Military Families

It happens, inevitably, at every sporting event. Katie Odierno Funk hears the national anthem and her eyes well up with tears. It's true whether she's watching baseball or basketball, but it hits her the hardest, without fail, at the Army-Navy football game each year. She thinks about her father, Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the commanding general of Multinational Corps-Iraq. She knows he will be watching, before he heads to bed, as much of the game as he can from Iraq. She thinks about her brother, Tony Odierno, also a West Point graduate, who lost his left arm when a rocket-propelled grenade slammed into his Humvee while he was on a routine patrol in Iraq.

WASHINGTON -- For three grueling months of Army Ranger training, Sgt. Jason K. Conklin will learn to survive in all climates, dine on bugs, track an enemy for miles and kill swiftly and quietly.But there is one mission the 28-year-old paratrooper refuses to accept: strolling into the local social services office with his wife and two children."I'm not going to walk in there and apply for food stamps," says Conklin, though he knows at least four other soldiers stationed with him at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, N.C., who accept the help.

WASHINGTON -- To head off a "brain drain" of experienced troops, the Pentagon is proposing to improve life for military families with higher pay, better housing and more day-care facilities.Behind the new concern there is a striking statistic: Today 61 percent of the all-volunteer force is married. In 1972, when the draft ended, the figure was 42 percent.'Hollow' force fearedSecretary of Defense William J. Perry wants to prevent families, stressed by frequent and long deployments, from becoming so disillusioned with military life that they leave in such numbers that it pro- vokes a return of the "hollow" force of the 1970s.

WASHINGTON -- Like other airmen at Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu, 21-year-old Jason Edwards worries about tensions faraway in North Korea that could erupt into fighting and involve him.But he has more immediate concerns as well. He is worried about how to feed his wife, Beth, 22, and their two small children on his total pay and allowances of $1,330 a month. In desperation, the Edwardses began drawing $228 a month in food stamps last month to get by."It's a very tight squeeze for us," Mrs. Edwards said.

WASHINGTON -- A federal government review of private psychiatric hospital cases -- most of them teen-agers and young children of military families -- has found that in 64 percent of the cases, patients never should have been admitted or were kept longer than necessary or their hospitals could not justify treatment with their medical records.The abuses may have cost U.S. taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.The study by the Defense Department of more than 500 patients admitted to psychiatric hospitals around the nation in 1990 under a federal insurance program for military families also found that many of the programs appeared to provide poor or dangerously deficient care.

First Call for Help, a United Way-supported information and referralagency, began a referral service Sunday to military families in needof human care during the Persian Gulf war.Round-the-clock referral service is being provided to military families in need of counseling, crisis intervention, financial support, legal aid, parenting assistance and employment and career guidance.Information and referral service in conjunction with area military bases also is being offered.Military families can get help 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by calling (800)

Special education is the most expensive department in the county school system's $330.1 million budget and also the most complex. But howeffective is it?Just ask the military families with disabled students who make a point of requesting assignment to Fort Meade. Anne Arundel County and Fort Lewis, Wash., are the top two choices for military families with children requiring special education."Soldiers are asked to make choices about their next move," says Kathy Baker, Fort Meade Community Liaison coordinator.

As U.S. troops return from the Persian Gulf, businesses across the country are tying on a yellow bow in the form of discounts on airfares, new cars, entertainment and travel packages.The discounts -- which range from free tickets to Walt Disney World to stickers priced barely above dealer's cost on new Ford cars and trucks -- are available in many cases to all active-duty military personnel and their families, even if they did not serve in the gulf."What we're trying to do, in our own way, is to say 'thank you' to the troops," said Francis Conner, spokeswoman for Atlanta-based Delta Airlines, which is offering 70 percent off coach fares through Sept.

WASHINGTON -- Accusing the Bush administration of trying to hide some of the horrors of the gulf war, a group of journalists, veterans and military families asked a federal judge yesterday to order the Pentagon to let the public watch the return home of the coffins of dead soldiers.In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court here, the group said President Bush and his aides are seeking unconstitutionally to "control and manipulate American public opinion" to assure homefront support of the war.Filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the lawsuit challenges a Pentagon policy forbidding the public and press to be on hand when military bearing the bodies of war casualties arrive at Delaware's Dover Air Force Base, the military's main mortuary.

CURRENT volunteers' news and needs.First Call for Help, a United Way-supported information and referral agency, has a referral service for military families in need of care during Operation Desert Storm. Military families can get help 24 hours daily at 685-0515 in Baltimore or 1-800-492-=0618 elsewhere in Maryland.Babe Ruth Birthplace and Baseball Center needs volunteer guides for school tours and for weekend tours with visitors. A training session will be provided. Call Helen Campbell, 727-1539.

