At last.
I can't believe it, but I just finished my written exams for the PhD that I've been working on the past three years.
The degree (when I finish) will be in Organizational Leadership from the University of Oklahoma.
Although I live in Germany, I can still take classes at my local Army Education center.
Spouses - I suggest when you find a moment, please visit your installation's Ed Center. There is never a good or bad time for education. Each day that passes is one day less you will have to get your degree. It can't hurt to at least see what they have to offer.
Remember - Don't "just survive" during the deployment -- ---- --- THRIVE! You can do it.
Showing posts with label deployment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label deployment. Show all posts
Monday, October 27, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
Army Wife Talk Radio - Interview
Hi everyone -
I had my interview the other night with Tara Crooks and Star Henderson at Army Wife Talk Radio.
The interview went great and I really enjoyed myself. These two ladies were fantastic!!!!!
If any of you out there are looking for an entertaining show, check out their site at www.armywifetalkradio.com.
If you want to hear my interview, please click over to www.survivingmilitaryseparation.com/Media.htm
Best regards,
Marc
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Get an Education! It's never too late.
Hi Everyone-
What do you do now that your servicemember is deployed?
Get Educated!
Getting a degree and getting an Education are two totally different things.
As most of you know, most jobs require some sort of vocational skill or a mention that you have a degree on your resume. But you don't have to be working towards a degree to get an EDUCATION.
Most of you will say that as a servicemember's spouse you have put in plenty of time at the School of Hard Knocks. I agree.
Military spouses are some of the strongest people I know. You deal with the homefront on a daily basis. Many of you hold down jobs and then take care of the family. That leaves little time for anything else. And I agree that sometimes taking classes may be hard and very time consuming.
BUT, you owe it to yourself to visit your local education center, community college, or university to see what courses are being offered.
You may find a class or two that peeks your interest and fits your time schedule. You may find a class that will Educate you. It's true that one or two classes won't get you a degree, but one or two classes starts you on the way to become an Educated person.
Best regards,
Marc
What do you do now that your servicemember is deployed?
Get Educated!
Getting a degree and getting an Education are two totally different things.
As most of you know, most jobs require some sort of vocational skill or a mention that you have a degree on your resume. But you don't have to be working towards a degree to get an EDUCATION.
Most of you will say that as a servicemember's spouse you have put in plenty of time at the School of Hard Knocks. I agree.
Military spouses are some of the strongest people I know. You deal with the homefront on a daily basis. Many of you hold down jobs and then take care of the family. That leaves little time for anything else. And I agree that sometimes taking classes may be hard and very time consuming.
BUT, you owe it to yourself to visit your local education center, community college, or university to see what courses are being offered.
You may find a class or two that peeks your interest and fits your time schedule. You may find a class that will Educate you. It's true that one or two classes won't get you a degree, but one or two classes starts you on the way to become an Educated person.
Best regards,
Marc
Sunday, May 4, 2008
What a Journey
It seems like an eternity ago that I was proposing this idea to my publisher Ted Savas of Savas Beatie LLC. Fortunately for the military community, he saw the need for this type of book to be available for family members of deployed personnel.
The idea for Surviving Military Separation came to me after a week of counseling family members of 1st Armored Division stationed at Wiesbaden, Germany. Their service members had just been deployed to Iraq and were scheduled to be away for 365 days or “until mission is complete”. Our offices were flooded with family member dependents looking for something to help them pass the time. And although the military community is family friendly and has professional organizations setting up activities for just this reason, I noticed that no one was breaking the activities down in a structured and manageable time period. Some spouses needed a day-by-day calendar of scheduled events that they could choose from to get through the deployment.
When the idea for Surviving Military Separation struck me, I immediately went to the local bookstore and visited online vendors looking for a similar book. I found none. There is nothing on the current book market that helps the family member of a deployed military personnel by saying, “today is a new day and here is what you are going to do”.
The glorious thing about Surviving Military Separation is that it is an activity guidebook created especially for family members of deployed personnel. The book has 365 days of activities for the family member to attempt. The activities are laid out seven at a time for 52 week sections. The book’s setup allows the reader the ability to break down the deployment into weeks instead of months which gives the family member a chance to take the deployment one step at a time.
I truly believe that this book will help our family members cope with a deployment… any deployment. Whether it is a deployment to support our Global War on Terrorism, a TDY, a trip to a Professional Development school, a new service member leaving for Basic Training or Boot camp, a few months out to sea for our Navy or Coast Guard, or a local training exercise that will take the service member away from the home, Surviving Military Separation will help the time fly until the family can be reunited.
