/education/about-gi-bill-benefits/post-9-11/ yellow-ribbon-program/, which helps pay for out-ofstate, private or graduate school tuition not covered by the Post-9/11 GI Bill.
At UC, student veterans have access to VetSuccess on Campus, a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) outreach program available only on 94 campuses nationwide.
“It’s a rare program to have,” VetSuccess Counselor Jill Cochran explained. “It’s a one-stop shop for VA assistance. Veterans can come to us face-to-face with any questions, concerns or guidance on how to use education benefits or anything VA-related.”
Vice Provost and Dean of UC Online, Jason Lemon, PhD, maintains veterans using Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits should consider online education, which can allow them to remain rooted to where they live and work while obtaining a quality education.
“If a student has a job, if a student has a family, if a student has responsibilities that tie them to a specific place, then online is the [best] option they’ve got to continue to get the education they need to advance,” Lemon said.
Trease, a Toledo firefighter/ paramedic and registered nurse, is considering returning to active duty after completing his nurse practitioner certification at UC Online. But he points out his advancement from firefighter to nurse practitioner would not have happened without online higher education.
“Online schooling offered me a lot of benefits,” said Trease, who used a portion of his Post-9/11 GI Bill to earn a master’s degree in nursing education while deployed to Kuwait. “I look at where I’m sitting now professionally. Wow. I wouldn’t have been able to do this if I had to have attended everything in person.”
At UC, online education is not a new phenomenon.
“Online instruction requires years of development and dedication. University of Cincinnati has been doing this for over 20 years,” said Lemon, who draws a distinction between remote instruction taking place due to the COVID-19 pandemic and purpose-built online education. “It’s clear what works and what doesn’t work. There are specific strategies, specific software tools, specific components, ideas, types of assignments that work better than others. That takes time to discover.”
When using the Post-9/11 GI Bill, Montgomery GI Bill or other education benefits, Cochran advises veterans to “over communicate” with their school’s veterans office if they have concerns regarding course scheduling, payments or other issues that could affect their funding.
“Don’t hesitate to ask questions. Don’t take it for granted or assume. Definitely ask is this going to affect
my VA benefits?” she said.
In addition to staying on top of certification filing deadlines, Cochran suggests student veterans maintain a financial cushion. Not only are housing stipends paid in arrears, but other VA payments may take time to arrive.
The VA can be a late payer,” she said. “Have a backup plan just in case. Changes happen. Issues happen when you’re counting on that money.”
In this year of uncertainty, where many couples are spending more time together, some are sincerely concerned if they will make it through the pandemic. If you can relate to this scenario, there are steps you can take now to give your relationship a fighting chance.
Take a moment to think of all the times when you and your spouse wished for more time together. Now, think about what you are going through presently. No CEO or general officer ever said on their death bed, ‘My only regret is that I did not spend enough time at work.’ On the contrary, the retirement speech often includes the opposite sentiment.
With social distancing requirements in mind, here are some tips to seize the value of the extra days together by giving your marriage intentional focus.
1. Date often. When it comes to scheduling date night, manage it as if it’s a business meeting you cannot miss. Whether it’s once a month or once a week, make sure that it occurs. Place date night on your calendar and be consistent. Remember, dates can be done at home, but you have to be creative.
2. Be adventurous. Share new experiences, visit new places — whether it’s a hole in the wall or an exotic location. Prior to these activities, discuss what you both are anticipating from the experience. Use your senses and remember these locations by the smell of the air, the taste of the foods, the unique sounds and so on.
3. Conduct meaningful conversations and intimate interactions without distractions. Taking time to do intimate activities together is awesome. It is one of the greatest opportunities
to learn more about what’s going on in your spouse’s head. Activities like a long walk in a park that is not crowded or a jog in a quiet neighborhood helps to stimulate conversation. You would be surprised at how many topics get covered in that period while you both strengthen your muscles and help your heart health.
4. Respect each other’s effort to communicate effectively. Listening to your spouse without interruption is important, and must be done frequently. If your spouse wants to discuss a new business opportunity or an issue at work, take the time to listen without imposing your opinion unless your spouse asks for input. When your spouse initiates a conversation, make time to have that discussion. Be sure that you are both in agreement with the end result. Don’t hope things will work out, make sure they do.
5. Learn to apologize. Take responsibility for your actions. Do not play the blame game. Do not start your dialogue with “you”, instead, use “we” or sometimes even “I”. Voice how an action your partner took made you feel.
6. Dress to impress. Imagine how excited you were to go on your first date. Did you take the time to find the right outfit? Ensure you both stay interested in each other’s appearance. Yes, you love your spouse for who they are, but you cannot deny the feeling from seeing your spouse make an extra effort for you.
Which of the above actions can you apply to your relationship right now?
Angela Golden-McCord’s parents were no fans of video games.
They did not keep them around the house, so Golden-McCord’s exposure to gaming was limited until she began babysitting her cousin during the summer. Her uncle’s house was fully stocked with a Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis and PlayStation, and Golden-McCord took full advantage.
“Those four summers were when I binged video games for the first time,’’ she said.
Golden-McCord, a former quartermaster second class in the Navy, plays video games now more than ever. A senior recruiting manager for Riot Games, GoldenMcCord, 37, was one of five panelists with military backgrounds who participated in a recent Careers
in Gaming webinar put on by Hire Heroes USA, a nonprofit veterans organization. Golden-McCord shared her insights, along with animator Eddie Contreras, a former Marine, and game designer Dan Spence, an Army veteran, from Sony Interactive Entertainment; Navy veteran John Doyle, vice president of production and operations at Riot Games; and former Air Force Capt. Andy Parthum, a senior manager at Activision Blizzard.
“The military teaches you to be aggressive and adaptable, which is helpful in an industry where innovation can shift trends very quickly,’’ Parthum, who completed his nearly five-year stint in the military in 2016, said in an email.
A total of 693 veterans and military spouses registered for the webinar, Hire Heroes USA spokeswoman Jamie Rimphanli said. Two other webinars, as yet unscheduled, are planned for next year, Rimphanli said.
The idea behind the webinar initially sprang from an inquiry. A veteran was in school and interested in pursuing a career in video games. As he tried to build his network of contacts, though, he was not encountering much success.
“He asked, ‘I know that you do support for veterans in entertainment. Do you think there’s an opportunity to do some video gaming?’’’ Rimphanli said. “And I said, ‘Sure. Let’s give it a shot.’’’
Rimphanli reached out to the Call of Duty Endowment and its executive director, Dan Goldenberg. He also is a vice president at Activision Blizzard and conceded challenges exist for veterans in trying to find the right fit in gaming.
“The barrier was really a knowledge barrier,’’ said Goldenberg, a former Navy captain. “Sometimes a job title
doesn’t convey what this job really does. The goal [with the webinar] was to bridge the gaps.’’
Goldenberg, whose company has developed a veterans’ hiring guide under the careers tab at activision.com, said the Call of Duty Endowment funds 12 nonprofit organizations (including Hire Heroes USA) in the United States and United Kingdom to help place veterans in various career fields.
Goldenberg offered several suggestions for veterans trying to break into the video-game industry.
Ask what function you want to perform, whether it be coding, game design, animation or a position on the marketing side, for example. Acquire skills specific to that area. Talk with people who are in roles that interest you or reach out on LinkedIn.
And, perhaps most of all, don’t waste time.
“If you think you want to break into the industry, don’t wait until you’re out [of the military],’’ Goldenberg said. “Start developing those skills now, even as a hobbyist. If you want to do something on the technical side, start learning the codes you need to learn, learning how to design, whatever you might need. Get familiar with that. If you’re an artist, develop your portfolio.
“Start early.’’
Golden-McCord did not. She was a recruiter for a rental-car company before meeting several people working in video games and becoming impressed with the industry’s creative culture.
Parthum, 31, was attending graduate school on the GI Bill when a recruiter from Activision Blizzard was on campus. He interviewed, got the position and worked on several business-oriented teams at the Fortune 500 company during a two-year MBA program. Parthum now manages partnerships with game platforms such as PlayStation, Xbox and Switch.
“The military is all about working well in small groups, coordinating across a variety of different teams and getting deliverables across the line against hard deadlines,’’ Parthum said. “All of these skills translate to the business and corporate roles I’ve found myself in here.’’
In the first year after GoldenMcCord was hired, she participated in a forum with about 20 other veterans employed by Riot Games. Each discussed what he or she did in the military and their role with the company at the time. As GoldenMcCord listened, she was struck by the different perspectives.
“That was the thing that had the greatest impact on me,’’ GoldenMcCord said. “It showed me that no matter what your background was before, there’s always an opportunity or a chance that some skill that you have could convert or transfer into the video-games industry.’’
choose one of three lanes: Supplemental Claim, HigherLevel Review, or an Appeal to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board).
The Supplemental Claim lane is an option if you have new and relevant evidence. The Higher-Level Review lane is beneficial for those who believe there was a mistake in the initial decision. These lanes will get you a second decision in the quickest amount of time.
The final lane is a direct appeal to the Board. If you choose a Board appeal, you must then choose one of three more paths:
• Direct Review
• Evidence Submission
• Hearing with a Veterans Law Judge (VLJ)
The Direct Review path is the fastest option at the Board, and it is for those who feel there has been a misinterpretation of the law or the facts of your case.
