Women in the Military (Including Serving on Subs)

The novel LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS that I wrote with my husband features the first woman serving on a sub.

When Mitch and I originally wrote the story, women were not yet serving on subs in the U.S. Navy. So we came up with a story reason for LCDR Mollie Sanders to be the first woman.

On May 29, 2012, the White House's Council on Women and Girls posted Brad Cooper's article “Women Chart a New Course Onboard U.S. Navy Submarines”:

In 2009, U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced that for the first time in Navy history, women would be assigned to serve aboard Navy submarines.

Yesterday, the first contingent of 24 women who completed the Navy’s nuclear submarine program met with President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House. They were joined by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and the Vice Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Mark Ferguson.

Now I understand that not everyone knows that women are now serving on U.S. subs. So when LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS was free for one day on Amazon thanks to the KDP Select program, I did not get overly upset when I got this message on Facebook from a man about the novel:

This really stretches reality. Women have made great advances in the military, but submarine duty isn't among them.

I sent back this Facebook message:

When Mitch and I wrote the story women weren't yet on U.S. subs and that is part of the point of the novel. BUT ... women are now on U.S. subs. See this article http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/05/29/women-chart-new-course-onboard-us-navy-submarines

And the man actually thanked me for “correcting” him.

He did go on to wonder how billeting would be arranged on the sub, which Mitch and I deal with in our fiction story. (Click here to buy LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS on Amazon now if you are interested in this story.)

On the same day I read the Military Times news story “Female military members sue to serve in combat” by Paul Elias of the Associated Press

To summarize the article, women are suing because, without access to certain combat positions, their chances for promotion are hindered.

[M]ore than 144 female troops have been killed and more than 860 have been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan since the wars began, according to Pentagon statistics. Roughly 20,000 of the 205,000 service members currently serving in Afghanistan are women.

The article goes on to say that the lawsuit “alleges that women are already serving unofficially in combat units. Air National Guard Major Mary Jennings Hegar sustained shrapnel wounds in 2009 when she exchanged fire on the ground in Afghanistan after her Medevac helicopter was shot down.” (She received a Purple Heart medal for her injuries.)

Read the entire Military Times article (for which Associated Press writers Julie Watson and Lolita C. Baldor contributed).

In conclusion, it's a brave new world for women serving in the U.S. military.

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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is a former military spouse as well as the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including the military fiction MRS. LIEUTENANT: A Sharon Gold Novel and the cozy mystery CAST THE FIRST STONE with a subplot of non-combat trauma PTSD.

Click here to visit her Amazon author page at amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller

She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com

Kudos to PTSD Portrayal on NCIS

On November 13 and 20 the CBS long-running drama NCIS had a two-part episode arc (Shell Shock: Part 1 and Part 2) featuring a Marine captain suffering from PTSD who also held the key to stopping a terrorist attack on American soil.

Brad Beyer played Marine Captain Joe Westcott, who definitely gets kudos for his portrayal, as well as kudos to the two-part show.

In the first part, perhaps the most important message is that Capt. Westcott asked for help. It was then that a doctor explained to him about PTSD.

The second part had even more helpful information, including the doctor explaining to Special Agent Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) that two main elements of PTSD are loss of sense of purpose and the need to re-establish trust.

At the completion of Part 2, a PSA with Mark Harmon and Pauley Perrette (who plays Abby Sciuto on the show) encouraged people to contact realwarriors.net 24/7 for help.

On Thanksgiving Day, in addition to watching football games and eating turkey, take the time to watch these two NCIS episodes (if you only have time for one episode, watch Part 2 -- you'll be able to follow the plot just fine). The person you could help by watching the show may be someone you love.

Click here for NCIS "Shell Shock" Part 1

Click here for NCIS "Shell Shock" Part 2

And click here to read information about PTSD.

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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the 2008 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award semifinalist MRS. LIEUTENANT and the co-author of the Navy thriller LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS. Phyllis is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company Miller Mosaic LLC, which works with clients to attract more business. Read her book-related posts at www.PhyllisZimblerMiller.com

The Military Spouse Employment Partnership: Program Helps Military Spouses to Find Jobs

On a Department of Defense’s Bloggers’ Roundtable I had the opportunity to hear Meg O’Grady, director of the Military Spouse Employment Partnership (MSEP), speak about the opportunities of the year-old program.

While the launching of this program was 41 years too late to help me when I was a new Mrs. Lieutenant and desperately wanted to find a job, today the MSEP program offers a current partnership of 160 companies that want to hire military spouses.

In fact, click here http://msepjobs.militaryonesource.mil/ to find over 800,000 jobs listed.

The roundtable question I asked was based on the rejections I got so many years ago:

What to do about the employer who won’t hire a military spouse because that spouse may only be staying in one location for a year or two?

