Announcing TALES OF AN AMERICAN OCCUPYING GERMANY: A COLD WAR MEMOIR Now on Wattpad

I have been very pleased with my experiment of writing chapters of my dystopian thriller THE MOTHER SIEGE on the free site Wattpad. This experience has encouraged me to simultaneously try the experiment for a nonfiction telling of the historical past — TALES OF AN AMERICAN OCCUPYING GERMANY: A COLD WAR MEMOIR.

I have all the original documents from when my husband Mitch and I were stationed with the U.S. Army in Munich, Germany, from September 1970 to May 1972. In the future I will be sharing some of these documents on my author website at www.PhyllisZimblerMiller.com

And while many of the true tales I will be telling in my Cold War memoir are humorous, underlying everything is the very real concern that, without American troops stationed in Germany, the Soviets could have marched over the border between East and West Germany to expand their sphere of Communism.

Click here to read the beginning of TALES OF AN AMERICAN OCCUPYING GERMANY.

P.S. Thanks to Yael K. Miller for creating the terrific cover for TALES OF AN AMERICAN OCCUPYING GERMANY.

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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

In Honor of Black History Month

I wrote my novel MRS. LIEUTENANT — which was a 2008 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award semifinalist — to preserve a very specific slice of women’s social history in 1970.

And part of that social history concerns the African-American experience in the U.S. because MRS. LIEUTENANT takes place six years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act.

MRS. LIEUTENANT is inspired by my own experiences as a new Mrs. Lieutenant at Ft. Knox, Kentucky, in the spring of 1970. The main African-American character in MRS. LIEUTENANT is a composite of people and researched information. (In fact, I wrote one part of the novel to answer a question in real life that was never answered.)

While equal rights may seem the norm today, in 1970 when my husband and I drove south from Chicago to Ft. Knox, we were concerned that we were driving into the South. In Louisville, for example, we half expected to see blacks (the correct term then) seated in the back of the bus.

Perhaps most interesting at that time (as the novel portrays) is that the U.S. Army, which had only been integrated since the Korean War, was more integrated than other places in the U.S.

In honor of Black History Month, check out MRS. LIEUTENANT on Kindle at http://amzn.to/TKTk4B

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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

A True Story of the Humorous Side of the Army Circa 1970-1972

Those of you who have read my novel MRS. LIEUTENANT know that the American army in the spring and summer of 1970 was a serious place. The Vietnam War pervaded the nine weeks my husband and I spent at Ft. Knox, Kentucky.

When I wrote MRS. LIEUTENANT I fictionalized our experiences to more dramatically portray the seriousness.

Yet there was a humorous side to the army, which we discovered upon our arrival in Munich, Germany, in September 1970 during the drunkenness of the annual Oktoberfest. Yes, Oktoberfest starts in September in Munich.)

Here then is a true story of that humorous side, or at least the truth as I can recall it after so many years.

Read now “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.

U.S. Army: Are Smartphones Destined for Combat?

The June 3rd Wall Street Journal article "Killer App: Army Tests Smartphones for Combat" by Nathan Hodge begins:

The Army plans to hold desert trials in the U.S. next week to test off-the-shelf iPhones, Androids and tablet computers for use in war.

Starting Monday, the Army will also stress-test a variety of applications that could allow troops to tap digital information from the front lines—for instance, streaming video from a surveillance camera, or downloading up-to-the minute information from a remote database.

The Army doesn't have a plan to give every soldier a smartphone. But Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army's vice chief of staff, recently said that if the devices proved themselves in testing, the service would "buy what we need for who needs it now."

Read the rest of the article now.

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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and her social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing works with clients to use social media to attract more business. Read her social media marketing blog. And get the Kindle version of MRS. LIEUTENANT for 99 cents on Amazon.

Watch Live on November 19 "The Human Stories" of the U.S. Army

Here is an email I received about a live event featuring "The Human Stories" of the U.S. Army:

When some people hear the word “military”, they automatically think of guns, tanks, and planes – the awe-inspiring technology that makes America’s military a superior force above all others. What is often overlooked, however, is the common thread that unites our talks and remains America’s strongest military asset: its people.

I am writing you on behalf of the U.S. Army's Online & Social Media Division to tell you about an event that you may be interested in that features some of our people.

Tomorrow, Nov. 19, the Department of Defense is hosting a TEDxPentagon series and we'd love to have you watch the speeches LIVE as they are delivered at http://www.livestream.com/TEDxPentagon. The sessions start at 10 a.m.

“The Human Stories” series includes Mrs. Sarah Hertig’s perspective as an Army spouse whose husband was injured in Iraq. She will shed light about why she’d gladly see her daughter marry to also become an Army wife.

In addition to Mrs. Hertig, U.S. Army Accessions Commander Lt. Gen. Benjamin Freakley’s will provide insight about why “Technology Without People is Just (Really Cool) Stuff”. His TEDxPentagon talk will focus on the modern military service member and the future of recruiting.

Also scheduled to participate in TEDxPentagon is Commanding General of the U.S. Africa Command, Gen. William “Kip” Ward. His Legacy Lecture on “The Footprints We Leave” will include personal accounts on a lifetime of military service, cultural growth, and personal development.

