Updates

Check out "Interesting Articles" and "Helpful Links" for the latest updates. If you haven't heard NPR's Tom Bowman's interview from Camp Leatherneck, be sure to click on the link to have a listen. And don't miss the Marine Expeditionary Brigade link to see the information packet - also just NEW!

Blessings,

Tamera

Monday Mornings

For the parents of Marines and Sailors of the 2nd MEB, Monday mornings may have a special meaning. Monday marks the beginning of a new week, which means one week closer to our loved ones coming home! Without fail one of the first things I think of on Monday morning is, “Hurray, it’s Monday, the beginning of another week – I can check last week off now!” (I don’t think of this on Sunday for some reason - the traditional "first day of the week.")

In light of this, I have a proposal to possibly help us through the coming weeks and months:
Most of us have probably heard the English idiom – Monday morning quarterback

(Def) A Monday morning quarterback is a football spectator who, with the benefit of hindsight, knows what should have been done in a situation and points out where the team went wrong.

Obviously this is a somewhat pejorative statement! But let’s put a bit of a positive spin on this for a moment shall we, and on Monday mornings do a little "Monday morning quarterbacking" and with the benefit of hindsight look back at our previous week to see how we can improve on it a bit – with regard to parenting our Sailor or Marine from a distance that is - as well as doing our best to navigate through the trenches of deployment with dignity and honor. I'm not saying we aren't doing that already, but as I see it, we can always improve! And we can start by asking ourselves questions like these about the previous week:

· Could I have written more

· Did I get that care package on its way as requested

· Did I run all the errands on “the list”

· Did I get the emails out to the friends and family

· Did I get enough sleep

· Did I do the things in my life to keep "me" peaceful and contented

What did I do that kept me on the right track!

*Monday mornings are also the time when the coach recognizes the great plays and attitudes, and passes out accolades to the players. What did I do right last week?

. . . and then doing our best to improve during the coming week! Whatever our own questions are, there's no real reason to guilt ourselves into anything, but gently nugde ourselves in the right, serene direction!

Live in the week!

Blessings,

Tamera

Rumors 101

Small talk is a natural as playing on the playground or a walk in the park; as as we say hello to people in line at the post office or to fellow shoppers at the register.
When we engage in small talk with our friends and family, and especially our Marine, it's about this time in the deployment that traditionally the first of the "rumors" begin. Don't be alarmed! This is perfectly natural.

Let's take a look at a couple of reasons why rumors start:

• First of all, with so much chitchatting going on (or lack of it), there's bound to be misinformation. Remember the game of "telephone?" It is also known as Chinese Whispers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_(game), Broken Phone, and Arab Phone! The first player whispers a phrase or sentence to the next player. Each player successively whispers what that player believes he or she heard to the next. The last player announces the statement to the entire group. Errors typically accumulate in the retellings, so the statement announced by the last player differs significantly, and often amusingly, from the one uttered by the first. Take heed lest we become a "broken phone" and, like Humpty Dumpty, can't be put back together again.
  
• When passing information to family and friends, or from the command to anyone else, let's be sure to have our facts straight. If it's not written down in some kind of memo form from the Command, chances are in could be wrong! When in doubt, remember to ask the Family Readiness Officer, Nancy Wike - Brigade Headquarters Group Family Readiness Officer; Office: 910-450-8034; Cell: 910-381-7749 . . . She is our official rumor mill stopper!
  
• The only possible good thing about rumors are the opportunity to turn them into TRUTH!! Chances are if they're negative - STOP - the information is probably wrong and you're in over your head! Occasionally, when the rumor is positive, it "could" be true! But again, go to the "rumor mill stopper!" and turn it into TRUTH!
  
• In my experience (we are now on deployment #7) the main rumors have to do with return dates (on the Navy ship side it was where the ship was going during the deployment, as well)! These rumors usually begin after a couple of months into the deployment (soon enough for all of us). When it happens, and it will, it always does, remember Humpty! And, no matter what you hear do not believe it . . . until it is official from the Command!

Blessings,

Tamera

Care Package Ideas

I'm always on the hunt for good care package ideas. Durning my recent perusing I came across a neat little site and I'd like to share with you. Keep in mind that many of the suggestions may not apply (given our unique situation), but there are so many great ideas and pratical suggestions that do apply I thought it was worth the post. I will add a permanent link to our blog as well!

Here you go . . . enjoy: http://www.militarycarepackageideas.org/

Letters From Home

Nothing is better than a handwritten letter from home! Your Marine can read it and re-read it again and again - just like in the olden days! (ha)

So much history has been learned from letters and diaries that were so carefully and thoughtfully written, but today letter writing is piratically a lost art - replaced by cell phones and email! Sure our lives are busy with very little time to sit down and write a letter; nevertheless, what can replace the thrill of opening a thick envelope filled with news from a relative or friend? There's nothing like it! Especially when you're in the middle of the desert!

