Katherine West, Iraq War Army veteran

representing NWVU and the Depaul Veterans Advocacy Group at Soldier's Field

2009 Veteran's Day Ceremony 

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Congratulations Kishauna!

NWVU Member Kishauna Hampton, Iraq War Army Veteran; receives the Governor State University Mitchell-Moore Award

Senior Kishauna Hampton recently was awarded the Mitchell-Moore Award for Community Service by the African American Heritage Committee of the Cook County Juvenile Court for her “courage and dedication to our country, for service in Iraq, and for being a great intern.”

Hampton is currently completing her internships at the Cook County Juvenile Probation Department and previously served in the U.S. Army for six years, including 18 months in Iraq.

Hampton plans to pursue a career as a juvenile probation officer after graduation in June. “I find this field very exciting,” said Hampton. “Children have a better chance of being helped if stopped earlier with treatment and services.”

According to Dr. Coldren, Chair of the Criminal Justice Program at Governors State University, “Kishauna’s mature understanding of the possibilities for effective work in the justice system and how this applies to juveniles make her very effective in her internship. We are very proud of her success.”

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Study finds that mothers' military deployment affects health of women and teens

FAIRFAX, Va.—Due to regional conflicts across the globe, such as wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the global war on terrorism, women are being deployed overseas in greater numbers than ever before. Women constitute approximately 16 percent of the 3.5 million members of the U.S. armed forces and 10 percent of present forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Although separation of a service member from their family is always a hardship, for mothers of adolescent children, deployment comes at even more of a personal sacrifice. A recent study completed by George Mason University researcher Mona Ternus found that a woman's military deployment affects her health as well as that of her adolescent children.

"War induced separation impacts family life with unique stressors related to the dangerous aspects of deployment," says Ternus, associate professor and director of academic outreach and distance education in Mason's College of Health and Human Services and a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve. "These military women believe in what they do. They believe in the mission. And what they believe in terms of their commitment and their work is very high. This is very much a personal part of their lives and a personal part of their own self-development that becomes a part of them."

Ternus analyzed responses from 77 women who recently completed a military deployment and who were also mothers of adolescent children aged 10 to 18 years. Participants completed Web-based questionnaires based on their experiences at varying times after return. The majority of respondents were in the Air Force and Army, and more than 60 percent of the women had been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.

Deployment served as a catalyst for health and behavior change of both mothers and their adolescent children—and the longer the deployment, the greater the effect. Ternus found strong correlations between the number of symptoms women experienced during deployment—such as cough, headaches, joint pain, back pain, muscle aches, numbness/tingling, skin rashes, diarrhea, chest pain and difficulty breathing—and the number of days deployed.

Making arrangements for child care was one of the most common stressors mentioned by participants. Ternus was surprised to find that, as a result of single parent households or dual-military families in which both parents deployed at the same time, 36 percent of the respondents reported having no primary parent in the home during the time of deployment.

In addition, Ternus found that a longer deployment leads to increased risk behaviors among adolescent children such as non-accidental physical injury, physical fights, incidents involving weapons, cigarette smoking/chewing tobacco, alcohol, illegal drug use, self mutilation, drop in school grades and attempted suicide. While 75 percent of the adolescents exhibited no risk factors prior to deployment according to parental responses, just as many of the children engaged in risk behaviors during and after deployment.

"There are more than 3 million immediate family members of active-duty and reserve personnel, of whom approximately 400,000 are adolescents," says Ternus. "Adolescence is a turbulent period with an increased number of risk behaviors. It follows that separation from the military mother during these potentially dangerous deployments has an impact on the adolescent."

Despite the hardships and personal sacrifice, participants expressed deep satisfaction with, and commitment to, their military work and careers. Ternus, who has been separated from her teenage daughter several times while deployed, empathizes with the women in the study.

"A theme emerged in which the military women expressed a great deal of guilt related to their absence from the home. Mothers commented on missing family events, the effect on caregivers who were supporting the family and the need to be both at work and home," says Ternus. "Many additional factors exacerbate the stresses on the family such as fear of parental death or injury. I am hopeful that my research will help to discover new ways that we can build family relationships even while people fulfill their military obligation, service and commitment to their country."

The full study, "Military Women's Perceptions of the Effect of Deployment on their Role as Mothers and on Adolescents' Health," is available upon request. Ternus was awarded the Federal Nursing Services Award for this study by the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States.

This research was funded by the University of New Mexico and Ternus is continuing her program of research at George Mason University.

About George Mason University

Named the #1 national university to watch by U.S. News & World Report, George Mason University is an innovative, entrepreneurial institution with global distinction in a range of academic fields. Located in the heart of Northern Virginia's technology corridor near Washington, D.C., Mason prepares its students to succeed in the work force and meet the needs of the region and the world. With strong undergraduate and graduate degree programs in engineering and information technology, dance, organizational psychology and health care, Mason students are routinely recognized with national and international scholarships. Mason professors conduct groundbreaking research in areas such as cancer, climate change, information technology and the biosciences, and Mason's Center for the Arts brings world-renowned artists, musicians and actors to its stage

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USE IT OR LOSE IT!!!