Read more about the event now!
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and her social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing works with clients to use social media to attract more business. Read her social media marketing blog.

The Amazing Story of a Staff Sergeant Who Deployed with Her Unit 30 Days After Being Diagnosed with Breast Cancer

The following is from a transcript of a Department of Defense Bloggers Roundtable and is used with permission:

LINDY KYZER (Army Public Affairs): We're very pleased to have with us Staff Sergeant Elizabeth Cowie. She's a National Guard soldier. She was preparing for deployment to Iraq in the spring of 2007 when an Army-mandated mammogram revealed a tumor. With a year-long deployment around the corner, Staff Sergeant Cowie opted for an aggressive treatment plan and went on to deploy with her unit. Certainly an amazing story, especially as we recognize breast cancer awareness month this October.

Sgt. Cowie, can you tell us about the aggressive treatment and why you decided to go through that treatment, and how you were able to actually deploy with your unit? Because that seems to be a really amazing story that the amount of time was not a lot that you were able to get your treatment in and actually deploy with your unit. Can you describe that?

SGT. COWIE(pictured above): What happened was, once they saw the mammogram and they saw that there was something on there, I had an ultrasound done, and right away the ultrasound confirmed that there was something. They just didn't know what. So through TRICARE I found a physician that was a breast care specialist that was in Indianapolis, which we were at Camp Atterbury during our mob [mobilization] training. And through my TRICARE I could go to see the civilian doctors.

So we went ahead and did that and he did a biopsy and I had to wait about 10 days to see him, so it was a little nerve-wracking. But they understood, you know, it was important for me to hurry up and get there. I had talked with the doctor's office a little bit about the sense of urgency.

So I got in there, did my biopsy, and about three days later had the results back that I was stage zero breast cancer, which is very, very early.

The breast care specialist had very rarely ever seen stage zero. Usually it's caught at stage two to three, so it was by lucky stars that somebody looked close enough at the mammogram to see something that was caught early. Once we had the diagnosis, you know, we talked about my deployment and my time line. I had about 30 days before we were ready to go.

He explained to me some different options. Standard treatment for breast cancer is lumpectomy and then six weeks of radiation therapy. However, there was a new treatment available that I was a good candidate for, and it's called MammoSites.

What it is, instead of having external radiation, you have internal radiation for five days. So you go in twice a day, about 15 to 20 minutes each session for five days, and you're done. So that's what I chose to do because, again, it was on my time line.

I was really committed to my deployment. Being so far into the training, it just was not an option for me personally to back out and say, hey, I have to go home. I'd made a commitment to these troops and to this unit to see them through and that's what I was going to do, as long as the military would let me.

So we went from biopsy to lumpectomy to five days of radiation and cleared for deployment within 30 days. It was pretty aggressive, but again, for me, because they caught it so early, I was a good candidate for it.

Had I not had the mammogram done prior to deployment, had it done a year and a half, two years later, only God knows what it would have been, so I consider myself pretty lucky to have caught it so early.

Again, this month, the whole thing for breast cancer awareness is early detection. I'm a perfect example of that.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She is also an Internet business consultant and the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show YourMilitaryLife.com.

Phyllis' company provides Internet marketing training as well as social media marketing to promote your business more effectively.

U.S. Army Honors Supporters Thanks to Freedom Team Salute Program

Major Michael Conroy, Director of Strategic Communications of the U.S. Army Freedom Team Salute, talked about this incredible program begun in 2005 on the BlogTalkRadio show YourMilitaryLife.com that Nancy Brown of YourMilitary.com and I co-host

At its core, the program boils down to the U.S. Army giving back to veterans, military personnel and civilian supporters for supporting U.S. troops.

Listen now to Major Conroy describe how this program, which the U.S. Army is the only service branch to have, goes out on the road to thank supporters. (The story of the middle school in Mississippi is particularly compelling.)

And then submit your candidates for this recognition at www.freedomteamsalute.com.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She is also an Internet business consultant and the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show YourMilitaryLife.com.

Phyllis' company provides Internet marketing training as well as social media marketing to promote your business more effectively.

Erin Rainwater's Army Nurse Background Contributes to Her Historical Novels

As an Army nurse during the Vietnam War-era, Erin Rainwater cared for the bodies and spirits of soldiers and veterans, including repatriated POWs and MIAs. Her military experience has helped in writing parts of her novels.

Erin now serves as a nurse in the National Disaster Medical System, and has deployed to disaster areas around the country. Her support of the military is ongoing, and she currently volunteers at the USO in Denver.

She is the recipient of the 2009 Military Writers Society of America (www.militarywiters.com) Gold Medal for Historical Fiction for her novel True Colors, which she talks about below.


My passion has always been for the historical, thus my novels are set in the 1860s. Being a nurse, I couldn’t help but make one of the heroines a nurse, too (write what you know!). And I have an absolute fascination with American history.

I think you need that if you’re going to write historicals. Anyone can research and report on subject matter, but the author of historicals lives vicariously in that era when writing. At least I do.