By Cheryl L. Mason, Chairman of the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board)February 2019 marked the successful implementation of the Veterans Appeals Improvement and Modernization Act (AMA), which resulted in faster and easier ways to appeal your compensation claim. AMA created a new decision review and appeals process that features three lanes for you to choose from. As always, we recommend that you work with your VSO or representative to assist in making the best decision for you.
If, after you receive your initial decision from VA, you disagree with this decision, you must
The Evidence Submission path allows you to submit additional evidence to the Board for consideration. This option will take longer than Direct Review.
The final option is the Hearing path. The Hearing path allows you to have a hearing with a Veterans Law Judge. This path will take the longest for you to receive a second decision.
As CEO and founder of 360 Privacy — a digital security company based in Franklin, Tennessee, Adam Jackson doesn’t leave anything to chance. His company scrubs hundreds of websites that sell personal data, making sure there’s not a trace of sensitive information left behind that could be used to exploit the athletes, entertainers, corporate executives and other high-net-worth individuals that make up his client base. He is diligent about protecting his clients from individuals looking to harm them or steal their identity or assets. Business is booming, with revenues tripling over just the last six months.
Jackson’s own story, however, is “convoluted and very winding.” The success his business has been seeing is a testament that a successful transition out of the military requires swift and savvy maneuvering.
Jackson, who grew up in a small Indiana town, entered the Army thinking he’d do a threeyear enlistment. He ended up staying 10 years, moving from infantryman to the 5 th Special Forces Group. As a Green Beret he deployed to Jordan and Syria and was responsible for communications. When he left the Army in 2017, he planned to launch
a business using biometric scanning software he’d develop to keep pedophiles and “other bad actors” out of schools. Jackson had started bringing the product to market when a clash with the Tennessee state licensing bureaucracy forced him to shut down.
Next, he developed a version of the software for musicians on tour and went on the road with country singer Jason Aldean as head of tour security. Aldean had been onstage at a Las Vegas music festival on October 1, 2017, when a gunman began firing more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition, leaving 60 people dead and hundreds injured. A few months into the tour, Jackson developed new software to protect people from cyberstalkers.
“Word spread and soon we had dozens of clients for this new service,” Jackson said.
In March 2019, he launched 360 Privacy with a small team of other former Green Berets.
“We basically transplanted the special operations forces culture we came from into our business,” Jackson said.
“In the military, we were constantly asked to do incredibly difficult
things without the proper equipment, manpower, or resources. At 360 Privacy, we are constantly asked to do things that are outside the scope of our core product and we always get it done. We have been successful because we have been able to accomplish those things using the same mission-focused mentality we used in the military.”
Jackson says that everyone leaves the military with a plan but those who are most successful at making a transition to a civilian career recognize the plan is just a starting point.
“The people who do the best at transitioning are able to be flexible, assess the opportunities that are in front of them and decide when a pivot from their original plan is appropriate,” he said. “What’s more,
that pivot can facilitate the success of others. When I left Aldean’s tour, I put a service member I had served with in my place.”
Another key to success is to recognize the diversity of your skillset. “In the military, you always have a second and sometimes a third job,” Jackson said.
“You might be an equal opportunity
rep for your company or a battalion armorer. Not only do you have these specific skillsets, you have the capacity to develop new skills. That’s an extremely powerful strength to leverage in the job market. For example, I’ve seen a lot of soldiers leave the military, get a nine-to-five job in a warehouse to pay the bills and then go to school at night to get a computer certification for the career that they want.”
Be selective about sharing your email.
“If a service is free,” Jackson says, “then you’re the product and your data is being sold to anyone who wants to buy it.” Do a cost-benefit analysis. The savings you’ll earn from a supermarket shopper loyalty card might be worth having your information sold to advertisers, but the same is likely not true for every store or newsletter.
Use a VPN, or Virtual Private Network. With a subscription to a VPN, which can cost as little as $10 a month, instead of directly connecting to a website from your computer, laptop or phone, you’ll connect through a secure network, leaving your browsing history and any information you share untraceable.
Skip the passwords that are automatically generated by your internet browser as well as your computer’s built-in password saver. Instead, generate passwords that have a minimum of 12 characters and include a mix of upper- and lower-case letters, symbols and numbers. Keep track of them with a password manager like LastPass.
3 easy ways to protect your digital privacy
A mother’s decision to homeschool her son set him on the path to make history as the first Black airman to complete the Pilot Training Next (PTN) program.
Kemiko Lawrence is one proud mother. In August, she posted on Facebook congratulating her son, 2nd Lt. Anthony Lawrence, for completing his training with Air Education and Training Command (AETC).
“He is an official member of the third graduating class and the first Black officer,” Kemiko boasted.
This commemoration wasn’t just for the moment. It was for every
struggle leading up to it, including her decision to advocate for her son’s learning by pulling him from a school system that labeled and dismissed him.
If you ask Anthony what he remembers about being a kid in school, it’s apparent that it wasn’t the path for him.
“Sitting all day wasn’t really my thing. I never wanted recess to end. I always wanted to be outside,” he said.
He also said school structure was stressful in a nonproductive way and admits he was probably disruptive because his attention was always directed toward looking up
By age 11, Anthony had lost interest in learning. Kemiko was continually receiving calls that he was having behavioral problems.
“Every week there was something different,” she said.
Their family had tried both private and public schools, but nothing seemed to work.
The catalyst for change came when the school administration informed Anthony’s parents that for him to continue attending, he would need to be on medication.
“They specifically said he needed to be on Ritalin to control his behavior,” Kemiko said.
Ritalin is a drug used to treat ADHD and narcolepsy. During this same time, legislation had been passed in three states barring teachers and school staff from recommending the drug, and the Lawrence’s home state was soon to follow. Kemiko refused to medicate her son.
“He was just bored. His interest wasn’t being cultivated,” she said.
She withdrew Anthony and began their homeschool journey.
Kemiko started by going to the library every day to rekindle his interest in learning.
“I stopped with all the worksheets and the need to do complete subjects and just let him look at whatever pictures and magazines he wanted. He was always very interested in flying and things that went fast.,” she said.
Kemiko allowed his education to begin with what he liked. Homeschool
2nd Lt. Anthony Lawrence, Detachment 24 student pilot, poses for a portrait in front of T-6A Texan at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas. Photo by Sean M. Worrell.opened his world of possibilities.
“I always knew I was smart and could do the work. It was just finding what interests me and applying my efforts toward that,” Anthony said.
The little boy who used to sit in class and stare out the window knew he wanted to fly.
Anthony enlisted in the Air Force in 2011 and later completed his degree before signing up for the PTN.
PTN is a part of AETC’s initiative to “reimagine” how airmen learn by using simulators and virtual reality, according to its website. Typical pilot training is an 18-month learning process and the fiscal burden of training pilots is expensive over that amount of time. The program is described as an innovative new six-month version that offers the same robust training, allowing more pilots to be fully qualified and ready for their aircraft in a shorter time period.
This learning model provides more opportunities during the pandemic because of the remote learning feature. The program’s self-paced academics and competency-based timeline allows students to progress at their individual pace.
Since Kemiko’s Facebook post praising her son’s completion of PTN as the first Black graduate, which was shared almost 2,000 times, people from all over have reached out to Anthony. Not only to congratulate him on being the first Black officer to complete the program, but to seek advice. His next goals are to bloom wherever he is planted and mentor as many people as he can.
Mark Lawrence, Anthony’s dad, has a great sense of pride in his son’s resilience being on display for others to see.
“I’ve taught him to make a contribution not only to yourself but to others and benefit society,” Mark said.
The impact of this moment hits differently for Anthony. Having had his fair share of people who said he couldn’t accomplish his goals, the
opportunity to positively influence others is one of his priorities.
“To make history is always bigger for the next person. In that way, I feel honored and inspired to keep going. Because I know there’s someone else in the same situation as me looking to do the same thing.”
By Kate Horrell—SPONSORED
can make that transition process smoother.
And planning is essential. Wong recommends that service members use the resources available on base and through private organizations.
“Don’t wing it. While you are in, take advantage of as much of the training that the military will give you. Learn the benefits that are offered to you as a veteran,” he said.
Financial readiness is another component of the planning process for the more than 200,000 service members that exit the military each year. AFBA created a resource that covers retirement, life insurance, health benefits, savings and investments, and more. The 2020 AFBA Financial Planning Guide offers more than 100 pages of information, from reference material to planning worksheets — all designed to help veterans and their families reach financial goals.
Leaving the military is unlike any other job change. The benefits of service extend into every aspect of a service member’s life, making it no surprise that big decisions need to be made when shifting to the civilian sector. A few of the common choices to be considered include location, employment, and how to replace military benefits — it can feel overwhelming. But experts say the key to getting it all done is by breaking the transition down into smaller parts.
Former Air Force reservist Kimo Wong is the Chief Distribution Officer for Armed Forces Benefit Association (AFBA) — an association established in 1947 that provides benefits to the uniformed services, first responders, government employees, and their families, according to its website. Wong has been helping military families with their planning needs for over two decades. He identified employment as a leading worry for new veterans.
“The biggest concern I see is getting viable work when moving from active duty to civilian,” he said. Wong adds “attending fairs, reading things, talking to veterans”
It can be accessed at https://www.afba.com/toolsresources/afba-financialplanning-guide
The guide is available at no cost.
Among the hard questions to answer when leaving the military is about life insurance needs. Service members have access to low-cost coverage through the Servicemembers Group Life Insurance Program (SGLI), and their spouses may elect coverage through the Family SGLI program (FSGLI). However, SGLI and FSGLI may not be enough coverage during service and both plans are lost upon leaving the military.