Here are a few tips to make a letter nice for your son or daughter (or anyone for that matter) to read. Somewhere in your letter include a part that:

• Tells them what you like about them ("I wanted to write because I think you are . . . ")



• Talks about the interests you have in common



• Talks about what you'll do together in the future
  

Include pictures - who doesn't love that! They can show all their friends and put them on the wall. Questions are good too! Not too many though, that will get overwhelming (I highlighted the questions so that it was easy to go back and answer them in the letters I wrote to my son.)

Sitting down to write a letter after so many emails for so long can feel kind of awkward and maybe even a little uncomfortable - kind of like you're going to run out of things to say. You can always talk about what's going on in your own life. What's happening in your day right then and there. What your plans are for the next few days or weeks.

If you're still drawing a blank - describe where you're sitting, what the weather is like, what you had for dinner, what kind of tea you're drinking at that very moment and what music you're listening to. . . stuff like that.

If you try journaling a little throughout the week, you'll be able to reference some of those entries in your letters and jounaling it helps immensely with your writing practice.

. . . to be continued.

blessings,

Tamera

Finally Back!

It's Wednesday night in North Carolina, but my inner clock still says California time! (ugg) I've spent the past few weeks zooming around Southern California - visiting family and friends, attending my best friend's daughter's wedding . . . and having eye surgery at Balboa Naval Hospital with theeee best surgeon ever! He diagnosed a mystery eye disease some years back while my husband and I were stationed in Japan, and this surgery was the last of the residual repair from that.

So, here I am - my body thinking it's 3 hours earlier and telling me my age (yikes) at the same time! (not pretty) I, like you however, wish I could share my feelings with my special someone far, far away, but alas - it is not meant to be! It's hardest when we have feelings to share - good or bad; happy or sad! I think that's when I miss him the most!

Today we had some very happy news! My husband found out from official email that his next duty assignment is "THE ONE" he's been waiting for his entire career. It doesn't happen until April of next year, but he knows about it (he copied me the notification email), and now I know about it too, but we can't share in the joy together in person. He hasn't been able to call or write much at all and . . . well, you know how I feel! So, these are the tough days. Happy, but tough.

(((hugs))) and blessings,

Tamera

What Is Memorial Day?

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation's service. There are many stories as to its actual beginnings, with over two dozen cities and towns laying claim to being the birthplace of Memorial Day. There is also evidence that organized women's groups in the South were decorating graves before the end of the Civil War: a hymn published in 1867, "Kneel Where Our Loves are Sleeping" by Nella L. Sweet carried the dedication "To The Ladies of the South who are Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead" (Source: Duke University's Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920). While Waterloo N.Y. was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966, it's difficult to prove conclusively the origins of the day. It is more likely that it had many seperate beginnings. Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on May 5, 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11, and was first observed on May 30, 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on seperate days until after World War I (when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war). It is now celebrated in almost every State on the last Monday in May (passed by Congress in 1968 to ensure a three day weekend for Federal holidays), though several southern states have an additional, separate day for honoring the Confederate war dead: January 19, in Texas, April 26, in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi; May 10, in South Carolina; and June 3, (Jefferson Davis' birthday) in Louisiana and Tennessee. In 1915, inspired by the poem "In Flanders Fields," Moina Michael replied with her own poem:

We cherish too,
the Poppy red.
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.

She then conceived of an idea to wear red poppies on Memorial day in honor of those who died searving the nation during war. She was the first to wear one, and sold poppies to her friends and co-workers with the money going to benefit servicemen in need. Later a Madam Guerin from France was visiting the United States and learned of this new custom started by Ms. Michael and when she returned to France, made artificial red poppies to raise money for the war orphaned children and widowed women. This tradition spread to other countries. In 1948 the US Post Office honored Ms Michael for her role in founding the National Poppy movement by issuing a red 3 cent postage stamp with her likeness on it. Since the late 50's on the Thursday before Memorial Day, the 1,200 soldiers of the 3d U.S. Infantry place small American flags at each of the more than 260,000 gravestones at Arlington National Cemetery. They then patrol 24 hours a day during the weekend to ensure that each flag remains standing. And since 1998, on the Saturday before the observed day for Memorial Day, the Boys Scouts and Girl Scouts place a candle at each of approximately 15,300 grave sites of soldiers buried at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park on Marye's Heights (the Luminaria Program). But most Americans nowadays have forgotten the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day.

Information taken from - http://www.usmemorialday.org/backgrnd.html

It's 10:00 PM and I find myself looking at the big blue clock on this blog many times throughout the day thinking about the time over there and wondering . . . how are they doing? Then I check the weather . . . wow, it's getting hot! Is he sleeping ok? I know he doesn't sleep well when it's hot! It's 0630 for our Marines - well into starting another day. I wonder what this day will bring for them?
I know that each morning and evening my husband prays for all the Marines in the MEB - as do I! He often speaks of the wonderful chaplains and how truly blessed he is to have such an incredible group to work with. They have your Marine's best interst at heart, believe me!
Rest assured this day that they are being well looked after!

