THE HURT LOCKER Is a Compelling New Movie About a Bomb Defusing Squad in Iraq

Kathryn Bigelow directed the 2002 movie K-19: THE WIDOWMAKER, which was a heartbreaking story of a Russian nuclear sub whose sailors don't have the proper protective gear to deal with the sub's nuclear malfunction.

In her new movie THE HURT LOCKER, the U.S. bomb squad unit in Iraq has the proper protective gear, but that doesn't necessarily mean these men will survive their bomb-defusing missions.

Written by Mark Boal, the film is as compelling as a documentary, and I wish all Americans could see this movie in order to understand what American troops are up against in Iraq as well as Afghanistan.

Check out the website now of THE HURT LOCKER -- and then see the film at your local movie theater.

P.S. If anyone from this film's marketing team reads this blog post, please take my advice: Lose all the Flash that takes so long to load that I almost didn't stick around to enter the website. The film is so compelling that the site doesn't need the slow-loading Flash.
___

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also writes articles as a National Internet Business Examiner and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life.

Phyllis' company has launched the monthly program WeTeachWebMarketing.com to help people promote their brand, book or business online. Her company also does Twitter tutoring -- see TeachMetoTweetNow.com

Author Alison Buckholtz Launches Column Deployment Diary

Navy wife and author Alison Buckholtz (Standing By: The Making of an American Military Family in a Time of War) had been scheduled to talk about her book on the blogTalkRadio show YourMilitaryLife.com that I co-host with Nancy Brown of YourMilitary.com.

Then Alison emailed me very apologetically that the scheduled interview time was right in the middle of a few snatched hours she would have with her husband en route from training to deployment. Of course I understood why she had to cancel the interview.

Later, thanks to an update in my Gmail chat, I discovered that Alison wrote about these few snatched hours in the first entry of her "Deployment Diary" column.

Here's the opening of the column:

Military units are breeding grounds for rumors, and the story was now circulating that Scott and his colleagues’ flight would be delayed by 30 hours. I judge my own military wife cynicism by the degree to which I don’t get excited when I hear news that’s in our favor, because I’ve been disappointed so many times before.

This time, though, my heart leaped. Maybe my parents could bring the kids after all! Or we could have an overnight back in our own room, and a home-cooked meal! It seemed only right. After all, the other services contributing troops to the mission had been granted four-day passes between training and deployment; only the Navy sends its troops directly to theater.

My mind raced between happy homecoming visions and stern warnings to myself, cautioning against a letdown.

As we waited in the long, winding line for reticketing, I heard sustained applause, happy stomping, and delighted whooping from the floor below. Nosy even in crisis, I peered over the open balcony.

We were directly above the “Freedom Shrine,” the gate service members pass through when flying home from deployment. Several dozen volunteers typically staff the gate to give these troops the rowdy thank-you they deserve.

Read the rest of this column now.
___

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also writes articles as a National Internet Business Examiner and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life.

Phyllis' company has launched the monthly program WeTeachWebMarketing.com to help people promote their brand, book or business online. Her company also does Twitter tutoring -- see TeachMetoTweetNow.com

Patriot Guard Riders: Standing for Those Who Stood for Us

The following is a guest post by a retired Deputy District Attorney who served four years active in the Marine Corps as a Radar Intercept Officer and six years in the Marine Corps Reserves with an artillery group. You can follow him at www.Twitter.com/marinemajor

Robert Wayne Latsha passed away at the age of 70 on August 8, 2009, in Killeen, Texas. A funeral service was held for him on August 19, followed by burial with full military honors at Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery.

He served his country as an enlisted man and as an officer in the United States Army for 21 years and retired in 1976. His military service included two tours of duty in Vietnam. He was awarded numerous awards and medals, including the Bronze Star, Air Medal, Army Commendation and three Vietnam Service Medals.

Members of Patriot Guard Riders honored this veteran by attending his funeral and the following internment ceremony at the cemetery. More than 25 members rode their motorcycles to the funeral home and stood in a line of flags at the entrance to the funeral home.