Wong suggests that whether you’re in the middle of a military career or nearing the end, don’t wait to make insurance decisions.
“Get ahead of it — don’t wait until transition to start that new policy,” he said.
And many families may need more than SGLI during their military service. If so, Wong recommends ”supplementing SGLI with additional life insurance from another company while on active duty then, in lieu of the VGLI option, keeping that coverage after separation or retirement.”
He adds that all insurance options should be researched and evaluated ahead of the military transition.
“Don’t wait until VGLI is the only place you look. VGLI is much more expensive than a commercial carrier.”
Buying life insurance can be confusing, and it’s hard to know where to get good advice. Organizations exist to help walk members of the military community through the decision-making process.
“Go to an organization that was created for the benefit of the
military member. Use them for advice, and also look at their products,” Wong said.
Military veterans have access to dozens of benefits, but the amount of information to sort through can be overwhelming on top of looking for a next career and deciding where to plant roots. It is among the reasons AFBA made a resource that is easy to digest and contains
the most pertinent resources for financial planning.
Moving from the military to the civilian world is a big change. Veterans can make it easier, and more successful, by moving through the process one step at a time.
Visit
Military MWR provides many benefits, but one of the greatest is access to world-class golf courses. With wellmanicured fairways, nice practice facilities, and cheap green fees, it’s hard to beat the value. Many military courses have epic views and are ranked along with private courses among the best in the world, plus they offer programs for the whole family.
Walking the beautiful fairways on any base is a great way to unwind after a tough day at work, on the weekends, or simply as an outing with family and friends. The military has excellent golf courses around the globe, no matter what time of year it is.
Oahu is a year-round golf destination with averages temperatures in the 80’s. The Kaneohe Klipper is one of the top military courses in the world and a must-play.
The front nine offer beautiful mountain vistas, while the back nine boast spectacular coastline views that earn this course its international reputation. Total course length is 6,559 yards.
The signature hole is #13, a par 4, 471 yards, that hugs the coastline and can be particularly challenging on a windy day. Test your skills on this course, and don’t forget your camera.
With very comfortable temperatures in the 60’s and little rain, San Diego is a great winter golf destination. The area has several outstanding military golf courses, but Admiral Baker, an independent facility that is not on a military base, is one you can’t miss.
The North Course is the more famous of the two 18-hole courses, but let’s be honest, winter golfing with warm weather is a win either way.
The Pacific Northwest is one of the best places in the U.S. for summer golf. Bright, sunny days are common throughout July and August, but temperatures are comfortable with low humidity. A day on the greens is the perfect way to enjoy the short Washington summer.
Whispering Firs is a challenging 6,646-yard course that will take you through beautiful wooded areas, with large mature trees and receptive greens. Doglegs and changing elevation abound on this beautifully-designed course.
Spring is one of the best times of year to visit the Washington, DC area, especially if you can catch the cherry blossoms — usually in early April. With average temperatures around 70 degrees, it’s the perfect weather for golf.
Fort Belvoir has two 18-hole courses, one of which was designed in part by the aforementioned golf architect Robert Trent Jones. This club is a must-play if you are in the DC area during spring.
Autumn is a fantastic time to visit Colorado Springs. With little rain and strong sun at an altitude of 7,000 feet, you can enjoy the fall colors and mountain views from the Academy’s two incredible 18-hole courses.
Eisenhower’s 7,500-yard Blue Course was designed by world-famous golf architect Robert Trent Jones. At slightly more than 6,500 yards, the Silver Course is shorter but still very challenging. Stay the weekend and play both.
By Sarah Wilkening
For more than 60 years, friendship has blossomed between Japanese women and American military spouses at Naval Air Facility Atsugi, Japan. The Japanese American Friendship Group began when three women gathered for dinner. In the decades since, it has created connections spanning generations.
Almost immediately after Gen. Douglas MacArthur accepted the Japanese surrender in 1945 at NAF Atsugi — a former Imperial Naval base 30 miles south of Tokyo — he began forging ties between Japan and America. Today, near the entrance of the base, you’ll find a six-foot bronze statue of MacArthur, commemorating his leadership in what has become a long-standing alliance between the two countries.
In the years after the war, while prestigious leaders built bridges in the economic, military and political realms on the world’s stage, poignant friendships between Japanese and Americans were also
being formed in the area.
The JAFG began when American Sharon Cook, whose spouse was stationed in Japan as a Russian interpreter for the Navy, arrived as a newlywed in 1960. When Cook moved into a house in Yamato, Japan, just outside the NAF Atsugi gates, she met her Japanese neighbors Yoshiko Kitajima and Kauro Onodera. She suggested they meet weekly to share food and conversation.
During these meetings they held lively conversations about cultural norms, finding intrigue in small differences such as how Americans
make a bed and how much softer their toilet paper was compared to Japanese paper.
Tamae Onodera, daughter of inaugural member Kauro, who is still a member, remembers how different life was for the Japanese at that time, 15 years after the end of the war.
“We did still did not have any luxuries,” Tamae said. “So, to know ways of young Americans living, looked shiny and attractive. We had to be the happiest Japanese, because military families of women were friends. This is true even now.”
The women remained committed to their weekly exchange and expanded their circle to include Sachiko Kashiwagi, who became the longeststanding member of the JAFG. She met monthly with the group from 1965 until 2019, until her health made it impossible to do so.
Over the years, the group continued to grow through acquaintances and family connections and, all these years later, the connections remain strong. Tamae is still in touch with Sharon Cook’s son, Eric, whom
Sachiko Kashiwagi, who was a member of JAFG from 1965 until 2019, was the longest-standing member of the group. Here she presented images of her greatgreat-grandfather, a samurai, while sharing some of her family history.
she babysat in the 1960s. Other Japanese members have traveled as far as Hawaii and France to meet up with former American members.
Over time, the group expanded to 20 members, 10 Japanese and 10 Americans. While the Japanese members have remained constant, the Americans have rotated every two to three years as their PCS orders change. As that pattern continues, the age gap between the Japanese and American ladies keeps widening.
At the beginning of the group’s formation, the Japanese women were meeting with peers their own ages. Now, they meet with women whose ages correspond to their grandchildren.
“I made friends who ended up becoming truly like family,” Rachel Morgan, a Navy spouse who participated in the group twice during two separate tours from 2010 to 2012 and again from 2016 to 2019, said.
“There were kind sisters and crazy aunts and gentle mothers and wise grandmothers among the Japanese and American ladies,” she added.
The Japanese spouses give an annual hula lesson, teach origami, card games, kimono dressing, holiday celebrations and share homemade food. The Americans share their traditions like backyard barbeques, pumpkin carving and Thanksgiving dinner.
A highlight to each meeting is the Japanese custom of giving gifts to the hosts. Over the years, the Japanese members have received hundreds of tokens of appreciation and there is a running joke about where they find room to store all of the gifts received. For the American women, these gifts are cherished as tokens of some of their fondest memories of Japan.
One of Morgan’s fondest memories of the group was playing a Japanese card came with a special deck of cards featuring images of warriors, princesses and monks.
“As our farewell gift when an American participant moved away, we received the game. It’s a piece of Japanese culture as well as a fun reminder of a wonderful day of games, laughter and friendship,” she said.
For Christina Gordon, a Navy spouse who was a member from 2017 until 2020, the group’s legacy was an important part of her experience abroad.
“Being a part of JAFG was extremely meaningful, not just because it gave me the opportunity to develop relationships with local Japanese women, but because we became a part of the bigger JAFG story,” she said.
The Army & Air Force Exchange Service’s recipient of the Outstanding Department of Defense Employee with a Disability Award is one of the first people his peers look to when they need a problem solved.
Joseph Puryear, a 14-year employee with the Exchange and a services operation assistant at Joint Base Charleston, represented the Exchange at the annual DOD awards ceremony in October, which took place virtually.
The DOD recognition honors abilities and achievements in overcoming obstacles and pursuing strong work ethics.
Puryear, who served 22 years in the Air Force, went to work for the Exchange in 2006 as a stocker “just so I could get my foot in the door,” he said.
“The Exchange’s primary mission is
supporting the military community, and that’s why I joined,” he said. “I come from a military background, and it’s important to me to serve our troops the way the Exchange served me when I was enlisted. It’s an obligation that I am honored to meet.”
Puryear is the go-to associate for problem-solving, his supervisors said. He has made a difference to the military community, bringing fresh dining options to Joint Base Charleston. In 2019, he helped bring six new food trucks to the installation.
“Joseph is considered the rock of the Charleston Exchange,” said Joint Base Charleston Exchange General Manager Keola Chan, who nominated Puryear. “The relationships he has built have developed a strong team of concession partners willing to support the Exchange mission and community needs.”
Charleston Exchange General Manager Keola Chan presents Joseph Puryear with a certificate of appreciation and a letter from Director/CEO Tom Shull in recognition of Puryear’s selection as the Exchange’s Outstanding Department of Defense Employee with a Disability Award.
About 14% of the Exchange workforce includes people with disabilities, which exceeds goals established in 2018 by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
About 4% of the Exchange’s employees have targeted disabilities.
The Department of Defense also has set a goal for its agencies that 2% of the workforce be made up of people with targeted disabilities, which are considered more serious health conditions.