Good storytelling places the reader in the moment, makes them feel the danger, the meaning of consequences. With historical fiction you get all of that plus a telescopic view of a time and place with the customs, culture, dress and vernacular of a different time.

Yet you still experience those timeless issues, such as separation during war, grieving the loss of a child, or dealing with a traumatically acquired handicap. And the perseverance that must accompany all of that.

I do my own research, and I absolutely love that part of writing. The hard part is sorting through what can be used and what simply doesn’t work. There are so many fascinating (to me, anyway) historical facts I want to include. But you won’t see them because I couldn’t work them into the story without it seeming forced or contrived.

Another hurdle is sorting through varying accounts of the same historical incident. The best you can do is choose the source that seems the most credible and hope it’s the most accurate, then go with it.

True Colors takes place during the most enigmatic time in our nation’s history, the Civil War. Cassie Golden is a Pennsylvania farm girl turned government nurse, whose father was a physician, so she believes she is well-equipped for caring for patients with acute illnesses and wounds, although nothing really prepares her for all she comes to deal with.

I’ve long been fascinated by the medical care delivered in those days. True Colors incorporates those primitive ways with some of my military nursing experiences, as well as some personal, real-life family history.

There is a scene where the hero (an intelligence officer) and heroine deal with the internal struggles of his accepting a mission that would take him away for an extended period. A portion of the male character’s dialogue in that scene is taken word-for-word from letters my father (an intel officer) wrote to my mother after he left for service in WW II.

There are some real-life characters in the story as well, such as Colonel Thomas Rose, who was captured at the Battle of Chickamauga and imprisoned in Richmond at the infamous Libby Prison. (I have visited the site where it once stood and where now only a plaque on a stone wall reveals where the building was located, but cannot describe the horrors that took place within.)

President Lincoln makes a cameo appearance, having visited the Confederate capital in the closing days of the war.

American history, when well told, is not only fascinating but can contribute to our identity as a nation and its values. I believe historical fiction can do the same, which makes historical accuracy a must. And if we include our Judeo-Christian roots, there can be an added “take-away” value—a lesson learned or at least a point to ruminate over. My goal is to incorporate all these things into my stories.

(The Amazon link is an affiliate link.)
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She is also an Internet business consultant and the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show YourMilitaryLife.com.

Phyllis' company provides Internet marketing training as well as social media marketing to promote your business more effectively.

Army in Iraq Uses Preventive Medicine

Thanks to a tweet from @armywellbeing I learned about this effort:

FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq (July 23, 2009) — A small preventive medicine team does big things to protect servicemembers from disease-borne foods, water, bugs and animals.

“We do a lot of different things here and other locations,” said Army Spc. Matthew B. Hintermaier, a preventive medicine technician with Company C, 172nd Support Battalion. The team conducts a variety of tests and studies, including monitoring insect populations and water sampling, to detect pathogens.

Read the rest of the article now.
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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.

Army Has New PTSD Program

Thanks to a new follower on Twitter -- @armywellbeing -- I learned about the site www.armywell-being.org. And the very first article that caught my eye was headlined "New PTSD Program Answers Need."

For those of you who read this blog regularly and/or listen regularly to the BlogTalkRadio show YourMilitaryLife.com that I co-host with Nancy Brown of YourMilitary.com, you know that I am very interested in helping people suffering from PTSD. Thus this new program is very encouraging.

Read this article by Capt. Bryan Lewis now.
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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.

Even the U.S. Army Is on Twitter

Yes, sir! You can follow the U.S. Army on Twitter at @USArmy

Nancy Brown of YourMilitary.com and I on our BlogTalkRadio show YourMilitaryLife.com interviewed Lindy Kyzer, strategist with the U.S. Army's Online and Social Media Division, on how the U.S. Army is using social media to tell the Army story.

Lindy, a civilian, clarified the different Army requirements between when a soldier blogs about his/her life in the military as opposed to, for example, writing a blog on knitting without revealing a service connection.

Listen to this interview now -- it's amazing what the Internet has brought to our military men and women.
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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.

U.S. Army Has Its Own Idols

Lindy Kyzer, a public affairs specialist in the Army's Online and Social Media Division of the Office of the Chief of Public Affairs, just sent out this email announcement that I had to share with you:

As part of the Army’s 234th birthday June 14 we are highlighting musically talented service members with deployment experience who have competed on nationally televised talent shows.

Sgt. 1st Class Sean Bennett, a soldier from Fort Campbell, KY, is a singer/ songwriter who has recorded an album, opened for Billy Ray and Miley Cyrus in concert, and competed on Nashville Star.

As a soldier, Bennett is highly decorated with the Silver Star, Bronze Star and Meritorious service medals. See him in this video on YouTube.

Spc. Daniel Jens, a soldier from Fort Hood, Texas, returned from a 15-month deployment to Iraq last year and months later competed on "America's Got Talent," where he placed 11th.

Jens won the 10-week "Blackjack Idol" competition held by Blackjack, the 1st Cavalry Division's 2nd Brigade. He has performed in several unsigned rock bands until he found his true calling in singing and writing Christian music.

