Operation: Love Reunited

If you have someone you love that is deploying check this site out. It's pretty cool what they are doing....

Below is a clip from their website, but for more info go to Operation: Love Reunited

If you have ever been through a military deployment, there are no words to explain how hard it is to send the father or mother of your children off to some foreign, dangerous land, leaving you all behind…. Alone. It’s indescribable to watch their faces light up as their mother or father comes up the stairs of the airport after months, possibly a year or more, of not hugging each other. Emotions fly through the main lobby, it’s so very good to have them home. Your base’s Family Support Squadron will help you with your deployment. But the last thing on your mind when your wife or husband arrives home after a 4 to 18 month tour, is capturing all this love– on film. Most people are so overwhelmed with emotions they forget to simply point and shoot the camera they are grasping of their child’s first hug, or that single tear of relief from a mother being able to hold her twenty year old son again. With the help of Operation: Love ReUnited and local photographers near your base, you can.

The Operation helps those long months go by a little faster. It’s designed to capture moments that you will never remember. It’s art. It’s love. And it’s all made possible by artists wanting to give something back to those who make the United States what it is, and ask for nothing in return- but to come home.

If you are a member or family member of the United States Military, and are interested in having very special and touching images with a patriotic edge taken of you and/or your family before a deployment or during, and at your reunion, please contact a photographer in your area now. You will receive a substantial package as a gift in appreciation for all you have been through as a military member. The package will always include a 4x6 album of pre-deployment images, such as a child’s hand clasped in his parent’s with the faint glimpse of a BDU sleeve, a marine in dress with his family, a salior with his parents right before departure, or a child playing dress up in combat boots and a helmet. The album will be sent to the deployed soldier by the photographer, at no cost to you. Also with your package, all session fees will be waived. Your photographer may have a designated package or other options for Operation: Love ReUnited participants at their discretion with a signed model release.

Ryan Fitzpatrick - Helping our Soldiers and Their Families

The Home Sweet Home Campaign is proud to announce... Ryan Fitzpatrick, quarterback for the Buffalo Bills, as the Pro-Athlete judge for the "Schools That Care" T-Shirt Design Contest. Excelling on the football field and in the classroom, Ryan has paved a road of success all the way to the NFL. Ryan graduated in the top 2% of his class at Highland High School in Gilbert, Arizona. While being a standout athlete offered Ryan many opportunities, it was his academic success that opened the door for him to play football for Harvard University where he earned his degree in economics. Named Ivy League Player of year in 2004, Ryan went on to be drafted by the St. Louis Rams in 2005. The only Harvard quarterback to ever play in the NFL. In 2007 & 08 Ryan played for the Cincinnati Bengals, and in 2009, as a free agent, he signed with the New York Buffalo Bills.
For Ryan's Stats, News and More - Click Here

Ryan will not only be a judge for the contest, he will be presenting at the awards ceremony on May 15th. We are honored to have Ryan return to his hometown to be part of the "Schools That Care" contest which is helping to raise money for Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. The winning T-Shirt designs will be featured on the Home Sweet Home website www.OurSoldiers.org - For every shirt sold, $5.00 will be donated to USA Cares. This nonprofit organization is focused on helping our post 9/11 war veterans in their time of need.

To learn more about the "Schools That Care" T-Shirt Contest, the Home Sweet Home Campaign or USA Cares, visit www.OurSoldiers.org

Army Vet Billed $3,000 for War Wounds

(CNN) -- Erik Roberts, an Army sergeant who was wounded in Iraq, underwent his 13th surgery recently to save his right leg from amputation. Imagine his shock when he got a bill for $3,000 for his treatment.

Army Sgt. Erik Roberts was badly wounded in Iraq with two comrades in April 2006.

"I just thought it was bull---- that I'm getting billed for being wounded in Iraq doing my job. I always put the mission first, and now that I was wounded in Iraq, they're sending me bills," he said.

"I put my life on the line and I was wounded in combat, and I came back and they're not going to take care of my medical bills?"

It's a level of outrage shared by his mother, as well as the doctor who performed the surgery.

"It's hard to understand why we're not taking care of guys like Erik whose injuries are clearly related to their service. They deserve the best care of anybody," said Dr. William Obremskey, an Air Force veteran and surgeon at Vanderbilt Orthopaedics in Nashville, Tennessee.

"For him to be responsible for $3,000, I think, is a little ridiculous or is uncalled for, particularly in this situation."

His mother, Robin Roberts, put it more succinctly: "Why should any soldier pay one penny of a medical bill from injuries that occurred while they were fighting in a war? That's what really frustrates me."

The Department of Veterans Affairs has now decided to pay his bill, but only after prodding from a U.S. senator who got involved after CNN brought it to his attention.

Roberts, of Warren, Ohio, is one of more than 31,100 U.S. troops to have been wounded in Iraq. An additional 4,262 have died in the war.

Roberts was wounded April 25, 2006, when roadside bombs tore through his Humvee in western Baghdad. Heat from the flames ignited the Humvee's ammunition, which popped off all around.

CLICK HERE to read the rest of the story

Coming Home - PBS Special - Military Families Cope with Change

This primetime special, presented by Sesame Workshop and featuring
Queen Latifah and John Mayer, tells the stories of service members
returning home with injuries — both visible and invisible — and
explores the heroic struggles their families face on the path to
finding a "new normal."
Find Out More