“The Exchange regularly recruits associates with disabilities because they are a valuable part of the workforce and provide important service and experience,” said Karen Stack, executive vice president and chief logistics officer. “They are critical to the Exchange mission of serving those who serve.”
The Exchange, the DOD’s largest retailer, is dedicated to a diverse, inclusive workforce. Exchange managers partner with Human Resources to recruit, retain and advance people with targeted disabilities. Noncompetitive hiring for entry-level positions, providing reasonable accommodations, active community outreach and retaining interns from the Workforce Recruitment Program are all tools available to Exchange managers in hiring those with disabilities.
To view job openings, visit ApplyMyExchange.com
If you’re a Veteran looking for a challenging and rewarding career, the Army & Air Force Exchange Service wants you.
Committed to hiring 50,000 Veterans and military spouses, the Exchange offers unmatched employment benefits including an Associate Transfer Program, spousal hiring preferences, and benefits retention throughout your career.
LEARN MORE ABOUT EXCHANGE CAREER OPPORTUNITIES AT APPLYMYEXCHANGE.COM
All honorably discharged Veterans are eligible to shop their military exchanges online, tax-free for life.
The Department of Defense expanded in-store military exchange and commissary shopping privileges as well as MWR resale facility use to all Veterans with service connected disabilities.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THESE BENEFITS AT SHOPMYEXCHANGE.COM/VETS
SERVING THE BEST CUSTOMERS IN THE WORLD SINCE 1895
By Jessica Manfre — SPONSORED
New York School of Interior Design is a private, not-for-profit college devoted to the design of the interior environment. It has a long history of helping students realize their dreams, including those pursuing an education after leaving the military.
Lukas North is no stranger to being challenged. After graduating with an art degree at 22, he enlisted in the Army.
“I didn’t know where I was headed and had always wanted to be in the military. … I didn’t want an office job, so I became an infantryman,” he said.
Before his enlistment ended in 2014, North deployed to Afghanistan. He then spent a year traveling to figure out what he wanted to do after hanging up his military uniform.
One night, after watching a design show, he had the idea to go back to school. Research showed him that NYSID was a top school choice for what he wanted to pursue. It offers various options depending
on a student’s goals, from a oneyear Basic Interior Design certificate program, to a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Interior Design and up to and including multiple graduate level master’s degrees.
North says he knew the school would challenge him, but his military experience set him up for success.
“I watch other students stress about everything, but I don’t. The hardest thing I will ever have done is be in the military, be deployed and be in combat,” he said.
And now North is intersecting his experiences with his NYSID education to improve the lives of others, including those still serving. He is designing shipping containers to be homes for troops deployed overseas — an incredible improvement from what they currently have. He also sees the potential for the structures to become tiny homes for the homeless.
More than 200,000 service members transition from the military annually, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, and finding a new purpose and focus remains a leading
The NYC-based school is educating the designers of tomorrow, both on-site and online.
hardship. North offers advice to veterans who may feel lost.
“Be willing to put yourself out of your comfort zone. Don’t put yourself in a box,” he said.
NYSID isn’t just home to veterans, but military spouses. Julissa Rodriguez spent almost 20 years working in the field of dentistry, but always had a knack for design. After she and her soldier purchased their first home and designed it, she knew that’s what she wanted to do.
“This has been my passion since I was little. I’ve always loved everything about decorating and designing. The fact that I was able to do everything online through this school has been very helpful because it’s so flexible with this life,” she said.
In the midst of starting school, Rodriguez’s family PCS’ed to Colorado. With the ability to take classes at her own pace, she was able to maintain her full-time job and family life without issue. This is a familiar struggle for many military spouses trying to juggle the demand of military life with personal aspirations. Luckily, NYSID offered her the tools to still succeed at school while navigating the relocation. She was also able to use
her husband’s GI Bill to attend the prestigious school at no cost.
Rodriguez hopes to put her design education to work by starting a company with her husband who plans to go into real estate.
And the experience at NYSID has taught Rodriguez to just “go for it,” something she encourages other military spouses considering a
similar path to do. North adds that veterans should think broadly about the possibilities in front of them.
“Try random things, don’t confine yourself into a box. Have the box to focus on things you decided to put in it, but before that … explore everything,” he added.
So many of the skills you’ve mastered during your military career—attention to detail, leadership, decision-making—lend themselves perfectly to a career in interior design. And at NYSID, our mission aligns with your desire to make the world a better place.
“I created a residential design for a person I actually know, an amputee who was the first vet wounded in Iraq. I was able to ask him what he wanted. What he loved was the adaptable kitchen. My goal was to help him forget about his injury while in his home and just live his life.”
Shane Curnutt Cyber Intelligence Specialist Interior DesignerSee what more veterans are up to at nysid.edu/careerchangeUSA
maintain the loan which means you may start with a specific lender, but your loan could be moved. One thing you can guarantee is starting your loan process on the right foot by selecting a respected lender.
Caliber Home Loans is focused on customer service, community engagement, transparency and setting policies that have a positive impact on military families. Many of the loan officers and customer service representatives are veterans or military spouses themselves.
Its team is also highly effective and knowledgeable regarding VA home loans, and offers a specialized, in-house education curriculum that prepares team members to meet the changing needs of military borrowers. This sets them apart from typical lenders and makes the home buying process as smooth as possible.
When a service member transitions out of the military, there are many things to consider like where to live. Many veterans find themselves moving back to the place they consider “home,” or a location where they can sustain competitive-paying civilian employment. Once the place is chosen, the question of whether to rent or buy begins. With interest rates being lower than they’ve ever been and the passage of the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act in 2019 (BWNVVA), VA loans may be more accessible than ever.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic is wreaking havoc on the world, interest rates are still at a historic low . This can signal that buyers have purchasing power and may be indicative of a more affordable home mortgage — something veterans and civilians alike seek to obtain. For those
considering purchasing a home, now might be the time for your family to buy.
Not only are the rates super low but thanks to the BWNVV Act, VA now allows the no down payment option on guaranteed loans, regardless of mortgage amount. This may be especially impactful in high cost of living areas. The law also waived the funding fee for Purple Heart recipients still serving on active duty, which can be a huge cost savings.
Once you’ve lined up employment and made the decision to buy, lender shopping begins. It is important to research each prospective lender and find the one that works best for your family. Veteran buyers should investigate each lender’s customer service rating, closing costs and rates. Keep in mind though, some lenders won’t
Caliber also offers full-service mortgages in all 50 states and retains the servicing on the majority of their VA home loans.
As each veteran begins their transition out of active-duty service, the to-do list is probably rather long and may be complicated, but your home buying experience doesn’t need to be. Let a military lending professional from Caliber Home Loans do the hard work and serve you.
Interested in exploring your home buying benefits? Connect with Caliber Home Loans at https://www.caliberhomeloans.com.
Caliber Home Loans, Inc., 1525 S. Belt Line Rd Coppell, TX 75019 (NMLS #15622). Copyright © 2020. This information is not intended as financial advice nor as an offer to enter into an agreement. Caliber Home Loans, Inc., Military Families Magazine, and Jessica Manfre are not affiliated. The thoughts and opinions offered here are strictly representative of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policy of Caliber Home Loans, Inc.
Home ownership is more accessible than ever for veterans thanks to passage of recent legislation.
The Air Force is helping to change the way schools support military kids at Maxwell AFB.
Air Force spouse Melissa Hamlett had mixed feelings about her husband’s next assignment to Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, Alabama, in spring of 2020. He was selected to attend Air War College late in the assignment process. The new assignment was a good move for his career, but she had a rising senior in high school and an eighth-grader.
Like many military parents with school-aged children, Hamlett was torn — the choice was either to live a year without her husband or move her children to a new school in a place that had a reputation for a subpar education. Challenging for any family, but during a pandemic, the stress of this PCS seemed more intense.
She decided to keep her family together and make the move to Alabama. This move would be her 10th PCS in 19 years and her second time at Maxwell AFB. The school search started immediately, but private schools were not an option because of the high cost of tuition. She had to find a public school that would support her scholar athlete.
In 2018, Lt. Gen. Anthony Cotton, Commander of Air Force’s Air Education and Training Command
(AETC), the primary source for Air Force education, spoke bluntly to a group of community leaders about the schools in the Montgomery area.
“I’m running into a problem. I can’t find faculty,” he said. “I’m having a hard time getting folks to apply to be faculty members here as I’m trying to lure them away from schools in the northeast, schools in Washington, D.C., schools in the midwest, schools from San Jose — Silicon Valley — and once again the feedback I get is pretty simple: It’s about the school system.”
He challenged local leaders, school districts and his own staff to dig deep to make meaningful change in the quality and communication of public schools surrounding Maxwell and Gunter. Cotton gave a voice to what thousands of military families feel when faced with orders to move to areas around the country with less than ideal school ratings.
“The reality is, if my kids aren’t happy, I’m not happy. If I have to try to spend so much time trying to understand how to get them ready and prepared for secondary education, then I’m not doing my mission as far as taking care of you, and making sure that I protect our country,” he said.
Change hasn’t come easy or fast for established school districts like
those surrounding Montgomery, Alabama. In many cases, a change agent is needed to begin the process of making a meaningful difference. Cotton was likely that person for the community and progress continues through his inaugural Public K-12 Education Working Group — a group that collaborates with local leaders, school officials and Department of Defense Education Activity representatives to build better choices for service members and faculty.
And the group is a full-time job for Lt. Col. Christina Karvwnarvis, Chief of Academic Outreach for Air University.