Ms. O’Grady replied that the companies who are part of this partnership work to help spouses deal with this issue. For example, a current employer may recommend to another company in the partnership a military spouse who is relocating to the location of the second company.

Needless to say, I am VERY impressed with this new program and hope that all military spouses can take advantage of the opportunities.

AND HERE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT aspect of this program and how military spouses today can make a big difference in their own lives:

The MSEP program came out of the results of the bi-annual Active Duty Spouse Survey. And the fourth such survey since 2006 is about to take place.

(In the alternating year there is a survey of National Guard and Reserve spouses.)

As I understand it from Dr. Cathy Flynn, program analyst with Military Community & Family Policy, starting today (Nov. 19) survey participant requests are being mailed to randomly selected military spouses (about 10% or 65,000). The survey has approximately 120 questions and takes from 20 to 30 minutes.

Questions will cover such areas as the impact on deployment, military and community program usage, and financial well-being issues. These types of questions resulted in the Military Spouse Employment Partnership – and the answers to the newest survey could result in other significant benefits for military spouses.

If you are one of the randomly selected participants, please do take the time to fill out the survey. You could be helping to make significant improvements in your own life and those of many other military spouses.

And if you’d like to read a short story about my military spouse employment saga 42 years ago, click here to read “A True Army Story: Whistle While You (Try to) Work”

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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and the co-author of the eBook technothriller LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS. Phyllis is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company Miller Mosaic LLC, which works with clients to attract more business. Read her posts at the company's social media marketing blog.

Introducing the Museum of the American Military Family

Here is a guest post from Circe Olson Woessner, executive director of the Museum of the American Military Family:

The Museum of the American Military Family came into being one winter night as I sat watching the news, thinking about my Army son deployed overseas. I tried to imagine being in his circumstances, and ended up scaring myself more than anything else.

Like so many military moms, I hoped my son would serve his country proudly, carry out the mission successfully and come home safe, sound, in one piece —- and soon.

It occurred to me, at that instant, other military moms were having the same thoughts as I. In fact, millions of other military mothers, military spouses and children, regardless of nationality, or where they were located on the globe, were having similar wishes and hopes for their loved ones.

And I thought: we military families are tough. We hold it together for the sake of our kids, for our spouses, for our parents -- and for ourselves!

If we fall apart, it affects our troops and, indirectly, the mission. So when the chips are down, we grit our teeth, brace ourselves and keep on going. Ever since there have been armies, there have been families supporting them -- and supporting each other.

That’s when I got the idea: someone should dedicate a museum to the military family!

And then the second thought: Maybe I should dedicate a museum to the military family.

And so the Museum of the American Military Family was born.

Our mission is this:

The Museum of the American Military Family and Learning Center brings together people with shared experiences showcasing and honoring those who also served -- America's military families.

Right now the museum is in its infancy. We incorporated in March 2011, formed a board of directors, created our mission and vision statements, wrote bylaws and business plan, and got our 501 c 3 status.

In April 2011 we launched the virtual museum, and in May 2011 we created our Facebook Page.

Since then we have joined Twitter, Tindeck, Pinterest, and other social media. We have partnered with the National Museum of Nuclear History and Science to do a variety of programs, leading up to a major exhibition in 2014.

We are marching forward toward our goal of having a physical museum space in the Albuquerque area by 2013.

How can you help?

Because currently we are a virtual museum, all of our collections are online at http://museumoftheamericanmilitaryfamily.org/

To keep the museum site dynamic, we need to add posts continuously to our Facebook Page, our photo galleries and our blogs. We have many blogs, including We Served Too, Passports and Pedagogy, and the American Military Family.

We’d like you to send your photos and memories to us and we’d like your digital media: photos, videos, audio recordings as well as your written memories.

If you’ve made a YouTube video or have been interviewed for topics relevant to this museum, please let us know. If we feel that they are appropriate, we’ll post them. (Please make sure you have clear rights/or the permission to distribute the media.)

Submissions can be sent to militaryfamilymuseum@comcast.net

Please visit our Facebook Page at: www.facebook.com/MuseumoftheAmericanMilitaryFamily/

Sign our guest book at:
www.museumoftheamericanmilitaryfamily.org/GuestBook.html

And, most of all -- spread the word!

Some people ask if they can give us uniforms or other memorabilia, and the answer is “yes — soon.” We are in the process of locating physical museum space. But until we have funding and support, we cannot move into a permanent location.

Please hold on to your treasures for a little longer. We have posted a donation form on our website to help us raise money for our building.

We have designed a modest building, which looks like a military housing unit, and we are considering purchasing a small building near Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque. Either building will cost less than $300,000 to obtain.)

Please join us on our journey -— one that spans 200+ years -— from the Revolutionary War into the future. Help us tell the story of the American Military Family!

