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Karen Valdovinos
Composition I
August 6, 2008

Family Struggles During a Deployment

I. What I Know

I am a military child and my dad has been deployed twice to war and once to DC concerning the war. It was tough for my family being that we did live in a foreign country and didn’t speak the language. Also, I lived on an Army post and around the end of 8th grade a large group of Baumholder soldiers were deployed to Iraq. The changes in the students and community itself were very drastic. I’ve seen friends lose concentration in school. Some result to misbehaving by “solving” their problems with drugs and alcohol. My mother has had friends that resulted to alcohol and others that have become depressed. Statistics show that the rate of alcoholics, depression, and domestic violence does take a dramatic turn during the peak times of a war.

II. What I Want To Find Out

I would like to know how the effects of the war on our society affect the military. In the sense that, are there less people joining; how are they promoting people to join (if less people are willing to join)?

III. Interview with Nate

Karen: Hi Nate. So, I hear your father is in the Navy, did you say? How has the moving from place to place affected you?

Nate: Hey! Yes, my father is in the Navy. I enjoyed moving from place to place, but it has been really tough on me to leave my friends behind and having to meet new people.

Karen: Same here. I’m sure your father has been deployed before, being that he is in the Navy. Where did he go and how did you feel during the time he was gone?

Nate: Well, my dad hasn’t been deployed as much as you would think. Most the places my dad goes, the family follows. Although, I do remember that when I was younger and my dad went on his small business trips he would record himself reading my favorite children’s books. Before bedtime, I would sit down on my bed and grab a book and follow along. Of course, at this age I couldn’t read so I just grabbed any book and “pretend” as if I knew.

Karen: Aw, That’s really cute! It’s funny how things haven’t really changed. I mean your father tape recorded himself, while now-a-days we have more advanced technology such as webcams, but same concept. In the end, how do you think the moving, meeting new people and your father’s deployments shaped you into who you are today?

Nate: haha, very true! I think that being a military brat has benefited me in many ways. I am more open minded to new ideas, traditions and beliefs. I enjoy having a more worldly view and I feel it has impacted me to persue the career I am interested in now.

Karen: I completely understand because I feel that being a military brat has affected me in the same ways. Thank you so much for taking a moment to sit down with me and tell me about your experiences. Have a good night and I hope to see you around.

Nate: Yea, it’s no problem. It was good talking to you. Good night and see you in class.

Military Families: "A World of Worries"

Newsday (New York)

July 24, 2008 Thursday

A world of worry at home; Even when families learn their loved ones overseas are safe, war's inevitable heartache still takes its toll

BYLINE: BY MARTIN C. EVANS. martin.evans@newsday.com

THE PHONE CALL came early Monday of last week, while Beth Delli-Pizzi was vacationing in Maine and her soldier husband was deployed in Afghanistan near the lawless Pakistan border.
"Did you see the cover of Newsday?" her mother asked. "It says nine guys were killed in Afghanistan."
So began days of anxious phone calls, e-mail inquiries and sweaty-palmed waiting, as relatives and friends of the 160 soldiers from the Bay Shore-based Army National Guard 69th Infantry Regiment sought information that would confirm whether their loved ones were alive or dead.

America's nearly seven years of war in Afghanistan and five in Iraq have bound tightly the friends and relatives of the regiment's recruits. Their home front is a place of worry and anxiety, where a headline or a news report can set off a chain reaction and where information about a loved one is precious.
In the hours after copies of the July 14 edition of Newsday hit Long Island's driveways and front porches - "Attack In Afghanistan/9 U.S. Soldiers Killed" - soldiers' family members called each other to urge calm, offer support and run down rumors.

Friends of the fighting men - U.S. infantry units are all male - wondered what had become of their warrior buddies.
Delli-Pizzi is president of the 69th Infantry's Family Readiness Group, which assists family members whose loved ones are deployed. Hoping for information on who the nine were, she worked her contacts among soldiers in Afghanistan, calling them to inquire about others who could not be reached.
With a few phone calls, Delli-Pizzi was able to determine that the attack had not taken place at a location where most of the Bay Shore unit was stationed.

But she knew that some members of the unit were serving elsewhere in Afghanistan.
That meant that one or more of them might have been at the attack scene, a hostile mountainous region near the Pakistan border. Navy Seal Lt. Michael P. Murphy, of Patchogue, had been killed in those mountains during a 2005 ambush, along with 18 other U.S. sailors and soldiers.