With the wonderful help of Sarah Keeney, Savas Beatie Marketing Director, and that of artist Val Laolagi, who created a fantastic mascot named Serviceman Sam (visit Sam’s page) for our book, this book has become a reality that everyone in the military community can use.
I would ask everyone that has a family member that must endure the hardships of a deployment, to pass along our website for their view. Together, we can combat the potential idleness of a Military Separation.
Warmest regards,
Marc
The idea for Surviving Military Separation came to me after a week of counseling family members of 1st Armored Division stationed at Wiesbaden, Germany. Their service members had just been deployed to Iraq and were scheduled to be away for 365 days or “until mission is complete”. Our offices were flooded with family member dependents looking for something to help them pass the time. And although the military community is family friendly and has professional organizations setting up activities for just this reason, I noticed that no one was breaking the activities down in a structured and manageable time period. Some spouses needed a day-by-day calendar of scheduled events that they could choose from to get through the deployment.
When the idea for Surviving Military Separation struck me, I immediately went to the local bookstore and visited online vendors looking for a similar book. I found none. There is nothing on the current book market that helps the family member of a deployed military personnel by saying, “today is a new day and here is what you are going to do”.
The glorious thing about Surviving Military Separation is that it is an activity guidebook created especially for family members of deployed personnel. The book has 365 days of activities for the family member to attempt. The activities are laid out seven at a time for 52 week sections. The book’s setup allows the reader the ability to break down the deployment into weeks instead of months which gives the family member a chance to take the deployment one step at a time.
I truly believe that this book will help our family members cope with a deployment… any deployment. Whether it is a deployment to support our Global War on Terrorism, a TDY, a trip to a Professional Development school, a new service member leaving for Basic Training or Boot camp, a few months out to sea for our Navy or Coast Guard, or a local training exercise that will take the service member away from the home, Surviving Military Separation will help the time fly until the family can be reunited.
With the wonderful help of Sarah Keeney, Savas Beatie Marketing Director, and that of artist Val Laolagi, who created a fantastic mascot named Serviceman Sam (visit Sam’s page) for our book, this book has become a reality that everyone in the military community can use.
I would ask everyone that has a family member that must endure the hardships of a deployment, to pass along our website for their view. Together, we can combat the potential idleness of a Military Separation.
Warmest regards,
Marc
Saturday, May 3, 2008
The Children are our Future!
As a former Army Airborne Ranger and a current Department of Defense employee, I will be the first to say that I don’t know the answer.
Should we stay or should we go??
As spouses, brothers, sisters, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and in-laws, we hate to see our service members deploy into harm’s way.
What good could come out of all of this? We want our family at home to watch our kid’s recitals, baseball games, and to share in all the excitement of a graduation or the birth of a new family member.
We get tired of seeing the newspapers and television reporters say the same monotonous things over and over. “We are helping build a new life for the people of Afghanistan and Iraq”.
These children we see on the news haven’t done anything wrong. They have been born into circumstances that are beyond their control. I imagine that the children of Iraq would love Disneyland, watching Hannah Montana, or just eating cereal in front of the television on Saturday morning while they take in cartoons.
Our children have opportunities because our service members protect our way of life, because they help bring stability to other regions. Our children can become who they want because our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coasties do what they do. They bring stability to a world that needs it.
The best thing that we can do is focus on what we can control; stability in our own homes. We need to stay active, we need to have a schedule, we need to believe!
Believe in what our service members are doing overseas. Believe in their training. Believe in their brothers and sisters that are standing on the right and left of them when they dig in on the front lines.
Best regards,
Marc CB Maxwell
Should we stay or should we go??
As spouses, brothers, sisters, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and in-laws, we hate to see our service members deploy into harm’s way.
What good could come out of all of this? We want our family at home to watch our kid’s recitals, baseball games, and to share in all the excitement of a graduation or the birth of a new family member.
We get tired of seeing the newspapers and television reporters say the same monotonous things over and over. “We are helping build a new life for the people of Afghanistan and Iraq”.
These children we see on the news haven’t done anything wrong. They have been born into circumstances that are beyond their control. I imagine that the children of Iraq would love Disneyland, watching Hannah Montana, or just eating cereal in front of the television on Saturday morning while they take in cartoons.
Our children have opportunities because our service members protect our way of life, because they help bring stability to other regions. Our children can become who they want because our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coasties do what they do. They bring stability to a world that needs it.
The best thing that we can do is focus on what we can control; stability in our own homes. We need to stay active, we need to have a schedule, we need to believe!
Believe in what our service members are doing overseas. Believe in their training. Believe in their brothers and sisters that are standing on the right and left of them when they dig in on the front lines.
Best regards,
Marc CB Maxwell
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