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MarineParents.com Newsletter
In This Issue
Great Gear for Marines and Families
Learning Center: Homecoming
Challenge Coin History
Deployment Information
Unit Information Pages
We'll Promote Your Event
Marine Needs Your Help
Learning Center:
Operational Security

When communicating online, your Marine's privacy is as important as Operational Security. Please respect YOUR Marine's privacy!

Operational Security... Now?

 

Click to learn more!

Gunny Pop's
New Book!



The Ultimate Marine Recruit Training Guidebook was written by a Marine and former drill instructor for young men and women who want to become one of the few and the proud. No one should undertake Marine recruit training without having read this book.
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the Following
Farley-Kluger Petition

 
PTSD Research




 
Learning Center:
About Deployment

 


Communications From your Marine, with the USMC, and with other families

 

Bills, taxes, legal issues, injuries, notification from the Marine Corps

 

 

Learning Center:
About Homecoming
 
 
 
 
 
Veterans Crisis Hotline

1-800-272-8255     

The Veterans Crisis Hotline is a great resource for veterans, active duty military, and their families, and is backed by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Qualified responders are available 24/7 to offer confidential help in times of need.

Learn more here ...   

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August 22, 2012
Greetings!

If this is the first edition of the Marine Parents newsletter you have received, WELCOME! If you are a returning reader we are glad you have joined us and are thankful for your support.

In This Issue
As we continue to overhaul our look, we're also changing the name of one of our outreach programs. The Purple Heart Family Support™ program has been renamed Purple Heart Hero Support™, which we believe better reflects what we do for our wounded and ill heroes and their families.

So far, we've redesigned and rewritten four brochures: Marine Parents, Recruit Parents, Care Package Project™ and now Purple Heart Hero Support™. Read more about this latest change and take a look at our new brochure below.

Also, it's never too late to take an OPSEC refresher course that helps keep our troops safe.

Today: Dr. Bridget Cantrell is interviewed on New York radio station WHPC about the effects of combat operational stress, traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). See the link below for information on the streaming audio.

Check out these stories and more in this edition of the MarineParents.com™ newsletter.

God bless and Semper Fi!
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Tracy Della Vecchia

Founder and Executive Director
MarineParents.com™, Inc.
Outreach Program Has New Name
Introducing Purple Heart Hero Support™ 
Know your target audience. Who are your most important customers, clients or prospects, and why? Know what is important to them and address their needs in your newsletter each month. Include a photo to make your newsletter even more appealing.
 
Insert a "read on" link at the bottom of your article to drive traffic to your website. Links are tracked, allowing you to see which articles create the most interest for your readers. More stuff goes right here, man.
Click here to support our Heroes ...

Challenge Coin has WWI history
Medallion saved American pilot's life 

Among the Marine Corps' many traditions is the carrying of the challenge coin, and it is rooted in history dating to World War I.

 

The most common story of the first challenge coins tells of a wealthy lieutenant in the United States Army Air Corps, the predecessor of the Air Force. He had given the men in his unit bronze medallions, and one young pilot wore his medallion in a leather pouch around his neck.

 

One day, following an emergency landing of his aircraft behind enemy lines, the pilot was captured by the Germans, and his personal identification was confiscated. The pilot managed to escape the Germans by donning civilian attire, and he found his way to a French outpost. But the French had seen many enemies masquerading as civilians, and because they didn't recognize his American accent, they planned to execute him.

Click here to read more ... 

Click here to browse our challenge coins ...

 

Dr. Cantrell Talks on Radio Station
Chat Nights With Dr. Bridget Cantrell Interview streaming online
On Wednesday, August 22, 2012 at 11:30 a.m., WHPC/Your Family's Health host professor Joan Buckley interviews Dr. Bridget C. Cantrell about the life-long effects of combat operational stress, traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on military service members and their families. The effect on a community's first responders -- including law enforcement, fire fighters, EMT personnel and medical practitioners -- also will be discussed. 

 

Broadcast times: Wednesday, August 22, 11:30 a.m. and Sunday, August 26, 11 p.m. Times are Eastern Standard.

Click here to read more ... 

