November 16, 2009 at 11:10am
On Friday, I had the pleasure of attending a military family support summit at the Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center. The summit provided a great forum for educators, community leaders and private agencies to get together and collaborate on ideas and resources to support military families.
The morning panel featured a group of military teens who passed the microphone down the line answering a slew of questions designed to tap into subjects such as what it's like to be a military child, challenges each face when they change schools, how school administrators can better help incoming students and how each deal with their emotions when a parent is deployed.
Although some of the teens clearly weren't used to speaking in large groups(especially growing up in the age of MySpace and Facebook), I was impressed with how each one responded to the different questions.
When asked how she coped with her father's deployment, one teen responded, "I don't see it as coping — I see it as a part of my life and a part of our family."
Another teen said that while her and her older siblings were able to connect with their father on his deployment through letters and e-mails, she said her youngest sister (around age 5) was able to connect better with where her dad was and what he was doing through a gift from the country he sent her.
The panel was also emotional, as another teen said that one the most effective things a teacher can do to see how they are doing during a deployment is to listen.
"It can make our day," he said.
Another girl chimed in: "A hug can go a long way."
22nd Special Tactics Squadron, 262nd Information Warfare Aggressor Squadron, 361st Recruiting Squadron, 446th Airlift Wing, 5th Air Support Operations Squadron, 62nd Airlift Wing, 62nd Maintenance Group, 62nd Medical Squadron, 62nd Mission Support Group, 62nd Operations Group, 728th Airlift Squadron, Afghanistan, Air Mobility Command, Air Rodeo, Awards, Ceremony, Contest, Defense News, Dependent, Deployment, Education, Environment, Family Readiness, Food and Drink, Furlough, Health, History, Holidays, Honors, Iraq, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Lacey, Lakewood, Madigan, McChord Air Museum, McChord Base Exchange, McChord Commissary, Memorial, Military Discount, Military Policy, News To Us, Olympia, Space-A Travel, Sports, Tacoma, Training, U.S. Air Force, USO, Veterans, Web/Tech, Weekly Volcano, Western Air Defense Sector
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