Other members went in advance to the committal center and put out 50 American flags to honor this American hero.

Following the funeral, the Patriot Guard Riders rode their motorcycles as a group in the funeral procession to the Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery. Upon the arrival of the procession, the Riders formed a flag line around the Committal Service Center.

Patriot Guard Riders Mission Statement:

The Patriot Guard Riders is a diverse amalgamation of riders from across the nation. We have one thing in common besides motorcycles. We have an unwavering respect for those who risk their very lives for America’s freedom and security. If you share this respect, please join us.

We don’t care what you ride or if you ride, what your political views are, or whether you’re a hawk or a dove. It is not a requirement that you be a veteran. If doesn’t matter where you’re from or what your income is; you don’t even have to ride. The only prerequisite is Respect.

Our main mission is to attend the funeral services of fallen American heroes as invited guests of the family. Each mission we undertake has two basic objectives.

1. Show our sincere respect for our fallen heroes, their families, and their communities.
2. Shield the mourning family and their friends from interruptions created by any protester or group of protesters.

We accomplish the latter through strictly legal and non-violent means.

To those of you who are currently serving and fighting for the freedoms of others, at home and abroad, please know that we are backing you. We honor and support you with every mission we carry out, and we are praying for a safe return home for all.

Please learn more visiting by our web site at www.patriotguard.org.
___

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also writes articles as a National Internet Business Examiner and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life.

Phyllis' company has launched the monthly program WeTeachWebMarketing.com to help people promote their brand, book or business online. Her company also does Twitter tutoring -- see TeachMetoTweetNow.com

If You're an Aspiring Novelist, You'll Want to Listen to This BlogTalkRadio Interview

If you're an aspiring novelist, you'll want to listen to the interview of Kathleen M. Rodgers that Nancy Brown of YourMilitary.com and I did on our BlogTalkRadio show YourMilitaryLife.com.

Kathleen talked about her novel THE FINAL SALUTE: TOGETHER WE LIVE ON, which focuses on the lives of Air Force pilots and their families at the time of the Persian Gulf War.

And because Kathleen had experienced so many of the same frustrations writing her novel that I did writing my novel MRS. LIEUTENANT, we ended up talking about novel writing. (In fact, we both had to learn to switch from writing as a journalist to writing as a novelist.)

We shared advice that can help other writers (including the difficulties of point-of-view), and Kathleen also described the impetus for telling her story. And she's delightful to listen to.

Listen to the interview now to learn more about Kathleen's novel THE FINAL SALUTE as well as advice for aspiring novelists.

(Note: The Amazon link above is an affiliate link.)
__

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also writes articles as a National Internet Business Examiner and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life.

Phyllis' company has launched the monthly program WeTeachWebMarketing.com to help people promote their brand, book or business online. Her company also does Twitter tutoring -- see TeachMetoTweetNow.com

A Must-Listen to BlogTalkRadio Interview If You Want to Know About VA Loans

I have to admit that the interview that Nancy Brown of YourMilitary.com and I did of John Rodgers, president of Prime Mortgage Lending, on our BlogTalkRadio show YourMilitaryLife.com brought up some important information I didn't know.

It turns out that my husband, who served in the U.S. Army from May 1970 to May 1972, is still eligible for a VA home loan. I would have thought that benefit expired years ago.

If you are a veteran who was honorably discharged or you are still serving, you should check out the VA home loan program for a primary residence. You may be very pleasantly surprised.

For more information, you can visit John Rodgers' company's website at goprimeonline.com or another site he recommended -- mortgagenewsdaily.com

And then you should listen to our interview of him -- the information is truly valuable!
___

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also writes articles as a National Internet Business Examiner and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life.

Phyllis' company has launched the monthly program WeTeachWebMarketing.com to help people promote their brand, book or business online. Her company also does Twitter tutoring -- see TeachMetoTweetNow.com

Former Columnist for Stars and Stripes in Europe Visits MrsLietuenant.blogspot.com

Freelance journalist Bonnie Bartel Latino is a member of the Military Writers Society of America. She is also a licensed Lay Eucharistic Minister in the Episcopal Church. She and her husband Tom (retired military) live in South Alabama. Contact Bonnie at BonLatino@aol.com or follow her at www.twitter.com/BonnieBLatino.