FREE Valet Parking Jesse Brown VA Medical Ctr

Posted by CVO at 4:42 PM

from the November 10, 2006 edition

DECORATED VETERAN: Margaret Oglesby of Springfield, Mass., has been in the National Guard for 25 years. She won a bronze star for her valor in Afghanistan. JOANNE CICCARELLO - STAFF

The new veterans among us: women Women comprise a small but steadily growing number of Americans serving their country in the military. By Amanda Paulson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor CHICAGO – When Maj. Margaret Oglesby went to Washington in 2004 for a celebration of black women veterans who had served in combat, she was stunned to feel, for once, not alone. Throughout her nearly nine-month deployment to Afghanistan, she was accustomed to being in her own category: a woman, an African-American, an officer, a National Guard member.   FROM CHEERLEADER TO MILITARY POLICE: Tracy Lisenby now works for the National Guard as a recruiter. AMANDA PAULSON "When I saw all the other women who had gone through what I'd gone through, it was amazing," Major Oglesby remembers. "There was just unconditional love in that room." As America recognizes its veterans Saturday, a small but steadily growing number are women - some 28,000 of the 274,000 service members currently deployed. While still officially relegated to support positions and barred from infantry or armored divisions, such distinctions mean little when even the enemy isn't clear and any position can be a target. "My guess is that one of the results of this conflict is that there will be a redefinition of women's roles," says David Segal, director of the Center for Research on Military Organization at the University of Maryland. At checkpoints where Iraqi women must be searched, Professor Segal notes, women "have to be there." Women's integration to default combat has occurred as a result of practice, rather than policy, Segal says, noting that racial integration happened in much the same way during the Korean War. The shift may help Americans' ideas about who military members are, though it's still shocking to some to see women come back from Iraq or Afghanistan in body bags or with amputations and other traumatic wounds. Fifty-eight women have been killed in Iraq since 2003, and 428 have been wounded. For many Americans, the image of a veteran is still firmly masculine. "People tell me, 'You're not a veteran. You're young, you're a girl," laughs Specialist Jennet Posey, who served in Iraq as a mechanic for nine months before coming home and eventually moving to the inactive ready reserves while studying journalism in Chicago. "We're out there too, and we're risking our lives, but people don't see it. Women veterans do not get the recognition they deserve." Specialist Posey has joined a group called National Women Veterans United, in which she's working to get the message out that women are serving and often have specific needs that she thinks could be better met. She remembers being stationed in Kuwait before the Iraq war started, for instance, and only having one shower trailer for women, compared with several thousand for men. In convoys, going to the bathroom meant risking either privacy or safety, since straying away from the trucks was dangerous. And it was hard to find basic hair products or decent sanitary napkins in the Army store. "I would just dream about being clean," she says. "We're not saying cater to us, but there are certain things you need." These days Posey, a quiet young woman who displays her Army certificates with pride in her small South Shore Chicago apartment, finds comfort in the bonds she forms with other women veterans. "When I come across a female veteran, it's like a sisterhood," she says. "Especially if you were in Iraq, you know how I feel." But some women also worry about declaring too many differences between them and their male counterparts - and they're most proud of the ways in which they've shown themselves to be equal. Staff Sgt. Tracy Lisenby, a young former cheerleader who works as a recruiter for the Wisconsin National Guard and spent 16 months deployed in Iraq, says she occasionally did "girl things" with other women on her days off - wearing makeup, dying each other's hair, watching "Sex and the City" episodes - but she also took immense pride in how well she did in physical tests. "I smoke 'em in push ups," she says with a laugh. Staff Sergeant Lisenby, like Oglesby, was in a military police unit where it was critical to have women available to conduct searches of Iraqi women at checkpoints. Unusually, about 40 percent of her company was female, and she says many of the Iraqi police were initially surprised to see women in uniform. "I wish women could be in the special forces or the Ranger stuff," she says. "But our society's not there yet." MILITARY MECHANIC: Jennet Posey displays her Army certificates proudly. AMANDA PAULSON Even as women are proving their mettle in combat situations, they often, like men, face adjustments when they return to the US or to civilian life. VA hospitals have worked hard to better meet the needs of female veterans, who can suffer sexual trauma or abuse, gynecological problems, mental trauma, difficulties coming back to a caretaker role in their families, or guilt over leaving their children. "We're working very hard at getting across the idea to women that we can provide them with an environment that's safe and sensitive to their needs," says Katherine Dong, Women Veterans Program manager at the North Chicago VA hospital. About 10 percent of her hospital's patients are women. She says mothers often expect, even after being away for a year, that they will come home and pick up where they left off. "Especially for women, it's a conflict because you are happy your family has managed without you, but at the same time, when you come back it almost feels like you haven't been missed," Ms. Dong says. Oglesby's youngest son was 2 when she left for Afghanistan. He was having difficulty talking when she returned, and she immediately felt guilty, even though he's fine now. Her daughter, now 11, had the hardest time with her mother gone, but Oglesby kept in vigilant touch with her teacher by e-mail. Still, Oglesby says returning home took some adjustments. She makes sure her three children know where she'll be at all times. On a recent trip to a Six Flags theme park, she was walking behind her husband and children, and her oldest son spun around to spot her. "He said, 'I just want to make sure no one took you.' " When she gives a women's Veterans Day tribute at the Massachusetts Statehouse Saturday, Oglesby is torn about whether to spend more time talking about her own experiences and how far women have come in the military, or paying tribute to the women who paved the way for her to be there. "I met a woman who served in the Marines in 1940," she says. "I'm in awe. I have so many opportunities that they did not have, and I want to thank them for kicking down the door that I'm able to walk through, and building the foundation that I'm able to stand on."

WOMEN ARE VETERANS TOO!