I am very excited to announce my newest series, Making it the Military. Over the last year I received numerous emails from readers asking how to make the best of military life. While the military isn’t for everyone, there are great opportunities for both active duty and family members.
What I realized is that while there are many opportunities, sometimes the information is not passed down to the troops. It is my hope that this series will empower military families to take advantage of their benefits, make the most of their pay grade, and be prepared for whatever situation arises during your (spouses) military career.
I am very please to have several guest writers for this series as well. Some topics covered will be:
- Living within your pay grade
- Pay and Benefits
- Health Care
- Deployments
- PCS
- Making your current duty station your favorite duty station
- Educational Opportunities
- Separation or Retirement
- Commissary/ Exchange benefits
- On Base vs Off Base Housing
- Growing up in the Military
The series will begin next week and wrap up on Veteran’s Day. I thought it would be nice to honor those who have served by hosting a Veteran’s Day tribute. I’ll put up a Mr. Linky and you can link up with your tribute post. If you don’t have a blog you can email me, and I will publish your tribute in a post. I know many of my readers are not married to the military, but have brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, cousins, fathers or grandfathers who have served or are serving in our Armed Forces. This Veteran’s Day let’s show them how much we appreciate the sacrifice they have made for our freedom.
If you have a topic you think would make a great post or if you are interested in writing a guest post, leave a short note in the comments.
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{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
New to your blog…And excited about this new series..I think it will help many of us.
Since you asked for suggestions a few off the top of my head…
How to get out of your house and make friends or how to deal with frustrations like your hubby not getting promoted etc…
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I work for a Military Family Resource Centre in Canada as the Deployment/Community Integration Coordinator, and would love to do a guest post if you’re interested.
Our community resources and national organizations will be different, but advice on self care, the emotional cycle of deployment, how children experience deployment, etc., are the same on each side of the border.
I am also a military spouse myself, with my husband deploying in the new year, and I blog at http://canadianrhapsody.blogspot.com
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I look forward to this series. I love the Veteran’s Day idea!!
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You truly made my day when I read about your next series! I need this SOOO badly! Thank you
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What a great idea for a series! I don’t know how many of your readers are Military spouses, but it might be neat to have a Linky for each main topic so we can share ideas/tips and humor about what we’ve learned along the way!
One example being deployments – My hubby has completed three rotations to Iraq and we have three children under age 4 – We did all kinds of things to help our children understand where Daddy was, and even understand WHO Daddy is! Feel free to contact me for specifics or perhaps just use the suggestion – any new ideas to help kids cope I always love to hear!
I have recently started a new blog Ann Marie’s Musings
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Just saw this and wanted you to know. Old Navy is having Military Appreciation days. Oct 1 – 4. 10% off. I found some clothes for my kids in the clearance section so the 10% is an added bonus!
I look forward to the series. My husband joined the National Guard a year ago. So far we’ve had a GREAT experience with the military, but I know that’s not always the case.
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This should be a great series. If you need a guest post I would love to help you out as my hubs was in the Navy for 6 years. I really enjoyed it and was actually disappointed that he didn’t stay in. It takes a special kind of spouse to be a military dependant.
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I’m so excited to read this series.
I agree with Amanda that an important subject is finding confidence to get out of the house and meet some people. We recently moved to Fort Sam Houston and I have met no one.
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What a great idea! We are 2 months into a year long deployment to Afghanistan- we just got married in April so marriage, military life, and of course, his first deployment are all totally new to me. I’m looking forward to what people have to say!
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Looks like you’ve got lots of great possible contributions just in the comments above! So much experience and wisdom to share… I haven’t forgotten about it! But I haven’t sat down to write it, either. I’m leaning toward our experience buying our first home with a VA loan and being reluctant landlords…
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Great topic! I am a military spouse. My hubby is Army and has been in for 14 years.
If you need a guest post about EFMP and raising a special needs child in the military let me know. I have a 4 year old with autism and hemophilia
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I look forward to this. Even though my hubby got out of the army before we married he is offshore so a few things apply. Like separations, being a semi-single parent, having to deal with disciplining alone, what to tell him & what not to bother him with. And even though he dosen;t have a pay rate he somewhat does. Its pretty standard across the board. And he is studying for a test to basically increase his pay. So I am looking forward tou your advice. If I can help in any way let me know.
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Can’t wait to read this series! I’m a relatively new Army wife; my husband left for Basic Training last October. We’ve been at our first duty station for a few months now.
If you’d like, I can contribute a post about funding that’s available for military spouses to continue their education. I’m currently taking advantage of those funds by taking some online coursework.