Among the places he has performed are DC, Texas, Florida and Wisconsin. In Texas, he recently performed at the Harker Heights Memorial Day Stars and Stripes festival. See him in this video on YouTube.
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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 company Miller Mosaic LLC builds call-to-action websites that get people to say yes to your brand, book or business. Her newest project is the book/website project In Support of Our Troops.

Sal Baldovinos Shares His Army Experience

I met Sal Baldovinos on Twitter with his Twitter username @mayhemchaos when I noticed a tweet and clicked through to his profile. As soon as I saw ex-army as part of his Twitter profile, I asked if he would write a guest post for me. He jumped right in with both feet and wrote a long guest post.


I didn’t break this post into two parts because I think it’s worth reading in one take for a very descriptive insider’s view of basic training and the concerns of our service members. And you can read more of Sal’s writing at his own blog www.mayhemandchaos.com/blog.

What drives a person to join the military. For some it's an escape. For others, it is true patriotic servitude to their country. And for me, like many others, it was a way to lessen the financial burdens of college tuition.

It was career and financial aid night at my high school. I was just a junior then and already looking for ways to pay for school to ease the stress off of my mother.

I sat in on all the major Texas universities’ financial assistance sessions. Just as my mother and I were leaving, I spotted a friend of mine, Jason, a senior, sitting at the Army recruiters' booth with his black army shirt on.

We chatted for a bit when, in no time, I was approached by one of the recruiters. He gave me his card and for the next few weeks we went over the formalities of what it would take for me to join the Army. Being that I was only a junior and 17 years old, I could not enlist in the regular Army for another year. My only other option was to enlist in the split-option program in the Army Reserve. So I did just that.

I took my oath

December 29, 1999, was the day I took my oath to be in the United States Army Reserve. Though it's been 10 years, and as cliche as it may sound, I still remember that day as if it were last week.

I spent the night in downtown Houston prior to all the tests, questioning and more tests that would follow the next day. It was a night you'd think someone would not be able to sleep. However, it was the opposite for me. I never really get anxious or nervous until the moment of execution, so sleeping was not a big deal for me that night.

Early the next morning, I went down stairs to the hotel's cafeteria and ate what would be my last official civilian breakfast. The van took us to the MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station) center and so began an all-day procedure of enlisting in the United States Army. I was shuffled from room-to-room, asked question after question, signed and dated countless documents and officially grew annoyed of reciting my social security number.

Nevertheless, the day came to a close with our swearing in. I raised my right hand and pledged myself, like countless numbers of men and women before me, to the United States.

I would leave for Basic Combat Training that summer to complete the required 10 weeks of training at Ft. Knox, KY. Since I was under the slit-option, I would return home to finish my senior year of high school and complete the second half of training the following year.

Boot camp – an adjustment to say the least

Boot camp was just as you would imagine. Most movies depicted basic training just as it is. Within a few hours my personal belongings were whisked away to be replaced with standard issue clothing. My once full set of hair was substituted with a "screaming eagle" -- a fully shaved head.

We were met with two drill instructors that said nothing to us on the bus ride to the barracks, though that would soon change with constant yelling and in-your-face insults on our lack of speed. We were wrangled up, filed in to lines, made to do push-ups for not retrieving our duffle bags quickly enough. And this was all before lunch.

The next few weeks were an adjustment, to say the least. Class after class, drill after drill, mile after mile made me cherish what I had left back home. Once assimilation to military life had set in, the rest of boot camp was pretty much easy. I repelled off towers, marched more miles then most people do in a year, experienced night infiltration training, slept in the mud and ambushed opposing companies.

I fired a weapon for the first time, threw a hand grenade, stepped into a gas chamber and counted to 10 with riot gas filling my lungs. We went through what all soldiers go through in preparation for what could one day save our lives.

I didn't pray much then, only during the standard prayer times one might participate in: bedtime, meal times and times of stress. As a treat, we were taken in to town to a local church that would give a magic show and presentation every class. They gave us all Bibles and prayed over us.

I was filled with a religious high that lasted about as long as I could stand to sit and read one chapter of the Bible. I think we all had that spiritual motivation the night following. We were all a little nicer to one another, reading portions of the Bible that we felt would help us through this time.

Of course that went away as quickly as it came for most of us. The stresses of boot camp, being away from home and clashing personalities would ultimately extinguish that spiritual high. After all, we were being trained to recite "kill, kill, kill" -- not recite the Ten Commandments.

After Basic Combat Training

I finished the 10 weeks of Basic Combat Training and graduated just three days before I had to go back to Houston and start my senior year of high school. It was, as for many people, a fuzzy memory of mid-terms, Friday night football games and steady girlfriend. Throughout that year I began drilling with my Reserve unit in Houston. I was the youngest person in the entire unit at the time. Not even fresh out of high school, but still enjoying those days.

I had great leadership and made strong friendships in that time. But as quickly as I came home, I was leaving again to finish the second half of my training in Ft. Lee, VA. When I enlisted I was given only a few options to choose from for job training as I was forced to pick based on shipping dates since I was in the split-option.

