Helpful Links

Military Life
MCCS provides a wide range of services to help Marines do everything from developing financial responsibility, to continuing their education, to moving to their next duty station or preparing to return home after completing their obligations.


U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs
Of the 25 million veterans currently alive, nearly three of every four served during a war or an official period of hostility. About a quarter of the nation's population -- approximately 70 million people -- are potentially eligible for VA benefits and services because they are veterans, family members or survivors of veterans.

AMVETS
For more than 60 years, we in AMVETS have taken to heart the credo of service set forth by our organization’s founding fathers. In so doing, we endeavor to provide our fellow veterans with the type of support they truly deserve. This outreach effort takes many forms, from the professional advice our service officers offer on earned veterans benefits to our legislative efforts on Capitol Hill to the work done by our hospital volunteers. Other AMVETS members involve themselves in a range of initiatives aimed at contributing to the quality of life in their local communities.


Government Made Easy
USA.gov™ is the U.S. government's official web portal

Emergency Financial Assistance
The American Red Cross works in partnership with the military aid societies including the Army Emergency Relief, Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society, Air Force Aid Society and the Coast Guard Mutual Assistance. This alliance helps to provide financial assistance for emergency travel that requires the presence of the service member or his or her family, burial of a loved one, or with assistance that cannot wait until the next business day such as for food, temporary lodging, urgent medical needs, or the minimum amount required to avoid eviction, utility shut off, etc.

In FY 07, the Red Cross, in partnership with the military aid societies, facilitated access to more than $5.5 million in emergency financial aid to more than 5,000 service members, their families, retired military personnel and widows of retired military personnel.


Marine For Life
The mission of the Marine For Life Program is to provide transition assistance to Marines who honorably leave active service and return to civilian life and to support injured Marines and their families

Communicating with your Marine

When Marines are deployed or stationed overseas, it's always the first thing we moms worry about: how are we going to communicate with them? I am also often asked if phone cards can be donated to ship overseas to Marines. Here are some links to help answer those questions.

SemperComm Foundation
The SemperComm Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charity founded to boost the morale of U.S. military personnel stationed at small, overseas remote bases by providing them with free communications and entertainment equipment, software and services.

Military Phone Card Donation Program
The Department of Defense announced today that any American can now help troops in contingency operations call home. The Defense Department has authorized the Armed Services Exchanges to sell prepaid calling cards to any individual or organization that wishes to purchase cards for troops who are deployed. The Help Our Troops Call Home program is designed to help service members call home from Operations Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

Skype Internet Calls

AT&T Global Prepaid calling cards

Recharging the AT&T prepaid card

SPAWAR Calling Cards

MotoMail
US Navy, US Army & Air Force personnel co-located with US Marines are now eligible to receive MotoMails

MotoMail

The Marine Corps has endorsed a quick and easy way to write to Marines called MotoMail. It is an electronically printed mail service. You will need go to the website and sign up for a free account (currently MotoMail is paid for by HQMC). Then you can write a letter and it will be printed and ready for delivery usually within 24 hours. Senders are only required to know the unit address, not the location. It is private and secure. The MotoMail printer, folder and sealer ensures complete privacy and that contents remain confidential. The letter is delivered through unit mail call and unlike an email it can be read and re-read. At this time MotoMail is only available for service members' units located at Marine camps deployed to Iraq.

MotoMail has recently added PhotoMail. PhotoMail is a feature within MotoMail that allows you to insert a color or black & white photo at the top of an Letter. Your account must be "Enabled" to activate this feature. Once your account is "Enabled"(by clicking on the "Enable Tab) you will be able to insert a photo. When you select a recipient and Click on Compose you will see the "Add Photo" option. Note: During the first phase all photos (color included ) will be printed in black & white only. The long term goal is to deploy color printers to selected locations to allow color printing of your PhotoMail.

Electronically printed letters don't substitute for handwritten cards, letters and care packs, but they sure are an easy way to communicate with your Marine.