“We are making progress. Schools are offering different enrollment options outside their zoned areas. And we have embarked on an awareness campaign through the River Region informing schools of the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children,” she said.
Over the last two years, Karvwnarvis and her team have worked to bring an influx of education and professional development to the River Region area. She held local training for area educators and school administrators on the Compact, hosted packed resource fairs for area schools to learn more about military-connected students and engaged with local universities to help solve. Her team also launched a new section on their website for incoming
LT. GEN. ANTHONY COTTONfamilies to learn more about school options K-12 Schools.
Progress is happening, and families say it’s benefiting them.
Chief Master Sgt. Mike Morgan and his wife, Kristen, had feelings similar to Hamlett’s when he was assigned to Maxwell AFB. With two children, the oldest being 15 years old, they were initially concerned about where she might attend high school if they were to live on base. However, they had heard change was in the air and options were available for military kids to attend a myriad of public schools in surrounding school districts.
“Don’t believe the hype, do the research. There are options now,” Mike Morgan said. “We have the hardest working school liaison office (SLO) in the country, she knows what she’s doing. Families need to contact the SLO before they go to find out what is available to them.
Kristen adds, “There are magnet high school options with unique learning for older kids. And the MEMS (Maxwell Elementary Middle School) is run by DODEA. There are choices for military families. My advice is to reach out before you move, go to the website to find what fits your family. Especially if there is an interest in magnet schools, due to an application window. If you need help, just ask.”
As for Hamlett and her high school senior, things have been more complicated than expected due to COVID. From slow communication to unexpectedly having to quarantine during the first few weeks of school, the pandemic added emotional hurdles to an already challenging transition.
But there was a bright spot to the heavy move. When Hamlett contacted the SLO before moving to inquire about the one thing her
senior loved — cheer — the SLO put her in contact with the newest school district in the area, Pike Road School District.
“Before we moved though, we did reach out to the cheer coach at Pike Road and she was kind enough to allow our daughter to send in a tryout video along with a recommendation from her current coach, that was a huge
encouragement to our daughter. The school liaison connected us. A little piece of familiarity,” Hamlett said.
Overall, Hamlett said she is happy she moved. Her daughter has been accepted into the college of choice and her eighth-grade son is thriving, adding it was well worth the chaos moving through a pandemic and the stress of changing schools to keep her family together.
By Susan Malandrino
According to Marine veteran Jim Welch, very few animals capture the American spirit more than a wild mustang. Welch and Patti Gruber run Operation Wild Horse (OWH) — a nonprofit rehabilitation program dedicated to equine-assisted learning for veterans, service members and their families.
Located on 10 acres in Bull Valley, Illinois, OWH uses horses to help veterans and service members tackle service-related challenges including PTSD, TBI, transition and reintegration issues, depression and anxiety. Last year, the organization worked with almost 300 military and veteran families and provided nearly 2,000 therapy sessions.
One of the most frequent questions Welch receives is: “Is OWH a horse rescue program or a vet rescue program?”
“The answer is simple. We are both. The natural giving spirit from the selflessness of vets pairs perfectly with animal rescue of these mustangs,” he said.
Mustangs, descendants from domesticated Iberian horses brought to America by the Spanish, are free roaming horses found in the western United States. Under the Congressionally-approved 1971 Wild-Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act , Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages and protects free roaming herds. As part of BLM’s population control initiatives, some animals are placed into private care.
All of the horses Operation Wild Horse rehabilitates are wild mustangs. The organization currently has 14 horses in their care. Some were rescued, some were donated and others were procured from BLM.
“There are so many similarities between mustangs and vets,” Welch said. “The fight or flight instinct is the same. Horses brought out of the wild have to be tamed. The same could be said for vets struggling to reintegrate into society.”
The program has three simple rules: ensure the safety of the rider, ensure the safety of the horse and ensure the safety of spectators. After that, OWH can make each program or session flexible to the needs of the participant.
According to Gruber, those needs can vary by the session and depend upon how someone is feeling on a particular day. Sometimes a veteran may just want to sit and watch the horses rather than ride that day. Other sessions can include individual rides or rides with family as a way to bond. Some enrolled in the program have even participated in color guard parades in their local communities.
When asked why this program works, Gruber stressed the
importance of veterans having the space to connect with other vets and horses.
“The program lets people do self-discovery. Vets are having conversations with other vets or with horses,” she said. “They just need someone to listen.”
“We say our mottos is horses helping vets helping horses,” Welch said.
The benefits of equine-assisted learning include emotional awareness, social skills, impulse control, confidence, trust and empathy. Many people struggling with trauma and health issues work with horses as a path to wellness. One of the biggest benefits of working with horses is the idea of building trust between the animal and the rider, a concept familiar to many struggling with PTSD.
Ryan Bentley, a Marine veteran, has been a OWH participant for three years. Riding itself helps previous injuries in his hips and back but the connection to the animals is larger.
“Working with these horses gives you an opportunity to build trust. I wasn’t one to go out in public,” Bentley said describing his return
from a combat deployment in Iraq. “I came back from [Iraq] losing friends and others didn’t understand what I went through.”
Prior to participating in the OWH program, Bentley had never worked with horses.
“Every horse has a different personality, just like people.”
Last July, Bentley participated in a color guard parade on horseback in Des Plaines, Illinois, a town near where he grew up.
“The pride I felt was amazing. It felt like being welcomed home from representing the country I love.”
Recently Bentley, his wife and his son have all started riding together at OWH.
“This is something we can do together. We are a family listening together. We are building a bond together.”
We say our mottos is horses helping vets helping horses”
An addiction and PTSD treatment center launched a 12-step program earlier this year for military, veterans, and first responders.
Warriors Heart was co-founded in 2016 by retired Army Master Sgt. Tom Spooner, a former special forces soldier who served 21 years. Over his career, he saw several friends die by suicide or turn to drugs and alcohol to self-medicate the wounds and trauma of war.
After his retirement in 2011, Spooner teamed up with Lisa Lannon and her husband, Josh, to launch the first accredited treatment program in the U.S. exclusively for “warriors” faced with the self-medicating struggles of alcohol addiction, prescription and drug addiction, PTSD and mild TBI, according to a press release.
Spooner was able to self-manage an undiagnosed traumatic brain for several years before realizing he needed to get some help.
“I went from being the guy who helped people to being the guy who
needed help. And that was really confusing for me. Everything I’ve done in the Army guarantee a lot of things. The two most important things they guarantee are that number one, I won’t quit, and number two, I’ll never ask for help. So, it was really messing with my mind that I needed to seek out help. For a long time, I knew I had stuff going on but my priority was war,” Spooner said.
He said he self-managed his condition for several years in part because it wasn’t affecting his job, but also because he was worried about how his need for treatment might be perceived.
The breaking point came when he realized he wasn’t the husband and father he wanted to be. Decisions to seek treatment for active-duty service members are often difficult choices to make since each command climate differs in its receptiveness to mental health-related issues, but Spooner says the military made progress.
“Where I was working, there’s a lot of TS stuff happening all the time and I
wondered if I were to be honest about what was going on, if there was a chance I’d lose my job or my TS. But today’s climate is completely different than the 2010s. The military has come a long, long way in improving that stigma and backing up what they say about seeking treatment,” said Spooner. With a receptive command chain behind him, Spooner went in search of treatment for his issues. For roughly a year, he participated in cognitive therapy, behavior therapy, and vestibular therapy. One thing that struck him immediately was the separation between behavioral health and substance abuse treatment. In the military healthcare system, they’re kept separate, which raised concerns for Spooner.
Spooner’s sobriety helped him avoid the common pitfall trap of service members who experience trauma resulting from combat and turn to drugs and alcohol to self-medicate.
“If a soldier goes in for treatment for their chemical dependency and they start talking about war trauma, the
doc tells them that it’s not the place to talk about it. The converse is also true,” Spooner said.
The disconnect Spooner saw while seeking treatment for his TBI stayed with him after he medically retired in 2011.
“No one really knew the veteran suicide rate of 22 a day back when I retired. And it’s hard to intervene in veteran suicide because they just do it. They don’t reach out because that’s how we’re trained,” he said.
Making matters more difficult to address is that most veterans who die by suicide are under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time.
Spooner says the best way to address the issue of veteran suicide is to address the issue of veteran and active-duty substance abuse.
“Going through treatment, I realized everything was so segmented and siloed. And then adding in the TBI piece — which affects decision making for soldiers who are working through trauma and guilt and are self-medicating, their decisionmaking skills aren’t the best. It’s not easy to find treatment. They have to run around everywhere. It’s the chicken or the egg. Is it the
trauma that they’re using, or is it the drinking that brings up the trauma? It doesn’t matter. Just treat them both,” Spooner said.
One of the challenges service members face in seeking treatment is finding like-minded therapists and a peer network to speak openly about their issues, Spooner says. Warriors Heart understands that veterans are going to be more comfortable speaking to veterans.
“Our clients have the common bond of trauma and a common bond of being strong. We’ve had guys who have been in the same battles from different platoons, and then they’re telling their story, and then someone speaks up and says I was right there when that was happening,” he remarked.
Warriors Heart serves first responders and law enforcement officers, as well, and Spooner says there is commonalities between those groups and those who serve in the military.
“The physical differences of a combat vet and a stateside EMT might be much different, but the things that eat them up at the same,” he explained.
The programming available at
Warriors Heart includes individual and group therapy, but the real magic happens when they’re sitting around the fire pit at night.
