Editor’s Note: I have been married to men who were US military service members. First as wife of an Army Security Agency member in Germany while I worked for Army Special Services in Frankfurt and, later (and still today), as the wife of a former Air Force Public Affairs Agency member who served in Viet Nam. During those years, the military draft was still in effect, and while our husbands were in Viet Nam, I was one of three wives who met each week in Sarasota, FL as our husbands served, and we lived off base. Unlike today, we had little chance to communicate with our husbands except through letters and once to meet in Hawaii on R&R after the Tet offensive.
What follows is taken from the DoD’s site picturing some of their daily coverage of the Department’s activities during the month of August.
Best Warrior Competition, Germany
U.S. Army 1st Lt. Mitch Messick crawls out from a tunnel during the Joint Multinational Training Command’s Best Warrior Competition on Grafenwoehr Training Area, Germany, Aug. 12, 2014. Messick is assigned to Company A, 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment. U.S. Army photo by Gertrud Zach
Winnefeld at National Defense University
Navy Adm. James A. Winnefeld Jr., vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaks to students and spouses attending a Capstone course at the National Defense University on Fort McNair in Washington, D.C., Aug. 15, 2014. The objective of the six-week course for senior defense leaders is to improve their effectiveness in planning and employing U.S. forces in joint and combined operations. The course is mandatory for senior officers in the U.S. military. DoD photo by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Daniel Hinton
Dempsey Visits Hanoi, Vietnam
U.S. Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, meets members of his Vietnamese counterpart’s staff upon his arrival at the Ministry of Defense in Hanoi, Vietnam, Aug. 14, 2014. The ministry manages, coordinates and supervises military affairs, including all military units, paramilitary units and similar agencies in the country. DoD photo by D. Myles Cullen
U.S., Canadian Troops Train
U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Lionel Gillis, center, explains a mission to a tactical air control party before boarding a CH-47 Chinook helicopter during Operation Northern Strike near Alpena, Mich., Aug. 7, 2014. Operation Northern Strike is a multinational combined arms training exercise. Gillis is assigned to the Illinois Air National Guard’s 182nd Air Support Operations Group and the airmen are joint tactical air controllers assigned to the Illinois Air National Guard’s 169th Air Support Operations Squadron. National Guard photo by U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Scott Thompson
Robin Williams: True Friend to Troops
Celebrities Lee Ann Tweeden and Charles Clark autograph footballs that comedian Robin Williams will toss to U.S. troops on Camp Al Tahreer in Baghdad, Dec. 14, 2004. U.S. Army photo by by Sgt. Dan Purcell
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