Child abuse more likely during deployments

This study has some very sad findings. It concerns Army families, but depression and neglect can happen in families with deployed loved ones in ANY branch of the service. Lubbock Marine Parents wants families to know that help IS available. There are websites such as Military One Source which can help with anything from personal finances to relocation information to emotional support during deployments, and there are a variety of counseling services offered here in town. Lubbock Marine Parents is here for ALL military family members. We support the troops with care packs, but we are also an extra shoulder for families to lean on. If you or a loved one need help, whether it is to locate resources for you, to be a shoulder to cry on, or anything you might need, we are here.

By Karen Jowers - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Aug 1, 2007 12:11:28 EDT

In Army enlisted families with at least one incident of child abuse, the children are far more likely to be abused during deployments, researchers have found.

And the type of abuse is likely to be child neglect at the hands of their mothers, according to a study to be published in the Aug. 1 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association by researchers at RTI International and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health.

The study looked at Army families with at least one substantiated report of child abuse and had at least one combat-related deployment during the 40-month period between September 2001 and December 2004. Within those families, the rate of child abuse during soldier deployments was 42 percent higher than when the soldier was not deployed.

Only enlisted families are represented in the study; the data included only 49 officer families, too small a sample to analyze, the researchers stated. For the same reasons, they excluded 156 families in which the soldier was not married to the civilian parent, and nine families in which both husband and wife were soldiers. Thus, out of 1,985 families who met the initial criteria, 1,771 families were included in the study.

“The greatest increase we see during deployments is the increase in child neglect,” which is a category of child abuse, said Deborah Gibbs, a senior health analyst at RTI and the study’s lead author. The study was funded by the Army Medical Research and Materiel Command.

The civilian mother committed child abuse during the time the soldier-husband was deployed at a rate three times greater than when he was not deployed. The rate of child neglect was four times greater. Rates of child abuse for male civilian parents were not greater, researchers noted, suggesting that the two groups may be different in terms of the stress they experience, or how they mobilize resources to help them during deployments.

There may be several reasons for the increase in child neglect among civilian mothers, Gibbs said. “Maybe male parents are more likely to commit child physical abuse. Or, one of the ways the civilian parent left at home responds is by getting overwhelmed with the situation, and may not be keeping up with the child’s needs or supervising the child.”

She said the Army is also more stringent in its regulations about child abuse than civilian communities, “to the credit of the Army. They take seriously leaving a child alone in an apartment, or alone in a parked car at a convenience store.”

It’s understandable that young mothers with young children may find it difficult to manage when the soldier leaves, she said, “which is not to say this is trivial. It’s clear there’s a need for preventive and supportive services.”

Gibbs said she has been on several different installations and has talked about her findings with those who deal with child abuse. “They were not surprised. They are aware of this. They are working hard on it, but their resources are stretched thin. There is also the likelihood that those most in need are not going to seek the services.”



Read the entire article here.

MotoMail Adds Photos

Just when you thought electronically printed communications couldn't get any better, the MotoMail team brings on an exciting enhancement to the MotoMail system--PHOTOS. Yes, that's right you can now send your family and friends photos along with your letter. It's simple, quick and allows you to add an additional personal touch to your MotoMail. They call the service PhotoMail and we hope that you, your family and your friends will enjoy it and use it often. After you sign in to MotoMail as usual, go to the PhotoMail tab to learn more and enable your account to start using this new service.

MotoMail is a service that is brought to you and endorsed by the Marine Corps which allows electronically transmitted letters to be printed in Iraq and delivered to the recipient often in as little as 48 hours. Transit time via US Mail is eliminated, allowing a much quicker delivery to our Marines in Iraq.

Motomail

Deployment Coins

Cindy, with the St. Paul Blue Star Mothers, recently found our blog and sent me an email. She's the one who posted the Blue Star Mothers video that I used in a previous post to YouTube. She told me about a deployment coin that they are selling as a fundraiser. The coin and the order form are above. You can click on the pictures to enlarge. I think the coins are beautiful and I plan to order one to send with my oldest when he goes to Iraq this Summer. Look at their website if you get a chance and click on "Hero On A Stick". It's really cute!