And sleep peacefully tonight!



Blessings,



Tamera

Here We Go . . .

Hello Parents,

Well, by now some of your sons and daughters are already in Afghanistan and many will be headed over there in a very short while!
It's strange how we've been counting the months - first 6 months, then three, then one - and now it's a matter of just weeks before they depart! But we try to keep things upbeat, doing our best not to overburden them with trivial unnecessary matters. It's not easy, I know! All those memories come drifting back of Christmas presents being torn open or methodically unwrapped, baseball games and waiting in long lines for the opening of that long awaited movie! That same little boy who at the age 9 got hit in the nose with a stray pitch at his little league game and then rushed off to the hospital in his mother's arms with a broken nose, is far from his mother's arms in a war zone! All the good growing-up times!
Yet . . . they are all grown up now! Where did that time go, anyway?

I know it's hard to see them leave and go away to such a dangerous place. Ironically, our son spent 15 months in the exact same place just a little over a year ago with the 82nd Airborne and now it's my husband's turn. But it's the reason why I feel so strongly about writing to parents. I was just where you are not that long ago and I know exactly how you feel. You will get through this! Sometimes it feels like the parents are forgotten in the hustle and bustle of everything, however, and I want you to know that's just not true! We have a lot of good things planned to get information out to you and this little blog is just one of them.

Please keep coming back to see the updated page and read the latest posts.

I'll look forward to hearing from you.

Blessings,

Tamera

Welcome

Hello, and thank you for visiting the MEB Parent’s Blog! I want to welcome you and let you know a little about “our” space right off the bat. The purpose of this blog is for parents of Marines in the MEB to get in touch, keep in touch with one another – whatever the case may be – to connect with one another all over the country (hopefully) while our sons and daughters are in Afghanistan during the coming months! I'll do my best to have have every link that I can think of on this site to help us (especially a link to our Family Readiness Officer), but mostly I want to keep this a place for us all to share stuff! Cool stuff; my hope being that you'll want to come back here again and again to be motivated and energized! A kind of landing and launching pad of sorts.

This Blog Policy: When posting on this blog, please pay special attention to what is called OPSEC (this stands for Operation Security) and remember that it’s a violation to post about anything having to do with specifics (i.e. when, where, names, etc.) We’ve been concerned with our kids safety since they were babies, and it’s no different now! See, it never stops, does it? Let's be very careful with our words, especially when writing about anything to do with the mission. My personal policy after over 24 years in the military . . . When in doubt? Don’t!!



Blog Purpose: As I stated earlier, this is a way for parents to get in touch with one another. This is NOT the place for any official information! We have other resources for that. And a place to share positive ideas. Like what might be working well for you. What your son or daughter liked in that latest care package, questions you might want to ask me (my son was in the exact same area of Afghanistan for 15 months just a year ago), or maybe even things like what our churches and friends can do to help? My husband should be able to keep a read on that for all of us. Anyway, these are my thoughts right now. But this is my first day of blogging on this site. The deployment brief is tomorrow and I wanted to have this up and running before I drive down to Camp Lejeune in the morning, so that I could pass out this blog address to some of your sons and daughters (big *grin* ).

Ok, before I go, let me tell you a ljust a little about myself. My husband and I have been married for 36 years and have two boys. They are both married with kids of their own. The youngest (now 33 years old) graduated from West Point in 2001 and we thought he was going to make the Army a career, but his plans have changed now. The last 15-month deployment to Afghanistan probably had a lot to do with that decision. John was with the 82nd Airborne at that time, so as we were moving back from Japan and moving to Camp Lejeune we decided to move closer to our granddaughter (oh yes, our son and his wife too - ha!) Unfortunately for my husband . . . that was all the way up near Fort Bragg! But, we thought Chaps (my husband) was deploying right away anyway. Of course he didn't! (big surprise), so for the last two years he's been a geographic bachelor as the 2nd Marine Logistics Command Chaplain, driving home on the weekends. The really cool thing for me, however, is my parents and my other two grandchildren (oh yes, and oldest son (35)and his wife - ha. . . it's all about the grandchildren now! They are such a joy!) have all moved from California to settle here with us in North Carolina. It's very, very wonderful! And now, of course, my husband is deploying!
And, just in case you haven't figured it out yet, he's the MEB Command Chaplain. Or as the Commanding General so aptly put it when introducing him the other day, the "shepherd of this huge flock!" I liked that. There are many other chaplains as well, but his main job is to make sure they're all in the right place at the right time with eveything they need to do their job well.

I have an Australian Cattle Dog named Sherman who is my constant companion and the smartest dog I've ever trained. I enjoy reading, writing, birdwatching, gardening (my newest hobby), and organizing. My husband and I love boating and look forward to more and more of that as we get closer to retirement.
Until next time . . .


(((hugs))) and blessings,


Tamera Pelikan
mebparents@msn.com