“You have that guy or gal who’s on day three, they’re trying to think about leaving and then you have the guy or gal who’s been there for 40 days and a mentorship forms. That’s what happens in our population anyway — when we see someone struggling, we help them. That’s our nature, and that’s our training,” Spooner said.
That connection with others helps them remember that they’re not alone. The private, 60-bed facility is located on a 543-acre ranch outside San Antonio, Texas, where it does everything it can to be the opposite of a hospital setting. It’s catered to the military demographic, both in terms of treatment choices and the overall approach to the program.
“I am the population, so it’s not a doctor or nurse practitioner saying what needs to be done. At the end of the line, there’s a warrior that’s making the decisions because I know what they can tolerate and what they can’t,” Spooner said.
He notes these military members come to Warriors Heart at the lowest point in their lives, so the staff tries to make it familiar to them, starting with an accountability check at 7 a.m.
“Everyone has been in basic or through an academy, so it’s a familiar flow to their day. This helps remind them that you’re this person now, but you weren’t always. Let’s get rid of the stuff you don’t need. We remind them who they are,” he added.
To date, Warriors Heart has served over 1,200 people. Learn more about its programs and resources at https://www.warriorsheart.com.
As someone who once battled homelessness herself, Jas Boothe knows the complex challenges that many women veterans face. Boothe is the founder of Final Salute — an organization that assists women veterans and their children currently under financial strain, homeless or facing homelessness.
In 2005, Boothe was a single parent in the Army Reserve living in New Orleans gearing up to deploy. When Hurricane Katrina struck, Boothe lost everything. The following month, she learned that she had an aggressive head, neck and throat cancer. Suddenly unable to deploy, her options were few. She needed to now find a job, a place to live, treatment for her cancer and care for her son.
While researching options for women veterans, Boothe discovered there were very few.
“Shelters are made for men. The VA was created to support male veterans,” she said.
“Women have been serving for over 100 years but we’re just now starting to be tracked in terms of the resources we need.”
Boothe found that governmentfunded programs were off-limits since those in her region didn’t take in women with children. She sought assistance from her chain of command but nothing came to fruition. Soon, she found herself homeless, with a young son to care for and a crushing cancer diagnosis that needed treatment.
“We’re not seen as the servers, but I know first-hand that IEDs don’t gender discriminate. We are two casualties of war — both in service and after. This outdated ideology leads to the lack of support and a lack of problems,” she said.
Now on full-time duty with the Army in Washington, D.C., she has made it her mission to aide women veterans. Since Final Salute was founded in 2010, the organization has helped over 7,000 women
veterans and children in over 30 states and territories.
“On any given day, there are an estimated 55,000 homeless women veterans,” Flordeliza Gainey, a volunteer with the organization, said. She retired from the Army in 2015 after serving 11 years on active duty and finishing up her doctorate in medical science.
“Since I didn’t do my full 20, advocating for women veterans is a way to continue my service to my country,” she said.
According to Gainey, because of the high number of women veterans who are at risk for Military Sexual Trauma (MST), there is a need for more resources. Compounding that issue is that many women don’t selfidentify as veterans and are often underestimated or unaccounted for in homeless populations.
“MST, mental health and PTSD issues are all contributing factors to homelessness, especially if the service member doesn’t have a support system,” she said. “If the military is all a service member has and she’s discharged, what happens if she has no support or a home to go back to.”
During her volunteer work at a local shelter, retired Army Staff Sgt. Amanda Siddons realized that she’d never helped a single woman veteran, even though an average of five veterans came to the shelter every night. As a Final Salute volunteer, Siddons is most interested in helping women who may have been victims of MST.
“I am an MST survivor and I can tell you that it plays a major role in women seeking assistance from the military and the VA. There is a complete loss of trust and
the avoidance of anything that may trigger panic and anxiety. Sitting in the waiting room filled with male veterans is extremely uncomfortable,” Siddons said.
A report published in JAMA Psychiatry found that MST has longterm negative impacts on service members and is a determinant in post-deployment homelessness. The Department of Veterans Affairs recently awarded $1.3 million in grants to support veterans found to be at an elevated risk of suicide from experiencing or being at risk of homelessness.
VA Secretary Robert Wilkie noted that current data shows veterans are at higher risk for suicide after
Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP) community organizations provide rapid re-housing and homeless prevention assistance to individuals who recently became homeless or who would become homeless without this intervention.
Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program (HVRP) through Department of LaborVeterans Employment and Training Service (DOLVETS) connects homeless veterans, including women, to gainful employment.
HUD-VA Supportive Housing Program (HUD-VASH) provides eligible veterans with VA case management and Section 8 vouchers through the local public housing authority.
Supportive Services for Veteran Families Program (SSVF) provides supportive services to extremely low-income veterans and veteran families who are currently transitioning to permanent housing.
Veterans Prevention Demonstration Project provides the intervention and support that homeless women veterans need to secure a self-sufficient life.
facing eviction or at the onset of homelessness, according to a press release. The VA plans to release over $400 million in awards to existing homelessness programs in all 50 states, US territories, and Washington, D .C.
While these efforts to address homelessness are a positive step, there is still a need for solutions to the systemic challenges that women
veterans face, namely the lack of access to women-specific care. For Boothe and the volunteers at Final Salute, these changes start locally.
“As a country, we’ve been reactive when it comes to social issues and helping our veterans. What we need to do now is make changes to our systems. We don’t need more studies, we need more resources,” she said.
For service members transitioning out of the military, the COVID-19 pandemic has created a new normal. An uncertain economy means newly-minted veterans should prepare to exit the military with their DD214 in one hand and a financial plan in the other.
“Everyone going through any kind of transition, whether you’re military or not, is experiencing conditions that didn’t exist prepandemic,” states American Armed Forces Mutual Aid Association (AAFMAA) Chief Operating Officer and Secretary Jerry Quinn, a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, who has more than 25 years of financial services industry
By Andrea Downing Peck — SPONSOREDexperience. “It’s all the more important for the military member to plan and be deliberate in their transition process.”
Focusing on the future is an important first step, especially for military members who often wait until the last minute to begin transition planning.
“As service members, we learn this incredible devotion to our job and our duty,” Quinn notes. “There’s this concept of even though you’re getting out, they can’t live without me at work.”
Quinn maintains service members need to “advocate for themselves”
with superiors so they can take advantage of transition initiatives such as the DOD’s Transition Assistance Program, American Corporate Partners’ mentoring program or the U.S. Military Apprenticeship Program.
Squaring away your finances is the next order of business. AAFMAA, a not-for-profit financial solutions provider to military families and veterans for more than 140 years, is one place to turn for advice. AAFMAA’s financial services lineup includes wealth management, life insurance, mortgages, survivor assistance and VA disability claims coordination.
But Quinn points out the journey to financial security can begin with a budget and a transition/emergency fund large enough to bridge the gap between your last military paycheck and first civilian one.
“Find yourself a good budgeting tool and begin to make good budgeting a habit,” says Quinn, who recommends Military Family Advisory Network’s MilCents and Milspouse Money Mission budgeting tools.
Having adequate cash on hand is important because transitioning service members are entering a recession-like civilian job market. While Post-9/11 veteran unemployment hit a low of 3.5% in 2019, the pandemic has more than doubled that rate to 7.5% in September. Veterans also need to earn more as civilians to offset the loss of tax-free military subsistence and housing allowances.
“If your $900 rent is covered by BAH, you need to now earn $1,200 a month to pay for that [as a civilian],” Quinn notes.
Quinn adds that finding a fulfilling post-military career remains an ongoing challenge for transitioning military, with 80% of veterans staying less than two years at their first civilian job. While the pandemic has given rise to more opportunities for remote work, finding the right fit still can be elusive.
“That is why planning is so important,” he said. “You want to find the career that interests you, not just a job that’s going to make ends meet.”
Transitioning service members also should consider replacing their military-sponsored SGLI life insurance, especially if they are married with children.
Jerry Quinn“The sooner you get your family’s protection lined up, the lower your overall cost is going to be because you’re getting insurance at a younger age and when you’re the healthiest,” Quinn explains. “It gives you comfort that you’re prepared for whatever life may hold.”
Quinn also believes homeownership can be an important wealthbuilding tool. While not every transitioning service member is a home-buying candidate, record low mortgage rates can make homeownership less expensive than renting in many regions.
“AAFMAA believes homeownership is a key pillar of your family’s wealth and should be pursued, whether it’s now or later,” said Quinn, noting his company is a specialist in the VA home loan mortgage process.
The sooner you get your family’s protection lined up, the lower your overall cost is going to be because you’re getting insurance at a younger age and when you’re the healthiest.”
Julie Moser was getting ready to bring her husband to the hangar for a deployment to Afghanistan when she noticed what looked like a shadow under her left breast. With him having to be out the door in minutes, she didn’t share with him that she found a lump too.
“We said our goodbyes and went back home. I made an appointment with my PCM and she brought me in right away. She found three lumps,” Moser said.
She would then go on to spend her wedding anniversary with her best friend getting biopsies done of those lumps.
“To hear the sound of a punch biopsy is the most horrific sound.
I got so nauseous I thought I was going to throw up,” she said.
Following that were mammograms and ultrasounds, with each procedure leaving Moser waiting in anxiety. Her husband called her every day to check in. On October 28, 2013 — her phone finally rang with a call from her doctor’s office.