Pentagon is working to aid military families The column "Bolster military families" (Commentary, Nov.23) rightly highlighted the challenges that many military families face in their daily lives as a result of frequent reassignments and deployments of loved ones. The good news is that they do not face these challenges alone. The Department of Defense and the military services have long recognized that while we recruit individuals, we retain families - families that need our support. Over the years, we have made a great deal of progress in providing that support.

Michelle Obama has yet to move into the White House, but she has already begun to do our country a great service by beginning a critical national conversation about the struggles of many military families. Thanks to intense media coverage, the public knows about the very serious health problems of returning war veterans and the difficulties they face returning to the work force. But the public is far less aware of the everyday difficulties that confront so many military families - whether their service members go to war or not. The military services now include many more members with children than during the Vietnam era. Today, about 1.8 million children are growing up in military families, and as many as 700,000 U.S. children have at least one parent deployed overseas.

A scam using the American Red Cross brand is conning military families into believing that a loved one in the service has been injured overseas so that the perpetrators can steal personal data or ask for a donation to the charity. The nonprofit's Office of Investigations, Compliance and Ethics says the caller contacts a spouse or another family member of a person in the military and identifies himself as a representative of the Red Cross. The caller then states that the service member has been injured while on duty in Iraq and is being, or will be, airlifted to Germany for treatment and care.

The Family Support Committee of the Howard County Base Realignment and Closure Task Force is seeking military families who have moved or are moving to Howard County to join focus groups. The groups will be asked to discuss the needs and concerns of military families, why they chose to move Howard County, support services they use, and services they would like to have. The groups will meet from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Waterloo Elementary School, 5940 Waterloo Road, Elkridge; 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. May 14 at Pointers Run Elementary School, 6600 Trotter Road, Clarksville; and 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. May 15 at Forest Ridge Elementary School, 9550 Gorman Road, North Laurel.

Another way to help children of soldiers I thank The Sun for the article "Making life easier for military children" (March 3). Clearly, state and local school authorities need to help military children advance smoothly through their kindergarten-to-grade-12 education as they move from state to state. But we shouldn't stop there. Maryland is pondering an additional step to help military families by providing access to public prekindergarten classes. Public prekindergarten currently serves low-income 4-year-olds in Maryland.

It happens, inevitably, at every sporting event. Katie Odierno Funk hears the national anthem and her eyes well up with tears. It's true whether she's watching baseball or basketball, but it hits her the hardest, without fail, at the Army-Navy football game each year. She thinks about her father, Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the commanding general of Multinational Corps-Iraq. She knows he will be watching, before he heads to bed, as much of the game as he can from Iraq. She thinks about her brother, Tony Odierno, also a West Point graduate, who lost his left arm when a rocket-propelled grenade slammed into his Humvee while he was on a routine patrol in Iraq.

WASHINGTON -- With the Army entrenched in two protracted wars while trying to increase its overall troop levels, commanders are finding they have to sweeten the pot to attract a few good men and women and keep the ones they already have. Next month, the Army is launching a pilot program called the Army Advantage Fund, which offers recruits $45,000 toward buying a house or new business upon completion of their military stint. That program comes on top of thousands of "quick-ship" bonuses that the Army doled out earlier this year to recruits who agreed to ship out to basic training within 30 days, as well as re-enlistment programs to retain those with special skills.

Maybe the kids seem too loud, too playful, too unrelenting. Maybe a spouse has grown accustomed to doing things alone and isn't ready to let go of a newfound independence. Or maybe routine noises such as slamming doors or clanging silverware trigger flashbacks or uncontrollable twitchiness. Combat has many dangers, but returning home can also be fraught with peril for troops. Using private funding, Anne Arundel Community College next week will begin "Reunited: Family Life After Deployment," a free, four-week seminar aimed at helping military families readjust to life at home.

An elitist insult to patriotic soldiers As the very proud mother of a U.S. Army soldier, I find Sen. John Kerry's recent remark sickening ("Tight races, harsh words," Nov. 1). I sincerely hope that the senator has plans for making a public appearance on Veterans Day. Perhaps when he hears the crowd's reaction to his introduction, he will then comprehend just how far he went and the hurt he has caused to military families everywhere. If, however, Mr. Kerry chooses seclusion on Veterans Day, perhaps he will hear instead the "tick, tick, tick" of his chances for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination slipping away from him - as they rightly should.

Washington -- For most students, first-day-of-school jitters only come once a year, but for children in military families the first day at a new school can happen more frequently and often in the middle of the year, bringing with it a host of challenges. Creating a school environment that fosters strong connections for new students is the key to easing that transition, according to a study released this week by the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Robert Blum, chairman of Johns Hopkins' Department of Population and Family Health Sciences and lead researcher on the study, said many school administrators don't want to treat military children differently from other students because "it will make them feel singled out. "But they are singled out," he said.