Out of my choices, I went with the job that best suited my interests. I went to Ft. Lee and completed my training as a Food Service Specialist, the glorified title for a cook. I enjoyed every class and all the free food we cooked. It was basically college with drill instructors yelling at you in the mornings and evenings, while our classroom instructors treated us with a little less aggression.

The weeks to follow were not as routine as one would expect. My time in Virginia was immediately following the events of September 11th. Besides the constant security checks, the chronic challenge and passwords to enter a building and endless reminders that we were at war, training went by quickly and I would graduate and come back home.

By this time I was already into my second year of an eight-year contract with the Army. I was strongly considering joining the regular Army and going overseas to finish out my time. I took a year off from school after I got home to evaluate what I really wanted to do with my life.

I postponed the decision to transfer to an active army unit once I decided to go to The Art Institute of Houston to pursue a degree in multimedia and web design. I continued drilling at my reserve unit and living my life as a civilian/soldier.

For the next two years as I completed my studies at The Art Institute, my postponed decision not to go active duty became a more permanent one. I was enjoying school and most of all civilian life. I knew, for me, the Army was not a career choice anymore and I started to resent aspects of the Army. After September 11th our unit was under constant rumor alert for when and if we would be getting deployed. Each summer seemed to be our last in the States.

One such summer was met with a phone call telling me to get my paperwork in order and finalize any personal things for we would be leaving in 90 days. This not only upset me, but also my family and finance, as we were in the beginning phase of planning our wedding. We had less then two months to plan everything only to find out in the end that it was just another false alarm.

My resentment in the Army stemmed from ever-changing leadership, mismanagement, disorganization and simply being burnt out from all the back-and-forth and instability of whether or not we would ever be deployed. My final two years in the Army Reserve were filled with challenging my superiors, questioning my reasons for enlisting and at one point considering reenlisting to another unit.

I had become disillusioned with the unit I was with but didn't want to get out of the Army just yet. With the changing political atmosphere and constant threat of being deployed, I decided with my family that it would be best to finish out the two years and be discharged at the end of my contract.

Leaving the Army

As my time was coming to an end there I was met with at monthly meetings about why I didn't want to reenlist. One of the new motor pool sergeants called me in to his office. We were fairly acquainted but didn't know one another beyond that. He was curious, like the retention officers, why I didn’t want to reenlist.

He said to me, "I always see you come to drill and you're smiling, laughing and generally seem to like being here. So why would you want to leave so badly?" I answered him as honestly as I could; I told him about my troubles with the Army and the mishandling of medical expenses.

I've been out of the Army for almost two years and, though I miss a lot of the friends I made, I don't miss the Army itself. I was an important phase of my life and I honestly don't look back with any regret. I learned about being a leader, being a follower and being a good American.
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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 at PZ the Do-Gooder Scrooge and Operation Support Jews in the Military, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her company Miller Mosaic LLC builds call-to-action websites for book authors and small businesses.

U.S. Army Freedom Team Salute: Certificate of Appreciation to Me

I have Lindsey Brothers to thank for submitting me for the U.S. Army Freedom Team Salute Certificate of Appreciation. The certificate reads:

For outstanding contributions to the United States Army. The Army greatly appreciates your support of Soldiers fighting the Global War on Terrorism and is proud to recognize your personal sacrifices in preserving the freedom and security of our Nation.

And the certificate is signed by George W. Casey, Jr., General, United States Army, Chief of Staff and Pete Geren, Secretary of the Army.

This is the second army certificate I’ve received in my life. The first certificate was at the graduation luncheon for the wives of AOB 21 in July of 1970.

This first certificate reads "U.S. Army Armor School" at the top. Under the words "United Students Wives" are the words "check book, cook book, baby care." Then comes the formal "To all who shall see these presents greetings."

Be it known that Phyllis Miller having successfully completed and survived the required course in the feeding, care, and coddling of her husband in
The U.S. Army Armor School
In testimony Whereof, and by authority vested in us, we do declare her a
GRADUMATE
Given at Fort Knox, Kentucky, this 1st day of July 1970

And it was signed by a brigadier general, a major general, and a lieutenant colonel.

And this first certificate, as silly as it may sound, actually led to this second certificate in March of 2009. How?

When my novel MRS. LIEUTENANT (www.MrsLieutenant.com) -- based on my own experiences as a new Mrs. Lieutenant in the spring of 1970 -- was published last April, I included information on the book’s website about organizations that support U.S. military personnel and their families. At the same time I started the blog www.MrsLieutenant.blogspot.com.

Then I started doing joint projects with Nancy Brown of www.YourMilitary.com, which led in November to Nancy asking me to be her co-host on the new BlogTalkRadio show www.YourMiltiaryLife.com. And in January I started the website project www.OperationSupportJewsintheMilitary.com.

The book website, the blog, the BlogTalkRadio show and the website project all give me the opportunity of showcasing people and organizations that support our military personnel and their families. And this is how that first silly certificate led to this second much-appreciated certificate.