FYI -- When my husband Mitch and I were stationed in Munich, Germany, we read the Stars and Stripes newspaper daily. I still have articles almost 40 years later that I saved from the paper.
___

Thanks to Phyllis Zimbler Miller for inviting me to share a bit about my life as an Air Force spouse and how I came to write a column for Stars and Stripes newspaper.

Writing is embedded in my DNA. As a teenager, I was a columnist for my weekly hometown paper. I also hosted a weekly radio program during those four years in Atmore, Alabama. At Mississippi State College for Women (now MUW) in Columbus, I doubled majored in journalism and speech.

During college I met Tommy Latino, a Mississippi State University senior and guitarist in a popular campus rock band, “T. Tommy and the Tyrants,” a name that could only have been born in the 1960s.

Alas, my long-haired, Italian-American musician was simply a poor college student letting his love of music pay his tuition. By the time I realized that ROTC was as close to Tom’s heart as was music, it was too late. I had fallen. Hard. Quicker than I could burn my bra, I found myself married.

The campus rock star morphed into a second lieutenant, and we were off to Lubbock, Texas, for Tom’s Air Force flight training.

Each year brought a new assignment, another home, often a different country. At each new base, I penned our squadron’s column for the spouses’ club magazine. I wrote for base newspapers around the world.

At Andersen Air Force Base Guam, I hit the air waves on Armed Forces Network Radio every week as the base “story lady.” This, despite my southern accent that was as thick as day-old cheese grits. In the 1980s while Tom was assigned to Hellenikon Air Base. Greece, I wrote several travel articles for Military Times newspaper.

By then, I sometimes loved and loathed the military in equal measure. By the time my second lieutenant had matured into a colonel in the mid 1990s, I had a realistic understanding of what it meant to be a military spouse.

When Tom was stationed in Germany, Stars and Stripes (S&S) newspaper hired me to write a freelance opinion-editorial column as accompaniment to their SUNDAY magazine’s lead story. My assigned topics ranged from the exquisitely painful (the ache many childless women experience on Mother’s Day) to the sublimely ridiculous (computer sex in America).

Occasionally, I also wrote travel articles for the paper, plus human interest features that celebrated the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe.

S&S is like a hometown newspaper to U.S. military, Department of Defense civilians and contractors and their families serving overseas. The publication is also coveted by other civilian American expatriates who live overseas in a variety of capacities. Above all, it is a First Amendment publication that operates without censorship from military brass.

When I wrote for S&S/Europe during the mid 1990s, the circulation in Europe, Africa, and parts of the Middle East was around 125,000 readers. Today the paper is said to reach around 350,000 world-wide. The paper is published daily in the Middle East, Europe, Japan, Korea, Okinawa, and weekly in the United Kingdom, where Americans have easy access to other English-speaking media.

As a freelance journalist, I am humbled to have been a small part of the history of a uniquely American publication that began in the 1860s as a paper for Union troops during the Civil War.

The military isn’t just a job or even a career; it is a way of life. As a former S &S columnist and an officer’s wife of 30 years, I intimately know the professional and social nuances of that lifestyle. I have incorporated that knowledge into an unpublished novel I co-authored with Bob Vale of Ocean Township, New Jersey.

YOUR GIFT TO ME is a mystical love story about finding love after tragedy. Set against the realm of the contemporary fighter pilot, YOUR GIFT TO ME is best described as Top Gun meets Steel Magnolias. The website created for the manuscript includes a short video book trailer at www.YourGiftToMe.net.

I suspect readers who love Phyllis Zimbler Miller’s MRS. LIEUTENANT might also enjoy YOUR GIFT TO ME.
___

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also writes articles as a National Internet Business Examiner and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life.

