Military Spouse or the Year 2014 Timeline

Links for voting will be posted at http://msoy.militaryspouse.com/vote
and https://www.facebook.com/groups/586655311407148/as they become available.

Initial voting round will be calculated to determine Base (Installation) Winners and the Top 18 Winners. The Top 18 will proceed to the Branch Voting Round.

Tuesday, January 21, the Base (Installation) Voting.
Thursday, January 23, Base (Installation) Winners Announced.

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Thursday, January 30, Top 18 Announced.
Tuesday, February 4, Branch Vote.
Thursday, February 20, Branch Winners Announced.

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Tuesday, March 4, National Vote.

Military Spouse of the Year Announcement - date to be announced.

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Friday, May 9, MSOY Awards.

Military Spouse of the Year 2014 Candidate

I am honored and humbled to be nominated as 2014 Military Spouse of the Year (MSOY)! The privilege to represent Military Spouses, Families, and Service Members is an incredible honor. I feel blessed for this opportunity to further volunteer in and give back to my Military Community.

Your support and faith are greatly appreciated! The voting for Military Spouse of the Year will begin Tuesday, which will be twofold, with Base (Installation) Winners and Top 18 being determined from the first round votes; making the initial day of voting an important kick off day!

Voting is open to everyone! Military and Civilian members all welcome!!

Military Spouse of the Year (MSOY) provides an incredible platform to make progress in the Military Community, build relationships, create opportunities and bring awareness to areas lacking understanding and in need of development.
I am proud to represent you and our Military Community.

Humbly,
Tina Shifflett

Washington, D.C., Blue Star Families Style

White House Blue Star Family Christmas Tree 2013

I was humbled and honored to be selected for this incredible whirlwind tour in Washington! The opportunity to meet other Blue Star Families Volunteers and Staff was a wonderful experience just talking and discovering our commonalities and our unique skill sets we bring to the Blue Star Families floor.

The White House tour offered many riches throughout with the Gold Star Family tree, Operation Honor Card station complete with USPS Blue Mailbox, Blue Star Family Tree, and ending at the White House Foyer and entrance.

A Mount Vernon Candlelight tour was cold and rainy, albeit it beautiful and appropriate for the 214th Anniversary date of the passing of George Washington; it lent to four of us huddling together under one umbrella, and very eager for the night's dinner to enjoy fellowship and warmth.

Mount Vernon Candlelight Tour December 14, 2013

The opportunity to volunteer at the Holiday Luncheon for our Wounded Warriors at Walter Reed was a deeply rewarding experience! The strength and spirit of the service members, spouses, parents, and children was a reminder of how proud and resilient our Military Family Members are. I was privileged to attend this event and look forward to attending again.

I look forward to continuing my service to Our Military Families and Service Members! 

For more on our incredible adventure visit the Blue Star Families blog at http://bluestarfam.org/blog/view/2014-01-wh-visit

God Bless You for Supporting Our Troops and Military Families!

Tina 

Army Strong: An incredible story of willpower, courage, strength and fortitude!

An incredible story of willpower, courage, strength and fortitude!  SFC Greg Robinson, a Platoon Sergeant of 30 soldiers, completed the Army Air Assault School!  What makes this a incredible story?  SFC Greg Robinson, completed this daunting task not only as the first amputee to complete Army Air Assault School, but unwavering and incredibly on a broken prosthetic!

2nd Brigade Combat Team Public Affairs, In this undated photo provided by the U.S. Army, Sgt. 1st Class Greg Robinson, an amputee, runs during the Sabalauski Air Assault School at Fort Campbell, Ky. Robinson graduated from the 10-day course on Monday, April 29, 2013, and is the first amputee to have completed the course. (AP Photo/U.S. Army)

Lavish Miltary Lifestyle from Stateside to Sandbox: NOT!!

Apparently military is leading a lavish lifestyle, from stateside to the sandbox.  Some never make it home.

  
Huffington writer, David Wood, a professed "former conscientious objector" and pacifist raised, cashed in on the military to earn a Pulitzer by highlighting the damages of war, but the ignorance in this article does incredible disservice to the military and merely highlights the fact, the military was simply a tool for this writer's claim to fame. 

There is no comparable civilian-sector job to ever compare military to ... there are no insurgents, no multiple extra duty assignment jobs (no UA, ECO, SHARP, etc.), no oceans away for 6-12 month assignments, no "you're going to jail, you didn't show up at work" jobs, no overtime pay, no 7 days a week/24 hours a day/365 days a year jobs, no we changed our minds about your perquisites, no single parent, instant widow(er), ready to go in hours without notice, cancelled your wedding, purposely sending you to get shot at jobs in the civilian sector.
What  is really disheartening is this writer is what is wrong with our country today!  Too many people are swayed by what the media puts out as golden.  People have lost the ability to reason and educate themselves, instead letting whoever pops up first on Google, Bing, or Facebook Timelines dictate their stance on issues and how to vote, or listening to breaking news, only later to be retracted or corrected ... but the damage has already been done.

I fear for our children, our next generation of leaders ... we must teach them to make reasoned and educated decisions, and to fact find before accepting something as accurate.

Military Mental Health Cuts Unacceptable

"Degraded access to medical care may also take place under sequestration, Odierno said. The number of mental healthcare providers will decrease instead of going up, he said. The Army has been attempting to increase providers over the past few years to help treat brain injuries and post-traumatic stress. "Before sequestration, we allocated the dollars and positions to increase military and civilian mental health providers," Odierno said. "The problem is there are not enough out there. Now what's going to happen is we're going to have to reduce the number we already have."

This is totally unacceptable! We have a responsibility to those who sacrifice their quality of life to protect our country and freedoms at home and abroad. Too many Servicemembers are in a daily living hell for traumas, physical, mental and combination thereof as a result of deployments. Deployments wear down our servicemen and servicewomen as they have very little recuperation time in between combat and even hardship tours. High stress jobs following or proceeding deployments compound mental and physical strains and wear down the Servicemember and significantly effect their home life. If we sacrifice the support of mental support programs we will see a marked increase in suicide, domestic violence and divorce rates. This is just one of the areas of programs in jeopardy of being cut through sequestration. This isn't a BENEFIT of the job, this is a responsibility our country owes to those needing support for dedicating their lives to our country. Don't just sit on the sidelines and let them be forgotten .... AGAIN!

Extreme Fakeover?

Looks like no one did their homework. According to zoning regulations, this home was never allowed to house the number of occupants (7 families) that it was promoted during the Extreme Makeover, instead only being zoned to allow a total of 5 unrelated people to occupy the home. The show producers and the donators should have made sure there were proper checks and balances in place prior to promoting this as such. While Marshall claims that she doesn't charge, she contradicts that stating she is unable to support them completely. According to various sources, provided support and offers thereof haven't been used properly, if at all. Recent visits by homeless advocate committee members and interested parties have noted that the home doesn't appear lived in and the vegetable garden featured in the show is brown and unattended. Read more here.

http://fayobserver.com/articles/2012/02/26/1158276?sac=fo.local