Still, the lack of certainty added to the worry. It was two days after the front page headline scared Delli-Pizzi and the other families before she heard from her husband, Lt. Lou Delli-Pizzi, when he telephoned from Afghanistan. He was safe.
For her, after spending days reassuring her fellow military wives while harboring her own private fears, the wait was finally over.
"You're always on pins and needles until you know for sure," she said.
Government policy often works against the fast flow of information. The U.S. Department of Defense withholds information pertaining to incidents resulting in troop fatalities until the next of kin of all of the dead have been informed, meaning that family members of soldiers who survive fatal incidents may be in the dark for days.

The military also imposes a 24-hour blackout of details following casualty incidents.
But with the pervasiveness of cell phones and Internet connections available to soldiers serving overseas, worried civilians routinely seek assurances from loved ones in real time.

Jean Dudenhoffer, of Islip Terrace, worried for 12 hours about her son Mark Dudenhoffer, until she was able to reach a National Guard buddy of his. The guardsman assured her he had received an e-mail from Mark after the attack.
The dead from the July 13 attack were members of the 503rd Infantry Regiment (Airborne), which had been deployed with the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, whose home base is in Italy.

The DOD Web site did not post the names of the dead or the unit in which they served until July 16, three days later.
"The worry can go on for days," said Delli-Pizzi, an immigration lawyer from West Islip. "So there were e-mails and calls - 'Have you heard anything, have you heard anything?'"
The deaths in Afghanistan and the delay in critical communications demonstrates how deeply Long Island families are intertwined with the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The unit of the nine soldiers who were killed had been the home unit of Pfc. Jacob Fletcher, of Bay Shore. He was killed during a 2003 bomb attack - the second Long Island soldier to die during the Iraq war.
For Jonathan Rothwell, 28, who knew Fletcher when they grew up in West Islip, last week's uncertainty rekindled anxieties few Long Islanders understand.

He learned of the fatal attack in Afghanistan when a friend called to ask him if he had learned the news.
Rothwell had been deployed to Iraq with the 69th Infantry Regiment in 2004. During that deployment, 19 soldiers were killed. Rothwell had come under attack while serving as a turret gunner when a bomb hit his Humvee, knocking him unconscious. He left the unit this spring.

Last week, he anxiously sought answers to the fates of men with whom he had once gone off to war.
"My stomach dropped," Rothwell said. "You know so many people over there, you just say 'I hope it ain't one of our guys,' even though you hope everybody is safe."

The 9 who died
The soldiers of 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment (Airborne) of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, were ambushed
July 13.
1st. Lt. Jonathan P. Brostrom
Age 24, Hawaii
Sgt. Israel Garcia
Age 24, Long Beach, Calif.
Cpl. Jonathan R. Ayers
Age 24, Snellville, Ga.
Cpl. Jason M. Bogar
Age 25, Seattle
Cpl. Jason D. Hovater
Age 24, Clinton, Tenn.
Cpl. Matthew B. Phillips
Age 27, Jasper, Ga.
Capt. Pruitt A. Rainey
Age 22, Haw River, N.C.
Pfc. Sergio S. Abad
Age 21, Morganfield, KY.
Cpl. Gunnar W. Zwilling
Age 20, Florissant, Mo. (photo not available)
The Fighting 69th

THE UNIT A famed
New York-based Army National Guard unit made up of volunteers from the five boroughs of New York City and from Long Island. The Long Island companies are posted at the Bay Shore and Huntington armories.
ITS HISTORY The unit's roots go back to the 1840s, when it was made up largely of Irish immigrants. The regiment has served
in four wars and 19 campaigns, including the Civil War, World War I, World War II and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Legend has it that, during a Civil War battle in Virginia, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee gave the regiment its nickname, the Fighting 69th.
RECENT ACTION Nineteen of its members have been killed in fighting in Iraq, where it was deployed in 2004. The unit was sent to Afghanistan in March.

Teaching Through Technology

It is amazing how much time the younger generation spends using technology such as computers, televisions and cell phones. I believe it is more engaging. I don't think I've ever had a class that taught through technology besides Composition I. Through my own experience, I think I lasted longer without giving up because I was more involoved. I enjoyed being in class and doing work becuase it was all on the internet. Although, lately I have been a little distracted with the outside world, such as myspace, I do think this method could only work for an older, much more mature popultaion like college students. I enjoyed the article, "In the Basement of the Ivory Tower", I thought it was intresting how he tried to engage his students by using more technology based assignments. Although, I do feel as if Mrs. L deserved more of a break, since she wasn't of the same generation and didn't find the technology based assignments a cinch. I think teachers shouldn't just base grades on quality, but effort as well.

1. If the internet were to be in schools, do you think the focus on negative impact (such as those read in other articles like "Media and Risky Behaviors") will be reduced?
2. What will become of those,individuals or whole communities/countries, who are still unfamiliar with technology or don't have access to it?
3. What big changes do you see for our future, if school's were to enforce more technology based teachings?