Phyllis' company has launched the monthly program WeTeachWebMarketing.com to help people promote their brand, book or business online. Her company also does Twitter tutoring -- see TeachMetoTweetNow.com

Published Authors: Your Opportunity to Support Our Troops and Their Families

For published authors, here are two opportunities to share your books -- one project is directly for deployed military personnel and the other project is for their families:

Operation Desert Swap:

Each author "adopts" a soldier, sending them a copy of their book along with an initial Operation Desert Swap letter. At least once a month we send "our" soldier a letter to help keep their morale up, and we send "our" soldier at least one care package during their deployment, plus a Christmas card and if possible a birthday card.

As part of the ODS project each soldier is asked to swap their book with another soldier when they have finished reading it, and then that soldier swaps it off with another and so on.

Currently we are supporting C company 3/25 Aviation Regiment. These soldiers are a medevac unit also known as "Dust off."

If you're an author, sign up now.

Operation Book -- Books for Families of Servicemen in Iraq:

OPERATION BOOK was designed to show our support for not only our servicemen, but to also show support for their families.

AUTHORS from across the greatest land on earth, AMERICA, as well as our neighbors to the north - Canada, stand united in an effort to say thank you to just some of these deserving families.

Books from every genre, from children's books, teen and young adult books to adult reading material, are being collected to send to as many families as we have books collected as Christmas gifts to just a small portion of the families living without their spouses.

Sign up to participate now.
___

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also writes articles as a National Internet Business Examiner and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life.

Phyllis' company has launched the monthly program WeTeachWebMarketing.com to help people promote their brand, book or business online. Her company also does Twitter tutoring -- see TeachMetoTweetNow.com

Bikini Beach Is Not What You First Think: Read Below to Learn What This Is

Terry T Miller, director of the documentary BIKINI BEACH: THE 170TH ASSAULT HELICOPTER COMPANY, was interviewed by Nancy Brown of YourMilitary.com and me on our BlogTalkRadio show YourMilitaryLife.com.

Terry explained that everyone asks about the film's title -- it was the name of the base in Vietnam for the 170th men, some of whom flew black ops missions that have only been declassified since 2001.

The story of the film and these men is available at www.bikinibeachthe170thmovie.com, including the organizations that proceeds from the film will benefit.

Check out the site now.
___

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also writes articles as a National Internet Business Examiner and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life.

Phyllis' company has launched the monthly program WeTeachWebMarketing.com to help people promote their brand, book or business online. Her company also does Twitter tutoring -- see TeachMetoTweetNow.com

Marilyn Celeste Morris Discusses Her Army Novel THE WOMEN OF CAMP SOBINGO

Many of you who read this blog know that I began it when my novel MRS. LIEUTENANT was published in April 2008. The novel takes place in 1970 during the Vietnam War and tells the story from the point of view of four different new army officers' wives. (See the site www.MrsLieutenant.com for more info.)

Thus I particularly enjoyed interviewing author Marilyn Celeste Morris, the guest on the BlogTalkRadio show YourMilitaryLife.com that Nancy Brown of YourMilitary.com and I co-host.

Marilyn's new novel is THE WOMEN OF CAMP SOBINGO:

Four women of diverse backgrounds form a bond while en route to join their army husbands in Korea in 1946. The women's experiences in a far-flung military compound strengthen three of the women, but a fourth chooses to end her life, and during a reunion 25 years later, long-held dark secrets and sorrows are revealed.

While MRS. LIEUTENANT is a fictionalized account of my experiences as a new Mrs. Lieutenant, Marilyn's novel is a fictionalized account of her mother's experiences when Marilyn was eight.

Listen to our interview with Marilyn now.
___

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also writes articles as a National Internet Business Examiner and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life.