And those of you who read this blog post, look around to see how you can help support our military personnel and their families. I can’t promise you’ll get a certificate, but you never know.
____

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 at PZ the Do-Gooder Scrooge and Operation Support Jews in the Military, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her company Miller Mosaic LLC builds call-to-action websites for book authors and small businesses.

I Need Your Help Finding a High-Ranking U.S. Army Official Who Can Say Yes

Last week I mentioned to a Los Angeles rabbi that there was a shortage of Jewish chaplains in the military today. He replied that the Conservative Movement had required rabbinical graduates to serve as chaplains from the years 1945 to 1970. But then the Vietnam War caused the Conservative Movement to change its policy.

I suggested to this rabbi that rabbis today could volunteer to conduct services for major Jewish holidays on bases that didn’t have Jewish chaplains now. Alternatively, rabbis today could volunteer to conducts services at bases where there are Jewish chaplains and then those chaplains would be available to conduct services in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The rabbi to whom I spoke thought this was a good idea. But he said that it was his understanding that the military wouldn’t allow people not in uniform on bases. So we made an agreement:

If I could find a high-ranking U.S. Army official who would agree that civilian rabbis could conduct services on U.S. bases, this LA rabbi would work on getting rabbis to volunteer for these short stints.

Here’s how you can help:

I’d like to play the six degrees of separation game. This means that I’d like help being directed/introduced to people who might be connected to people who might be able to say yes to this proposal.

As the most solemn day of the Jewish year is in two days, I’d like to feel that I’m really trying to make this project happen. Any help you could give me would be much appreciated.

If you’re not connected with me on Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn, email me through my website www.mrslieutenant.com.

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Mrs. Lieutenant, Jewish chaplains, Vietnam War, rabbis, U.S. Army, Iraq War, Afghanistan

Jewish New Year in Munich, Germany, in September 1970

I’m working on a sequel to MRS. LIEUTENANT – MRS. LIEUTENANT IN EUROPE – when Sharon and Robert are stationed with the U.S. Army in Munich, Germany. In honor of Rosh Hashanah, the two-day Jewish New Year that has just ended, I’m posting this description from my work-in-progress about Sharon and Robert’s first Rosh Hashanah in Germany in September 1970 soon after they get to Munich.

Sharon doesn’t know Nina well enough to trust saying anything negative to her about this briefing. Although Nina’s husband was probably ROTC, he may decide to make the army a career. As Sharon has learned from her time at Ft. Knox, Southerners have strong opinions about serving in the military.

“Do you want to go downtown shopping tomorrow?” Nina asks Sharon as they head back in the car.

“Thanks for asking,” Sharon says, “but I can’t go tomorrow. Another time would be great.”

“Are you expecting a shipment of goods tomorrow?”

Sharon shakes her head, trying to figure out what to say.

Finally she says, “Tonight is the two-day Jewish New Year -- Rosh Hashanah – starts. I’ll be at services tomorrow.”

Nina nods. “Won’t it feel strange to worship in a country that brutally murdered six million Jews?”

Sharon is surprised that Nina knows this. And, although Nina is driving, she must have caught a glimpse of Sharon’s surprised expression.

“Oh, yes, I know about the Nazis’ Final Solution. Gerald has a Ph.D. in modern European history.”

“I kind of feel good about celebrating the holiday here in Germany.” Sharon says. “Hitler’s gone and tonight there will be Jews in Germany praying.”

Sharon doesn’t add that she is looking forward to the special aura of the High Holidays – of being temporarily removed from military life and worrying about Vietnam tours and Soviet nuclear bombs.

Together on Rosh Hashanah the congregation will recite prayers asking to be inscribed in the Book of Life for the coming year. And 10 days from now, when they confess their sins as a community on Yom Kippur -- the Day of Atonement -- and ask to be sealed in the Book of Life for the coming year, Sharon will pray fervently that this will be true for Robert for this year and for many, many more years to come.

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Mrs. Lieutenant, U.S. Army, Munich, Jewish New Year

U.S. Army Introduces Interactive DVD to Help Prevent Suicides

Thanks to Trish Forant (www.emailourmilitary.com) for her tweet on Twitter I learned about the U.S. Army’s new efforts to prevent suicides.

Col. Elspeth C. Ritchie, director of the Army Medical Department’s Strategic Communications and formerly psychiatry consultant to the army’s surgeon general, said that soldiers might be aware of risk signs of suicide in other soldiers but not know how to approach those soldiers.

The army is now rolling out a new interactive DVD that features realistic video vignettes about two soldiers who have problems. And this DVD will allow soldiers to practice how to aid potential suicide victims.

According to the September 3rd article in www.army.mil/-news by Gary Sheftick titled “Interactive DVD among new tools to prevent suicides”:

The video, or “virtual experience immersive learning simulation,” also known as VEILS, follows the problems of the two soldiers and their stories change based on input from the viewer.

If the viewer says the wrong thing and gets bad results, Ritchie said the DVD will allow the trainee to re-do the vignette until the outcome is more favorable.

Thousands of copies of the DVD, developed by Lincoln University in Missouri, will be distributed this fall. And the vignettes can be seen on the web page of the Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine at http://snipurl.com/armyprevention.