“She said, ‘I need you to come in, we got your results’… I could hear it
in her voice, I just knew. I couldn’t call my husband so I called my best friend,” Moser said.
Once in the office she was handed a form with chilling words bolded at the top: carcinoma.
“My best friend was crying, the doctor was crying and I just said, ‘well I shouldn’t have quit smoking’, Moser said with a laugh. What followed that conversation were endless appointments. She also waited for her husband who was being sent back home from Afghanistan. Moser would end up having to drive to pick him up at a rerouted airport, four hours away.
“Seeing him for the first time was like being diagnosed all over again, I just collapsed and lost it.”
Moser was the first one in her family to have cancer of any kind. At only 39, she wasn’t yet eligible for a mammogram and had just been checked months before her cancer was discovered.
“I had already decided I wanted a double mastectomy, even though they had only found the cancer on the left. When they did it, they found that the tumors on the left breast were bigger than they thought. They also found precancerous markers on my right breast,” she shared.
Her assigned oncologist then told her, “Well, you got the good kind of breast cancer.”
After switching to a more empathetic doctor with a better bedside manner, Moser began treatment. Seven days after her first dose of chemo, her hair starting falling out. Her husband shaved both of their heads and his unit all wore pink shirts under their uniforms in support. She also found herself surprised by the various responses to her diagnosis.
“The people who I thought were going to be there, weren’t. It was the people that I would have never asked for help that were there,” Moser shared.
Moser was unable to work her wellpaying government job because she was too sick. This left the family in dire financial straits, unable to sustain their bills and charging up their credit cards. They were unable to qualify for financial aid, even though her husband was only an E5. It was a difficult time, but when Moser rang the bell for being cancer
free — it was a good day.
She knew she wanted to do something to give back and support other cancer patients and survivors. In 2016, she founded Pink Warrior Angels of Texas. It supports all cancers, genders and ages. The nonprofit also pairs those newly diagnosed with a cancer survivor, for emotional support.
“I’ve had the privilege of being with three people as they took their last breath,” Moser said.
Something she really wants people to know is that it isn’t just hair or just boobs. She explained that the common misconception is that once the hair grows back or the implants are in, you can put cancer behind you. This isn’t the case for most cancer survivors who end up with lifelong complications, from both
the cancer and the treatment to save them.
As Moser looks back on her own cancer survival, she remains thankful it led her to a purposefilled life with Pink Warrior Angels of Texas. There’s no other way she’d rather spend her days and encourages others to do the same.
“Don’t spend your life feeling like you aren’t worth it. You are. Whatever it is that you want to do, don’t waste time — just do it.”
By Shelley Levitt
COVID-19 has left people facing new levels of stress and feelings of isolation. This may be especially true for members of the military, veterans, and their families. But as the need for support has grown so has a desire to pitch in, particularly among those finding themselves with more time available as get-togethers and social outings are curtailed.
Enter virtual volunteering: a way to give back to the military community while following social distancing and other healthy practices.
Amy Palmer is president and CEO of Soldiers’ Angels , a national nonprofit organization that has been providing aid, comfort and resources to service members, wounded heroes, veterans of all generations, and military families since 2003. In 2019 alone, some 50,000 volunteers, or “angels,” devoted more than 170,000 hours
to the cause, offering support to almost half a million members of the military community.
“When the COVID-19 crisis began,” Palmer says, “we quickly pivoted, highlighting activities that volunteers could do in their pj’s at home.”
Here are some of the virtual volunteering opportunities available to angel team members or on your own.
Put your sewing machine to use. There’s an ongoing need for masks at VA hospitals across the country. With just basic sewing skills you can help front-line healthcare workers protect themselves, their co-workers and their patients against the spread of COVID-19. This video shows how to sew the preferred type of mask that has a pocket for the insertion of a filter: https://soldiersangels.org/ urgent-help-needed-sewing-masks.
Write letters. Tired of communicating by email or tweet? Writing letters to service members deployed overseas is a lowcommitment way to brighten mail call.
Send a care package of homemade goodies. Pandemic baking, as many of us have learned, may be creatively satisfying, but it’s not all that kind to our waistline. As part of an Angel Bakers Team, you can enjoy the pleasure of whipping up a batch of your celebrated cookies, brownies or scones and then ship the sugary treats to service members who are eager for a taste of home.
Make a no-sew blanket. You don’t need a sewing machine, a needle or even thread to make a cozy blanket for injured service members, a military mom who’s snuggling with a newborn, or deployed troops who will welcome warmth from home. The video on this website demonstrates how to make the blanket with only two large pieces of fleece fabric, scissors and tape, and, ideally, a helper:
https://soldiersangels.org/how-tomake-a-no-sew-blanket-for-a-servicemember-or-veteran.
Weave paracord bracelets. Tucked into a care package, a paracord bracelet may seem like a small token but it can be a valuable survival tool. Unraveled, the nylon line of cord can be put to use as a fishing line, boot laces, floss or even emergency sutures. Most likely, this won’t be necessary, and the homemade paracord bracelet will remain a treasured item that service members carry on them at all times. Crafting these bracelets can be a fun at-home activity for the whole family or a company-wide volunteer action.
“The bracelets take about 15 minutes to make,” Palmer said. “Companies like Lockheed Martin have sent us thousands.” (Paracord bracelets for military service members must be made from MILSPEC cording in the colors black, olive green, tan, or camo only.)
Help pamper a deployed female warrior as part of a Ladies of Liberty team. The all-female volunteers send a monthly care package to an “adopted lady” that includes personal care items, treats like body scrubs and facial masks, haircare products and leisure materials like books, magazines and adult coloring books and colored pencils.
Gather Treats for Troops. Want to put all those packets of candy corn and fun-sized chocolate-peanut bars to better use than keeping your kids up at night from a sugar rush? Donate excess Halloween candy, or if you’re a small-business owner, become a candy collection site, so our heroes can enjoy a sweet reprieve.
Join the Holiday Stockings for Heroes program. Stuff holiday stockings with small gifts like beef jerky, playing cards, puzzle bucks,
holiday candy, caps, travel-sized games and a handwritten note and drawings from the kids.
Adopt a military family for the holidays. Military and veteran families often balance tight budgets, and those budgets might be stretched even more than usual with the pandemic leading to furloughs, job losses or reductions in hours. The Adopt-a-Family program is a way to spread some cheer during the winter holidays. For each family adopted, you’ll be expected to provide a minimum $50 - $100 grocery gift card for a holiday meal and gifts for each child in the family. Can’t adopt a military family on your own? Consider teaming up with another family, or with members of your church, workplace or community group.
The prospect of needing longterm care may be far from your mind today, but circumstances can change. A long-term care event can happen at any age, and the potential financial and emotional strain that comes with it can have an impact on you and your loved ones. Unfortunately, traditional health insurance plans — including TRICARE For Life — do not pay for the chronic, ongoing assistance with daily living that is most often associated with long-term care.
In fact, even the long-term care benefits offered through the Department of Veterans Affairs are tied to specific triggers, including service-connected disability, available funding, and even your ability to contribute to the cost of care. Long-term care can be expensive, and service members often rely on the VA to cover the associated costs. Depending on your eligibility status in the VA program, the level of coverage available to
you may not be enough. For this reason, you may want to research standalone long-term care insurance like a plan offered through the Federal Long Term Care Insurance Program (FLTCIP).
The FLTCIP — created specifically for the federal family — offers active duty and retired members of the uniformed services the opportunity to help take control of their future long-term care needs with long-term care insurance. Designed to be both comprehensive and flexible, the FLTCIP provides insurance coverage for qualified long-term care services, including the type of care you may receive and where you receive it.
Coverage under the FLTCIP
FLTCIP 3.0, the current plan available to new applicants, offers comprehensive coverage, including a stay-at-home benefit and home care provided by friends and family*, with added premium stability.
One thing that makes FLTCIP 3.0 unique is the premium stabilization feature. This built-in, innovative feature is designed to reduce the potential need for large future premium increases — a concern many consumers wanted the longterm care insurance industry to address. Under certain conditions, this amount may be used to offset an enrollee’s future premium payments or provide a refund of premium death benefit.
The FLTCIP is designed to reimburse for qualified long-term care services and can lessen or eliminate an individual’s reliance on a loved one to provide hands-on care. FLTCIP 3.0 benefits also include:
• international coverage up to 100% of the maximum lifetime benefit
• choice of a 3% automatic compound inflation option or future purchase option
• choice of a two-year, three-year, or five-year benefit period
There’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to long-term care insurance, and it’s no secret that planning for your future care can be overwhelming. Our new Guided Planner was designed to simplify the process of building a FLTCIP plan that’s right for you, and it will guide you through these key considerations:
• Cost of care: Compare the national average cost of longterm care with other locations in the United States. You can choose where you live, or plan to retire.
• Care options: Learn more about different care options, such as home care, assisted living facilities, and nursing homes, as well as the associated costs.
• Inflation protection: Understand the impact of inflation on the cost of care over time and see examples of how our inflation protection options can help.
Talk candidly with your family members and tell them about the FLTCIP. Starting the conversation prior to needing care can help you prepare for the unexpected. And, if you’re currently serving, your parents and parents-in-law are eligible to apply too, even if you don’t.
Visit LTCFEDS.com/ militaryfamily to learn more about the benefits of applying for the FLTCIP.