Phyllis' company has launched the monthly program WeTeachWebMarketing.com to help people promote their brand, book or business online. Her company also does Twitter tutoring -- see TeachMetoTweetNow.com

Front Page Headline in Wall Street Journal: Taliban Now Winning

In the April 10th Wall Street Journal an article by Yochi J. Dreazen in Kabul and Peter Spiegel in Washington is headlined: "Taliban Now Winning: U.S. Commander in Afghanistan Warns of Rising Casualties"

The article begins:

The Taliban have gained the upper hand in Afghanistan, the top American commander there said, forcing the U.S. to change its strategy in the eight-year-old conflict by increasing the number of troops in heavily populated areas like the volatile southern city of Kandahar, the insurgency's spiritual home.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal warned that means U.S. casualties, already running at record levels, will remain high for months to come.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, the commander offered a preview of the strategic assessment he is to deliver to Washington later this month, saying the troop shifts are designed to better protect Afghan civilians from rising levels of Taliban violence and intimidation.

Read the rest of the article now.
___

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also writes articles as a National Internet Business Examiner and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life.

Phyllis' company has launched the monthly program WeTeachWebMarketing.com to help people promote their brand, book or business online. Her company also does Twitter tutoring -- see TeachMetoTweetNow.com

CBS News Reports on Wounded Marine Fighting to Get Medical Care

Read this article by CBS News national security correspondent David Martin on Marine Casey Owens, who lost both his legs in Iraq in 2004 and suffered brain injury.

Be sure to also read the comments on the article.

Read this now!

___

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also writes articles as a National Internet Business Examiner and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life.

Phyllis' company has launched the monthly program WeTeachWebMarketing.com to help people promote their brand, book or business online. Her company also does Twitter tutoring -- see TeachMetoTweetNow.com

Advice for Military Spouses Returning to Work After a Career Break -- Part II

Here is Part II of a guest post that originally ran on the blog of the Sloan Work and Family Research Network. I asked the author of the guest post -- Carol Fishman Cohen from the site irelaunch.com -- for permission to run her guest post here. If you haven't read the first part of the guest post yet, do so now.

Carol Fishman Cohen is the co-author of the acclaimed career reentry book Back on the Career Track: A Guide for Stay-at-Home Moms Who Want to Return to Work, and the co-founder of iRelaunch, a company providing career reentry programming, events, and information to employers, universities, organizations and to mid-career professionals in all stages of career break.

Carol recently spoke at the 2008 Joint Warfighting Convention Military Spouse Symposium on the topic of returning to work after a career break. Contact Carol at ccohen@iRelaunch.com

So what is the best strategy for military spouses wanting to relaunch a career?

* Take a Series of Baby Steps - Find career-relevant volunteer work (we call this “strategic volunteering”) that can be done when one’s schedule permits, Take one class at a time instead of enrolling in a more demanding program. Seek occasional consulting work from time to time. The objective is to maximize current and relevant experiences, so reference to these experiences can be made during informal networking, formal interviewing and on resumes.

* Consider Employment with Global Employers - Global employers have offices in many locations to which military spouses could transfer or from which they could possibly work remotely. Some of the big accounting firms actually require their CPAs to switch offices every few years in order to get broad client exposure.

* Seek Employment With a Staffing Firm Such as Aquent or MomCorps -- These companies place employees in interim or part-time positions that often convert to full-time positions. These firms have offices and opportunities across the U.S. In Aquent’s case, the reach is international as well. Aquent focuses on marketing and creative fields, and MomCorps focuses on a range of fields including accounting.

* Target “Military Friendly” Companies - Military Spouse magazine released a list of the Top 10 Military Friendly Companies in the June 2008 issue. The list included Health Net, USAA, Sunbelt Rentals, and West Corporation.

* Target Small to Mid-Sized Companies - Small to mid-sized companies are often thrilled to hire even for a two- to three-year period high-caliber employees who are returning from a career break.

* Develop Transferable Skills - Military spouses in the fields of human resources, IT, nursing, sales, and teaching report an easier time finding employment after a transfer.

Thanks, Carol, for sharing such valuable information!
___

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs as a National Internet Business Examiner and at Operation Support Jews in the Military and Fiction Marketing, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her newest military-related project is the book/website project In Support of Our Troops.

Phyllis' company Miller Mosaic LLC provides internet marketing information to help people promote their brand, book or business. On July 1st the company launched the Miller Mosaic Internet Marketing Program.