Looking forward to learning from this series!
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I am not in the military and neither is any of our extended family. Could you perhaps do a post on what civilians could do to be more supportive…not just of the military members but also for the families? Thanks!
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TheHappyHousewife Reply:
October 2nd, 2009 at 9:14 pm
Sarah-
That is a great suggestion. I will add that to my list.
Toni
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That is a great idea Sarah had!
And I am so excited for this entire series
We are military (you commented on my post where we celebrated his promotion to E6).
We’re in a somewhat unique situation in that he is an activated reservist and does TDY missions. (drrr… I *think* I have it right. After three years I still don’t totally get it!!) He is gone a lot, but not for long stretches – he’ll go away for 1 – 14 nights at a time. September he was gone for about 20 nights, but that is one of the craziest months.
It is short enough of a time that it is hard making a schedule and yet long enough that the boys miss him like mad.
Oh – I just had a thought for a post. Could one post be entirely focused on the joys and blessings of being in the military? Maybe make it a linky one so everyone can contribute and we can all be encouraged by focusing on the good?
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TheHappyHousewife Reply:
October 2nd, 2009 at 10:07 pm
Jessica-
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Great idea! I think I can do that
Toni
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Fabulous idea. Will have to pass it over to my best friend who just married a guy in the Air Force! Thanks!
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What an awesome idea for a series! Many people will surely benefit from your hard-earned wisdom.
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I’m looking forward to your new series about the Military. Both my husband and I were in the US Air Force…that’s where we met. I’m so appreciative of the current military men and women around the world. Thanks so much for what you do and for our veterans as well.
Would love to do a post on my site for veterans. I’m assuming it’s for Veterans’ day? Let me know. What would you like on that post? Memories of my years in military? Have a great weekend.
http://grandmabeckyl.blogspot.com
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Awesome idea for a new series! Can’t wait to read more. My hubby was in the Army. We’re out now, but thinking about going back in down the road. We’ll see.
Suggestions for topics? Hmmm–surviving your spouse going to BCT (that was a real trip me and baby), how to handle your hubby getting injured and finding connections as soon as possible–PWOC, playgroups, homeschool groups, OCF, etc. I was advised to do this when my hubby entered the Army and it was such a life-line for me! Being the wife of a military man is definitely one of the more unique hats I’ve ever worn!
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Such a seriously fabulous idea! We have been in over a year and I am always learning new things. If you could link a site with all those dang abreviations we are all supposed to magically know!
I am most excited about living within the paygrade, something we are working at everyday.
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OH what a fun idea! I am a military wife of 6 years so far.
We are currently serving overseas, on the island of Guam.
One of my suggestions would be doing an overseas tour and what that is like.
Tri-care is a good one also.
Special things like the Exceptional Family Member program would also be beneficial!
I can’t wait to read more!
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While I don’t think I am quite experienced enough with military life to write a guest post (dating my Coastie only 2 years and married 3 months), I have to tell you that I am really looking forward to this series of yours.
Again, though I don’t have much experience in this life yet, I would like to participate just a little. I found a writing dedicated to military wives. It’s too long to paste into a comment, so I’ll email it to you. If you choose to use it, I’d love it, if it doesn’t fit in your plans for this series, please don’t worry about it.
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Very exciting! I’m looking forward to it!
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Yay! What a great idea! We are no longer active duty, but my hubby is full-time in the Guard. I remember his active duty days as some of the sweetest times of our marriage. I miss the simplicity of living on base and the commraderie that came with it
I’ll be anxiously awaiting the series!
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What a great idea. Your list of topics are great, It would have been a great benefit to me 16 years ago, when I was first married to an Air Force Reservist. I knew absolutely nothing of the military life, and had to learn a lot the hard way.
Another topic idea might be checking out what you can do at the base that you are located at. Such as the craft/hobby shop, outdoor recreation and the ticket sales, as well as other things.I am located near 2 bases- an air force and a navy base and they both have thrift stores. I know our Air Force base offers tours to local area attractions on a tour bus.
Looking forward to the series.
Karen
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And to go along with Karen’s comment, our post has the most amazing post wide yard sale EVER each spring.
I guess that would vary from base to base, but ours is AMAZING!!
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I think this is an awesome thing to do – I would hav eloved to have something like it when I first got married into the military, I was so lost. We’re now out of the Army after almost 8 years, and I still go around speaking the lingo – and it doesn’t help that he teaches here at the EOD school house, so we’ve got 3 bases, so it almost feels like we never left. *lol*
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