For personalized assistance, call 1-800-LTC-FEDS (1-800-582-3337) TTY 1-800-843-3557 to speak with a program consultant. They are available to answer any questions you may have and can walk you step-by-step through the plan
design and application process. Note: Certain medical conditions, or combinations of conditions, will prevent some people from being approved for coverage. You need to apply to find out if you qualify for coverage under the FLTCIP.
The Federal Long Term Care Insurance Program is sponsored by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, insured by
John Hancock Life & Health Insurance Company, under a group long term care insurance policy, and administered by Long Term Care Partners, LLC.
*Informal care provided by friends and family members is covered, as long as the caregiver isn’t your spouse or domestic partner and doesn’t live in your home at the time you become eligible for benefits. Benefits for covered care provided by family members is limited to 500 days.
After you score holiday deals during Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday, four military spouses are asking you for one more thing: Contribute to Giving Tuesday Military, but it doesn’t have to cost you a penny.
You may have heard of Giving Tuesday — a philanthropic movement started in 2012, encouraging charitable donations at the start of the holiday season.
Online donations during the 24 hours of Giving Tuesday last year topped $511 million.
You may be thinking, “I thought this wasn’t going to cost me anything?”
It doesn’t have to.
Giving Tuesday Military is heading into its second year, and it is all about contributing kindness.
“We didn’t want this to be about money. People can contribute through acts of service through kindness. This is about putting others above yourself,” Army spouse Maria Reed said.
Giving Tuesday Military started in 2019 when an Army spouse, a Coast Guard spouse and a National Guard spouse, all being recognized for their contributions to the military community, met in Washington, D.C.
“Jessica Manfre, Samantha Gomolka and I met through the Armed
Forces Insurance Military Spouse of the Year program. When we met, we just connected and knew we wanted to do something impactful together. We were from different backgrounds, and lived in different parts of the country, but shared one common purpose — to make a difference,” Reed said.
The trio reached out to the Giving Tuesday organization and pitched getting involved by organizing and encouraging acts of generosity amongst the military, veteran and patriotic supporter communities on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving.
“They loved the idea, and a
partnership was born,” Reed said. Interested in getting involved?
“We’re asking military spouses and veterans to be Giving Tuesday Military Ambassadors. We need those ambassadors to help spread the word and to organize acts of kindness in their areas,” Reed added.
That’s how Stacy Bilodeau, a Coast Guard spouse, got involved.
“I started as an ambassador. The idea of intentional kindness, that’s what got me interested and involved. That’s what I love about this movement.”
In addition to serving as one of the hundreds of Giving Tuesday Military ambassadors last year, Bilodeau assisted by donating her time and talents with social media and graphic design.
“No matter how busy I get, volunteering calms and centers me. It reminds you that you aren’t alone,” Bilodeau said.
She wasn’t alone. It was that likemindedness and dedication to service that made Bilodeau the perfect fit to join the leadership team when they decided to take Giving Tuesday Military to the next level, by forming a nonprofit.
The four spouses work together despite being stationed in four different states.
“I’m in Kentucky, Maria’s in Texas, Sam’s in New York, and Jessica is in Illinois. But with technology, we remain connected and make it work.”
Whether it’s collecting canned foods for your local food pantry, volunteering at an animal shelter, or offering to cut a neighbor’s lawn, you can be a part of Giving Tuesday Military simply by doing something kind.
Then, use the hashtag #GTM2020 to document those acts of kindness.
If you need a little inspiration, the website offers dozens of suggestions to get you started.
“Given the times, we’ve even come up with a list of ways to contribute while practicing social distancing,” Reed said.
But you’re encouraged to get creative.
“There’s no right way to do your part. We all serve in different ways. Our husbands put on the uniform and serve. For me, volunteering is my way of serving. That’s how I give back,” Bilodeau said.
And you can too.
To get involved, or for more information, visit www.givingtuesdaymilitary.com.
When Air Force spouse and photographer Hannah Wolt first moved to the island of Guam, she felt isolated and unsure of how to best settle into her new home. She knew that getting outside was “an incredible way to find friends in our military community and learn to love the places we call home.”
Wolt fell in love with outdoor adventures working at a recreational program in college, and realized she missed having committed time outside. So, she gathered together a small group of hikers to begin exploring the island together. This group bonded and in 2018 Military Wild was formed, with Wolt serving as its president.
Military Wild is an organization dedicated to connecting militaryaffiliated families who want to find friends, have outdoor adventures, and encourage environmental preservation.
Wolt and the other founding members recognized how important their time together on the trail was for forming connections.
“Easier hikes were an activity lots of us could share in common. More challenging hikes brought us closer as we pushed our boundaries together, got lost, laughed, and cried on the trail,” she said.
As the original members began to PCS, the group added members and chapters.
Wolt explains new chapters are opened when the organization can find a military community member to serve as an ambassador who shares “our passion for the outdoors and building community.” Ambassadors take on local event planning and social media, plus have knowledge of outdoor activities in the surrounding area.
Members of Military Wild receive access to chapter events, first chance for merchandise, available discounts through partners in the community perks program, and a membership pack. Activeduty service members, reservists, members of the National Guard, retirees, veterans, dependents, and military contractors are eligible to be members. A lifelong membership costs $25.
In addition to encouragement for getting outside, members can connect to a new community and, as Wolt says, “have friends and trails waiting for ya before you even start
packing boxes” with each move.
One of the newest chapters is at Fort Bliss, Texas, where Army wife Lara Deutsch serves as the ambassador. Deutsch is originally from the Philippines, and has lived in both Hawaii and Texas as a military spouse. She said she enjoys helping other military families explore because she has seen how getting outdoors can help you boost your mood, explore other cultures, move out of your comfort zone, or “see what the world can offer beyond technology.”
While the pandemic has prevented the chapter from meeting in person, there is already an active Facebook group for Texas members to build community and share ideas. They recently hosted a “quarantine competition” where teams could win prizes for completing a list of challenges within social distancing rules.
Following state, local, and base guidelines, Deutsch hopes to host a meet and greet for the chapter when it is safe to do so.
A new fall product line for Military Wild launched in October. It includes a Gold Star patch designed by a “Wild Child” who is a member of a Gold Star family. Proceeds from the patch will go to the Gary Sinise Foundation’s Snowball Express, serving Gold Star children. Other products include sweatshirts, hats, and a trail pup patch to celebrate furry family members who hike.
To find more information on becoming a member or ambassador for Military Wild, check out its website at www. militarywild.com , or Facebook and Instagram pages @militarywild.
Starting small if hiking is new for you — consider a sunset walk, or a trip to a local park.
Franklin Mountains State Park for local hiking, including the moderate Aztec Cave Trail that ends at a cave.
Big Bend National Park and Big Bend State Park, for a longer trip, both with plenty of hiking for all levels, camping, and star gazing at a certified Dark Sky area. There are also opportunities for guided kayaking, canoeing, off-roading and other tours.
At the McDonald Observatory there are solar viewings, star parties, and telescope gazing.
Guadalupe Mountains National Park has a variety of hikes including one to Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas.
Monahans Sandhills State Park allows for hiking and sledding on sand dunes.
So you’re getting ready to retire out of the military, you’ve put in 20+ years of hard work and are getting the pension that only about 18% of those who serve manage to earn. Congratulations! Hopefully, you’ve attended your branch’s version of the Transition Assistance Program, which has guided you through the job search process, VA benefits, and even creating a post-military spending plan.
But there’s still a major pitfall ahead: what do you do if you have a gap between your final military paycheck and your first retiree paycheck?
Theoretically you retire at the beginning of one month and receive your retiree pay on the first of the next month, so if you retired May 1 st, your first retired paycheck should arrive on June 1 st. Most people seem to get paid on time, but I have anecdotally heard of delays of three to six months.
It’s vitally important to have a good grasp of what expenses you will face in the first few months of retirement. Yes, you may have gone through the motions of creating a post-military budget in your TAP class, but you may not have thought about all those little one-time
expenses that creep up on you.
Cherie Stueve, whose spouse retired from the Coast Guard a few years ago, said she was caught off-guard by the $500 or so that they had to pay to change the registration on their cars and get new drivers’ licenses since they could no longer claim a military exemption.
Other civilian “startup” costs include things like getting professional credentials transferred, putting down deposits on housing or utilities, paying higher premiums for TRICARE retiree healthcare, acquiring a civilian work wardrobe, and possibly maintaining multiple households, if the service member moves ahead of the family.
Stueve said that during their transition out of the military, she and her husband quickly learned “cash is king.”
At Military Saves, we encourage folks to have an emergency fund of at least $500-$1,000. But a transition fund should be much larger than that, more like three to six months of living expenses. If you are late to the game and only have a few months before getting out, then cut back everywhere you can, including eating out, subscriptions, and entertainment. It’s only temporary and may prevent you
from accumulating debt during your transition.
Many people who have held off on buying a home through all their military moves want to quickly set down roots when they retire.
But it might be best to hold off on this for at least a few months. Even if you have a new job lined up, the last thing you will want during a period of uncertainty is to be tied to a mortgage payment.
If you are feeling overwhelmed, you can always go to your installation’s financial readiness team for more assistance with planning your transition. And military aid societies — Army Emergency Relief, Air Force Aid Society, Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society, and Coast Guard Mutual Assistance — will still provide emergency financial assistance to retirees and are a much better resource than a payday lender or high interest credit card.
Need help saving? Take the Military Saves Pledge today and then follow us on social media and visit militarysaves. org for more tips and resources and access to free financial counseling through Yellow Ribbon Network.