Blog note: My guest post "The Impact on My Life of Being Stationed in Germany From 1970 to 1972" for one of the museum's blogs can be read at http://budurl.com/lifeimpact

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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and the co-author of the eBook technothriller LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS. Phyllis is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company Miller Mosaic LLC, which works with clients to attract more business. Read her posts at the company's social media marketing blog.

Veterans Day, PTSD and FREE Military Spouse Novels

On Veterans Day I am profoundly grateful that my husband does not suffer from PTSD gotten from serving on active duty with the U.S. Army. It is partly out of this gratitude that I try online to spread information about PTSD to help others.

In a recent blog post on this blog I wrote an update about PTSD after taking part in a Department of Defense's Bloggers' Roundtable (of which I am a member). The post included information about Operation Proper Exit that I learned about from the USA Network's popular TV show COVERT AFFAIRS (full disclosure: I'm a fan of this show). Click here to read this blog post.

IF YOU WATCH TELEVISION — Tuesday night, November 13th, will have two fictional shows dealing with PTSD:

Christopher Gorham's COVERT AFFAIRS character Auggie Anderson will return to Iraq as part of Operation Proper Exit. According to the Nov. 12-18 TV Guide, NCIS will start a two-parter — “Shell Shock”: “[A] veteran suffering from PTSD holds the key to a murder case.”

I personally believe in the power of fictional stories to get across important information. This is why I am hoping to move forward with my proposed PTSD-related TV series www.SolomonsJustice.com

AND FOR VETERANS DAY — myself and two other military spouse authors are offering our novels for FREE on Kindle on Sunday, November 11th. You can get the links to the books on Kindle in this article about us in the SpouseCalls column on Stars and Stripes.

(Don't have a Kindle? No problem. You can get a FREE Kindle app for your iPhone, iPad, Android, PC or Mac at http://amzn.to/NBoSGU)

Besides this SpouseCalls article, our Veterans Day project has been getting other good online coverage:

“Honoring Those Who Serve” at Digital Book Today

“The Best of the Sunday Free Kindle eBooks” also at Digital Book Today

“Military wives mark Veterans Day with free gift of their novels” at MilitarySuccessNetwork.com

““Sharing Our Military Wife Experiences” at MilitaryWivesCentral.com

“Army Wife” at the Army Times

“Phyllis Zimbler Miller” at Deleyna's Drift

“A Triad of Writers” at Deleyna's Drift

“Veterans Day Special: Award-winning Military Fiction” at Kindle Book Promos

“Mrs. Lieutenant: Free Kindle Book” at Freebooksy.com

© 2012 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is a former military spouse as well as the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including the military fiction MRS. LIEUTENANT: A Sharon Gold Novel.

Click here to visit her Amazon author page at amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller

She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com

Update on PTSD Help for Veterans

As a member of the Department of Defense's Bloggers' Roundtable, I participated in a presentation in honor of Veterans Day featuring three speakers, including retired U.S. Army Major Ed Pulido, whose story is told in the above six-minute video.

The good news is that the VA and numerous other organizations are making available more and more resources for veterans suffering from PTSD and their families.

The bad news is that getting the information to those in need of it still lags.

One concern brought up by another blogger is that veterans, when they realize there might be something wrong, are unsure where to start the process of getting help for possible PTSD.

One such place is RealWarriors.net -- which lists this information on the website's home page:

DCoE Outreach Center
For Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury Information and Resources

866-966-1020

Military Crisis Line
For Crisis Intervention for Service Members, Veterans and Families

1-800-273-8255, Press "1"

When I asked about services for veterans who need help with possible PTSD, I was told about a new VA program called "Coaching Into Care."

Here is a statement from the program:

Coaching Into Care provides a “coaching” service for family and friends of Veterans who see that their Veteran needs help. Coaching involves helping the caller figure out how to motivate their Veteran to seek services. The service is free and provided by licensed clinical social workers and psychologists. The goal of the service is to help the Veteran and family members find the appropriate services in their community.

Click here for more information on the "Coaching Into Care" program.

And finally, because of a mention two episodes in a row on the USA Network's show COVERT AFFAIRS, I learned about Operation Proper Exit, which takes wounded veterans back to Iraq in order to help the healing process.

Here is the followup interview of a soldier suffering from PTSD who went back to Iraq on Operation Proper Exit.

And here is the longer video, a segment of CBS's 60 MINUTES, on an Operation Proper Exit trip to Iraq.

P.S. I just published on Kindle a cozy mystery, CAST THE FIRST STONE. I was able to weave into the story a subplot about PTSD in the hope that people suffering from PTSD not brought on by combat would be encouraged to seek help.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and the co-author of the eBook technothriller LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS. Phyllis is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company Miller Mosaic LLC, which works with clients to attract more business. Read her posts at the company's social media marketing blog.