Advice for Military Spouses Returning to Work After a Career Break -- Part I

Here is a guest post that originally ran on the blog of the Sloan Work and Family Research Network. I asked the author of the guest post -- Carol Fishman Cohen from the site irelaunch.com -- for permission to run her guest post here.

She kindly said yes, and I'm dividing it into two posts. Here's the first part:

Carol Fishman Cohen is the co-author of the acclaimed career reentry book Back on the Career Track: A Guide for Stay-at-Home Moms Who Want to Return to Work, and the co-founder of iRelaunch, a company providing career reentry programming, events, and information to employers, universities, organizations and to mid-career professionals in all stages of career break.

Carol recently spoke at the 2008 Joint Warfighting Convention Military Spouse Symposium on the topic of returning to work after a career break. Contact Carol at ccohen@iRelaunch.com

Military spouses face specific challenges when attempting to resume careers after a career break.

Returning to work after years away is complicated enough, but the confluence of lengthy overseas postings, having to function as a single parent when a spouse is deployed, and moving every two to three years on top of the usual issues of lack of confidence, reviving old networks and creating new ones, and figuring out what you really want to do can make the process even more overwhelming.

It’s no wonder that military spouses question their ability to make a successful back to work transition even more than their civilian counterparts.

Military spouses have unique qualifications to offer employers that tend to go unrecognized by the military spouse herself and the prospective employer. These qualifications include:

* Emotional Resilience - Military spouses are emotionally resilient because they have had to deal with a spouse being away on lengthy military deployments, often with his/her life at stake.

* Experience in Dealing with Uncertainty - Dealing with uncertainty about a spouse’s whereabouts and safety, the timing and location of future postings, and maintaining the well being of children through these transitions is a way of life for the military spouse. Dealing with uncertainty is a qualification lacking in many job candidates at any life stage. Employers valuing this quality should seek out military spouses for recruitment.

* Comfortable with Constant Transition - The business world is in a constant state of flux. Transition is a way of life for military spouses and military spouses themselves take for granted their own expertise in dealing with it.

* No Benefits Required - Military spouses have insurance benefits already, so these benefits do not need to be part of their compensation package. Therefore, their overall cost as an employee is lower than that of civilian counterparts. Ideally, this gap would not be exploited by the employer, but instead used as a creative opportunity to offer other benefits as part of the employment package.

At the same time, hiring a military spouse can be problematic because of frequent moves.

* Moving Every 2 to 3 Years - The biggest issue in hiring military spouses is that their posting in a single location often lasts only two to three years, and sometimes they need to move on short notice. Some employers shy away from hiring military spouses for this reason.

However, with frequent job changes among non-military employees becoming the norm, the loyalty of the military spouse to stay with an employer for the entire length of the posting should be considered. Also, companies with a national presence or an option for remote work could benefit by hiring a military spouse if the person could transfer to another company office or work remotely with each new posting.

Determining readiness for career reentry may be trickier for military spouses than for their non-military counterparts. This means military spouses may need to wait longer than non-military spouses to relaunch their careers after a multi-year career break.

This also means military spouses need to be extra patient with themselves as they move forward in the process.

Issues delaying readiness include:

* Lack of a Support Network - Because of frequent moves, military spouses often do not have time to develop friends and family support networks to turn to when their spouse is away and they need coverage for going to work.

* At Home Responsibilities Can Be Overwhelming - Since military spouses bear the brunt of the childcare and eldercare responsibilities alone, they may feel these responsibilities too overwhelming to consider returning to work even if there is some sort of support community in place.

Read the second part now of this guest post in which Carol Fishman Cohen discusses what is the best strategy for military spouses wanting to relaunch a career.

___

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs as a National Internet Business Examiner and at Operation Support Jews in the Military and Fiction Marketing, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her newest military-related project is the book/website project In Support of Our Troops.

Phyllis' company Miller Mosaic LLC provides internet marketing information to help people promote their brand, book or business. On July 1st the company launched the Miller Mosaic Internet Marketing Program.