Read the full article at http://snurl.com/3mykk.

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Biblical Act of Expiation for Killing in Battle Might Have Helped with PTSD

My July 20^th blog post talked about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in military personnel (see http://tinyurl.com/6eu789). I then asked for an opinion from BT, the National Guard infantryman now serving in Iraq who had a guest post here on July 9^th (see http://tinyurl.com/5nahvc). Here’s BT’s reply to me:

I have mixed feeling about the accuracy of PTSD. First off, I think it is way over-diagnosed. Some people get it worse than others.

I used to scan the sides of the roads when I came back the first time, but I stopped doing that after a week or so.

By "over-diagnosed" I kind of mean that there really aren't levels of PTSD. Someone can claim PTSD even if it is mild nightmares. My fear, and one of the reasons that I would be reluctant to go to anyone if I thought I had it, is that I would be marked for life. I might not be able to own a gun or hold a certain kind of job.

I also think that medical units hand out PTSD diagnoses like candy, because it’s easier than treating the problem. So they give them the diagnosis, take two Motrin, wash your hands and move out. When really that soldier just needs three days off, a hot meal and a chance to call his wife.

This topic of PTSD brought forth an interesting idea on the part of my husband Mitch in connection with the Torah portion read at Shabbat morning services yesterday. (Each week Jews read a portion from the Torah – the Five Books of Moses, completing the entire Torah in a year.)

Yesterday the portion was Mattot (Numbers 30: 2 to 32: 42), which talks in part about the offerings made by the warriors of Israel who have returned from fighting and killing the Midianites. The officers make a special additional offering.

Mitch put forth the idea that this offering by the fighting men was a ritual that helped to prevent PTSD. By making a public offering of forgiveness for having killed in battle, these warriors could hope to banish some of the mental demons that resulted from their acts of war.

And – as my husband, a former officer in the U.S. Army, said – of course the officers had to make additional offerings because they would have felt more guilt. They are the ones, my husband pointed out, who ordered their men into battle, saying “Take that hill” and knowing some will die doing so.

Mitch’s theory has a lot of merit. World War II soldiers returned home to victory parades, which are a public ritual. Vietnam veterans returned home to an ungrateful nation, and many suffer PTSD. We can only hope that the welcomes received by soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan help with alleviating PTSD.

Perhaps instead of being treated with psychoanalysis and drugs, combat veterans of all wars would be better off if they could participate in a community-wide expiation ritual, admitting their acts of war and being publicly forgiven for those same acts of war.

I’ll ask BT what he thinks of this idea.

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Iraq War, post-traumatic stress disorder, Mrs. Lieutenant, World War II, Vietnam War, U.S. Army

Guest Post from Iraq: People Like Him Don't Do Things Like That

Here is a guest post sent today from Iraq by U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Big Tobacco (check out his own blog at www.big-tobacco.blogspot.com):

"Don't take this the wrong way, but people like me don't do things like that. So why do you?"

I'm confused by this statement. I look across the table at my date. Her face is as perfect as a Russian doll. Her blond hair falls in ringlets around her shoulders. She is so beautiful that I am willing to forgive the question.

Yet the question haunts me. What does that mean?

Why did I release my attachments? Why did I learn to suffer? Why don't I feel special?

And don't do things like what? Serve your country?

I was like her growing up. My father spent four years in the Air Force so that he would not get drafted into the Army for two. Rich Jews from the suburbs didn't join the Army and they certainly didn't join the Infantry. Other people did that.

"Gabora tells me you are in the Army," her mother says when we finally meet. "When do you get out?"

"I'm thinking of making it a career," I say.

She almost chokes on her brisket.

I had a book in my bedroom years ago: "The Story of My Life" by Moshe Dayan. I went to sleep dreaming of thundering across the Sinai in my APC, giving the Egyptians a run for their money. I crossed the Suez Canal and set up a hasty defense as the mortars plunked into the sand. Moshe Dayan, now that was a life. If someone wrote a book about my life, would anyone want to read it?

"Is that a ninja star on your neck?" one of my Army buddies asks while I am in the shower.

"It's a Magan David," I respond.

"So it's like a Jewish cross."

"Close enough," I say.

I progress. I carry that damn Dragon anti-tank missile up and down the hills of Germany, waiting for enemies that never appear. I drive a track through the mud, relishing the feeling I get when all of us come up on line, guns blazing, dismounts screaming, shell casing tumbling to the ground. Someone thinks I am a leader. They give me a fire team.

"Hey, sarn't. Is it true that Jews have sex through a sheet?"

"No," I say. "Years ago, people would hang their tallit out to dry on clothes lines. There is a hole in a tallit for your head. Non-Jews saw the hole and made their own assumptions about its purpose."

"So you just put your head in it when you're going down?"

"Yeah, private, all the time."

I have no menorah so I kick sand over at the pistol range until I turn up nine empty shell casings. I glue them to a paint stick. We turn death into life. We use birthday candles from the dining facility. The three Jews in the battalion light the candles on the second night of Hanukkah.

"Did you see the chaplain's t-shirt?" one of my soldiers asks.

