Today Mrs. Obama and Dr. Jill Biden visited Camp Lejeune. A week ago I received an email from my FRO (Family Readiness Officer) about their visit. So I called my FRO to see if there was a spot available. In doing that I had to sign away my soul...Ok, not really but I did have to give him my full name, my SS number, my place of birth, and my current address. You have to do the same thing if you want to visit the White House, so not such a big deal since I did that last spring. I found out two days ago that I was selected to attend.
So I got up at 4:20 am, let the dogs out (I'm dog sitting one extra dog), lock the cats up (because they don't really like the new dog, and new dog isn't sure what they are), get dressed, let dogs in, grab purse, and leave the house by 4:45am. If you know me, I don't do well getting up this early so this is a huge feat for me! You are probably wondering why I left so early. Jacksonville and Camp Lejeune have horrible traffic in the morning on top of that there is some road work at the front gate. So I didn't want to miss the event because I was in traffic for an hour and half. I also picked up a friend who was also going to the event. Luckily, I did miss all the traffic. It was so nice! But that did leave me sitting in the parking lot for a while. So I did my make-up and read my book for about 30 minutes. About 6:45 I headed into our units building to wait for the bus, got on the bus at 7am, then we headed over to the field house. Then we went through security and were seated.
And then we waited...and waited...and waited...and waited. We sat and waited about two hours. Thank goodness I brought my book, The Devil in Pew Number 7 (BTW, great book) and my iPod Touch which let me entertain myself by playing Sudoku. I also chatted with two friends, one sent me an text saying, "I see you...in a non-creepy way, I promise." LOL, I think she's pretty funny. We weren't waiting for everyone to get through security and get seated for 2 hours, maybe we only waited a half hour for that. But we were waiting on the White House people to be ready.
I also like to people watch. While I was people watching I noticed that the majority of the voluntold Marines were single Marines. So I felt that this event was wasted a bit right there. I know there were more spouses that were interested in attending but each unit only had so many spots for spouses. So that was a disappointment that most of the people there didn't want to be there because they didn't have families and didn't care about what was going.
While I am discussing things I'm disappointed with, let's talk about how they were telling people no kids, and then they had a select few (10 maybe 12) who sat with their parents behind the podium. Basically they made it look like a family event for the news cameras. Again, I had friends that couldn't come because they had children and couldn't get child care on such short notice.
Finally, the CO of the base made an announcement and let us know that we needed to be patient and that things would be starting soon. And we waited some more. He actually started walking around and was talking to the Marines and the spouses. He jokingly told the people not to ICE him because we were waiting on the White House, and I said, "So we need to ICE the White House?" He laughed and said, "Yes, ICE the White House!" Honestly, I think the base did a good job with the event, and I know we weren't waiting on them.
Finally, Major General Jensen got up and spoke. He introduced the "First Dude" (the Governor's husband)of North Carolina, Bob Eaves, and he gave a short speech. I learned from him that NC is the Most Military Friendly State. He also spoke of Carolina Helping Heroes. This program is about the local communities helping the families of deployed military members in NC. Check to see if your state has something similar, if not start your own! Then Major General Jensen introduced NC Senator Kay Hagan, and she gave a short speech. Finally, the time came for Major General Jensen to introduce Dr. Jill Biden and Mrs Obama. Dr Jill Biden spoke first, and she had some good stories of military families she has come across. Her son is also military so she understands the military life a bit.
Finally, Mrs Obama spoke. I did not feel that this was politically motivated, and this isn't in response to what happened last week with the possibility of the military not being paid during a government shutdown. This event had been planned before the possible shutdown. This was about helping military families during times of peace and during times of war. This is something that Mrs. Obama wants to last beyond her husbands term as President. She wants this for our Veterans, our current service members, and our future service members and their families. This is something that Mrs. Obama has been interested in for awhile.
She spoke of a new initiative for military families called, "Joining Forces." Basically, it's about getting the communities, businesses, and other organizations involved with helping military families. This can be education assistance, job assistance for spouses and service members, wellness, basically anything that can help a military family out big or small. Small, your neighbor's husband is deployed, offer to mow her lawn. Or in my case, my friend wanted to head home for a couple of weeks shortly after her Marine deployed. I offered to watch her sweet Chloe dog, so Chloe didn't have to be boarded for 2 weeks. Sometimes the little things are the big things. Big, businesses like Sam's Club offering job transfers when military spouses move due to orders, or Chamber of Commerce's having job fairs for Veterans and military spouses.
If you are in a military community you may already be seeing a lot of this type of thing. If you are aren't, go to your bases website, talk to your FRO, and check with your local Chamber of Commerce. If you aren't in a military community, you may have to look a bit deeper. Also check your Chamber of Commerce, and maybe check the VFW and the American Legion. If you aren't finding something then start your own organization to help military families. If you want assistance and aren't finding it, create it.
Be Proactive Instead of Inactive! (I say that a lot!) That's something I learned with our first deployment.
The Dancer
Very informative and very cool you were able to attend!
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