 

Here's an OPSEC Refresher Course
Keeping troops safe is everyone's business

As a family member of the military community, you are a vital player in our success, and we could not do our job without your support. You may not know it, but you also play a crucial role in ensuring your loved one's safety just by what you know of the military's day-to-day operations. You can protect your loved ones by protecting the information that you know. This is known in the military as "Operations Security," or OPSEC.

 

What is OPSEC? 

 

OPSEC is keeping potential adversaries from discovering critical Department of Defense information. As the name suggests, it protects U.S. operations -- planned, in progress and those completed. Success depends on secrecy and surprise so the military can accomplish the mission more quickly and with less risk. Enemies of freedom want this information, and they are not just after the military member to get it. They want you, the family member.

Click here to read more ... 

Note: Text on this page has been adapted from the USMC II MHG website. 

Float: It's a Verb ... and a Noun
Learn about Corps deployment terminology  

Do you know what a float is? How about COP?

 

When a Marine is deployed, family and friends who know what SOI and MOS mean must learn a whole new set of terminology to keep up with what their loved one is doing.

 

Our goal is to provide you with information and tools so you can empower yourself to understand what will happen before, during and after your Marine's deployment. In preparation for deployment, we strongly recommend you read through the entire Deployment section on the MarineParents.com™ website. We are in the process of updating the Deployment section, so check back often for the latest information available.

 

By reading, you'll be empowered with knowledge and thereby be better prepared to support your Marine during the deployment -- and just as important, be better prepared to take care of yourself.

Unit Information is Close at Hand
Marine Parents helps you make connection 

On the main MarineParent.com website, there's a link that helps you get information about your Marine's specific unit.

 

Under the "Duty Stations/Units" header, click on "Unit Information Pages (UIP)." The pages include unit history and location, USMC contact information and websites for each unit.

Click here to go to the UIP page ... 

 

We'll Shout It From the Rooftops
Marine Parents can promote your event 

Are you holding an event in your community to honor Marines or support Marine families? Or perhaps you're staging a memorial event to remember one of your fallen heroes who gave everything in the fight for freedom.

 

You want to build awareness, to promote your event beyond your immediate community. And that's where MarineParents.com™ can help.

 

Right now, among other events, we're promoting the Boot Camp Challenge in September in San Diego. We promote events such as this one on our Marine Family Network website, which has thousands of members who log on each day at "a place to connect and share."™

 

If you would like help promoting your event, contact us, and MarineParents.com™ will lend a hand.

Click here to join Marine Family Network ...

Click here to access the event form ...

 

Retired Marine Needs Your Help

Cancer diagnosis brings financial burden  

Mike Emmons was recently diagnosed with Glioblastoma Multiforme - Stage 4 Brain Cancer. He has already undergone surgery to remove the tumor and is currently in the process of learning about and choosing a treatment plan best suited for him.

 

Mike is a retired Marine veteran with more than 20 years of service to our country. He and his wife, Shauna, live in Virginia with their three children ages 12, 11, and 3.

 

To relieve some of the financial burden, the family is trying to raise $10,000 by October 12, 2012.

 

Click here to see our Marine Family Network page about Mike and his family, with links to donate and read their blog.  


 
 

We hope this week's edition of our email newsletter has been useful for you and your family. If there are topics you would like us to address, or if you have other suggestions for the newsletter, please contact us.     

 

The banner photo was taken June 6, 2012. A Marine with 2nd Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, part of a specialized counternarcotics team, walks from one compound to another during a narcotics raid in Helmand province, Afghanistan. Photo by USMC Cpl. Isasc Lamberth.

 

MarineParents.com™, Inc., is a 501(c)(3) public charity. MarineParents.com™, Inc., was founded in January 2003 in response to parents' needs to find information and to have "a place to connect and share"™ with one another during their Marine's career. Our free online services and connections have expanded to support and educate Marine moms and dads, spouses, families and friends. We've helped 400,000 Marine and recruit families during boot camp, training, active duty and deployments. We've shipped more than 34,000 care packages overseas to our Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan, sent 60,000 prayers and letters to injured Marines and served thousands of meals to wounded heroes and their families on the East and West coasts. You've found "a place to connect and share."™