I squint at the paunchy chaplain as he orders a double hamburger in the short-order line at the dining facility. His shirt reads "Repent or Die."

"Repent or Die?" I say. "Should read repent or diet."

I realize that if my religion believed in hell, I'd probably be first in line for the elevator.

Towers fall. I step on a ribcage at Ground Zero and nothing funny comes to mind about that. I have a child and swear that I will keep Moshe Dayan's biography under lock and key. I stand at a bridge wondering how I am supposed to stop a 747 with 10 rounds from a rifle.

New wars start. The deployments come.

I get promoted to squad leader. I live at a checkpoint in the middle of the desert, wondering if something, anything is going to happen. I sit and have hot, sweet tea with the police. My G-d, no wonder everybody here is diabetic, this is like liquid sugar. We discuss music and movies. They tell me how much they would love to come to America and meet a nice American girl. They ask if I am a Christian. I know that the truth would make my squad a target of opportunity.

So I tell them that I follow the Phillies religiously.

I come home.

I break the fast on Yom Kippur with Air Force airmen after patrolling the mud-caked streets of New Orleans. My second son is born. Life returns to normal.

"So you can get out of it, right?" My neighbor asks after I tell him that I will deploy to Iraq. I live in a Jewish neighborhood in New Jersey and am the only soldier in my synagogue.

"No," I respond. "You can't get out of it."

"But you have kids?" he says. "Maybe if you talk to them, they will let you get out of it."

"It doesn't work like that."

Learn to suffer. Release your attachments. You are not special.

Some idiot makes me a platoon sergeant. Now I have 32 men and women. Many of them are poor Puerto Ricans and blacks from places like Camden, Jersey City and Newark. I'm the first Jew many of them have ever met.

They drop pennies on the floor of the barracks when I walk inside. They leave "The Passion of the Christ" on my cot. I watch it. It's a good movie, but “Braveheart” was better. They are joking, pushing me to see how much I can take. It really is endearing. As long as they are making fun of me, they like me. The day they stop making Jewish jokes is the day I better start looking under my cot for grenades.

I live a life of meetings and lists. I am on call by my lieutenant 24 hours a day. Soldiers wake me up in the middle of the night because they have a problem. I get my new rifle and now my body is whole again.

"Is that pork or turkey?" I ask the dining facility worker while pointing at a brown patty of something for breakfast.

"It is uh?" The worker says in broken English. He doesn't understand the question. "It is sausage patty."

"Thanks, dude. I'll just have some eggs."

I sit down to eat my eggs and cereal. My first sergeant comes over to my table and sits down.

"You know, I can get you a kosher meal," he says.

"I'm not special, Top," I say. "You'll never hear me complain. People like me don't do things like that."

Oh, and by the way, the blond at the beginning of this story? I married her.

And I still don't know the answer to that question.

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First Female Four-Star General Nominated by President Bush

The June 24th Wall Street Journal carried this blurb in the front-page What’s News column: A woman has been chosen for promotion to the rank of four-star general for the first time in American history.

For someone whose novel features the wives of four new army officers in the spring of 1970 and who was there at the beginning of the women’s movement, this was a rather exciting headline.

The Journal article itself described that President Bush had nominated Lt. General Ann E. Dunwoody to head the Army Materiel Command, of which she is currently deputy commander. I have to admit that, as a feminist, I was somewhat disappointed in General Dunwoody’s area of operation -- which equips, outfits and arms the soldiers of the U.S. Army.

Then this article paragraph really rankled: Women haven’t reached four-star rank because by law they are excluded from serving in combat roles, which historically have been the path to the highest-ranking positions. That exclusion still applies, but with Gen. Dunwood, the Army has chosen to cast aside its customary limitations on promotion.

Yes, army promotions based on combat roles have always been important. In MRS. LIEUTENANT in the spring of 1970 Sharon Gold learns this when she has just arrived at Ft. Knox, Kentucky, with her husband. Sharon’s next-door neighbor Anne takes Sharon to meet Elizabeth, another young officer’s wife in the same offbase apartment complex:

A large wall-hung wedding portrait in a gilt frame overpowers the small living room. Elizabeth in a Scarlett O'Hara gown and her husband in his army uniform stand together under crossed swords.

Elizabeth follows Sharon's eyes. "Mama said I had to bring it. Wouldn't be a proper home without it. I also brought my silver. An officer's lady has to be ready to assume her duties."

Anne laughs. "Can you tell she's a Southerner? Even if she didn’t have an accent. These Southerners are in love with the 'noble duty' of the army – that's why so many officers are Southern – even if it means going to Vietnam."

There, someone has said the word -- Vietnam.

Elizabeth smiles. "How can a man get ahead in the army if he hasn't had at least one combat command? If my husband decides to go regular army – make the army a career, he has to get ahead."

Sharon mentally runs through any number of responses to this statement. No words leave her mouth. She has promised Robert.

Today, in my opinion, it might be better for both men and women not to need combat roles in order to be considered for promotion to the highest-ranking positions. This then might allow the Army to give out assignments not based on who needs combat experience but instead give out assignments based on the best person for the position.

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