Also, Cindy's son is with 10th Mountain out of Ft. Drum. Please be in prayer for those soldiers and families.

Some interesting web sites

Hero Bracelets is an organization founded to honor the sacrifices of America's Armed Forces. You can order memorial hero bracelets, deployed hero bracelets, and Purple Heart hero bracelets.

America's Heroes 2007 Calendar. Some of the hottest hunks in the Marine Corps are posing for the America’s Heroes 2007 Calendar to raise money for wounded service members and their families.


The 1/19/07 Commandant Directive. Every Marine Into The Fight.

Moto Mail "Family and friends of deployed Marines in Iraq can NOW send a letter
to be downloaded, printed, and ready for delivery, usually within 24 hours.
THE SERVICE IS FREE, PRIVATE and SECURE."


Soldier's Angels "May no soldier go unloved."

Leatherneck Magazine

We get my son's subscription to Leatherneck magazine here at the house. It's a great magazine, so I always read it before I send it on to him. ;) I think you can buy them here in town at Barnes & Noble too. We got the January issue in the mail today and there are several good articles in it, as usual. From now until February 1st, you can read the entire magazine online for free. After that it will only be available to subscribers and members of the Marine Corps Association, so read it while you can! One of the "must see" articles is about the National Museum of the Marine Corps. I really want to visit there someday. There's also a good one about MCRD San Diego There are some really great pictures. Read the magazine here.

Lubbock Military Parents?

As far as we have been able to find out, we are the only military family support group in the Lubbock area. We don't want parents or family members of other branches of the military to be without the support system that we have found to be so invaluable. For that reason, we have been tossing around the idea of changing our name to reflect a broader mission. We are a non-profit organization, so it would involve some red tape, but we are happy to do it if there is sufficient interest. If you know of anyone in our area who might be interested please email (through my profile),or leave a comment. We don't want ANY military family member to feel alone. Remember though, that even if we do not change our name, any military family member or loved one is welcome to join us.

Resources for Marine parents

I was thinking today about how I felt when my oldest son told me he wanted to be a Marine. The first thing I did was start combing the internet for information. I knew very little about the Marines other than the "big and bad" reputation and I wanted to be informed. From the Google searches that are leading people to our blog, I'm guessing there are others out there in the same situation. Luckily for us, there are LOTS of resources for Marine parents on the internet. I would start with the official USMC parents website. Then go to the MarineParents.com website. There are message boards for both parents of recruits and poolees as well as Marines. I found parents from both of my sons' recruit training companies and met many of them in San Diego at the graduations. The recruit message board is mostly San Diego parents, but there are some with Parris Island recruits as well. There are separate threads for each graduation date. On the Marine side of the message board the threads are organized according to duty station or unit. You may be able to find other parents with Marines in your son or daughter's unit. I found a mom there whose daughter is stationed with my oldest son and they are in the same unit. She met my son when she went to Japan to visit her daughter and I met her daughter when I went to visit my son. Another message board that I only found recently is the USMC EZ Board. There are more Parris Island parents here. I found the mom of my #2 son's room mate on the EZ Board. Those poor guys don't stand a chance with their moms talking to each other, do they? ;)

If your son will be going to MCRD San Diego for bootcamp (men west of the Mississippi)click here to see the official USMC training matrix. If your son or daughter will be going to bootcamp at Parris Island (men east of the Mississippi and all women) click here for more information. For unofficial (but highly recommended) graduation advice for San Diego visit Max's San Diego Graduation site, and a similar unofficial (but again highly recommended) site for Parris Island grads here.

Now, as far as I know, there are no similar websites for parents of other branches of the military. I do believe there are some official websites for parents, but no message boards or unofficial websites that I know of. If anyone knows of any, please pass them along.

The above picture was taken at MCRD San Diego before my second son's Family Day, which is the day before the actual graduation. It was the first time in 13 weeks for us to catch a glimpse of him. Aside from the days of their births, their graduations from bootcamp were the proudest (and most emotional) days of my life.