While trying to decide on a topic for the blog, I scrolled through some of the previous posts to get a feel for what’s already been said so I wouldn’t repeat or rehash old news. What I discovered when reading posts written by former and current military personnel, is that while I’m very much a supporter of the amazing men and women of the US Military, and while I’ve read extensively about what they do, how they do it and why they do it, there is nothing in my background or experience that could ever truly make me understand the military way of life.

It’s a unique and highly honored club and it’s right that those of us on the outside looking in couldn’t possibly ‘get it’. Couldn’t possibly know what you’ve been through – both good and bad. Couldn’t know what you’ve learned, what you’ve cherished, what you’ve feared and what you’ve loved about your commitment to country above self.

I’m awed and I’m humbled by what you all give up. You leave your homes and everything you hold dear for long deployments into hostile and foreign environments. You leave knowing that when you come home, nothing will truly ever be the same again. You’ve lost months, sometimes years with your children, your spouses, you’re extended family and friends. You risk much. And you do it willingly.

And for just this short post, I want to say thank you. Not a generic, ‘I’m so grateful for the sacrifices you make for us,’ but a heartfelt, deeply sincere thank you for doing something I don’t think I could ever do, for giving up things I’m glad I’ve never had to give up, for being strong and stalwart and providing inspiration to a nation of Americans, who need something good to aspire to.

Anna!

Please email me at jessica AT jessicascott DOT net and send me your snail mail address. I’ll get Stephanie’s Hard to Hold Trilogy in the mail to you, STAT!

Thanks to everyone who stopped by and passed the word about Steph and Romance Roll Call!

Not everyone has heard yet the story of the three Navy SEALs being court marshaled for allegedly “hitting” a terrorist in Iraq. Here is their story:
“It makes me happy when hearing about a terrorist detainee getting a split lip, courtesy of a Navy SEAL who captured him. Especially when the detainee is the accused brains behind the grisly ambush of four U.S. contractors in Fallujah in 2004, their bodies burned inside their vehicle, dragged through the streets by a chanting mob, then hanged from a Euphrates River bridge. The cruel episode was photographed and posted online as a warning to the Big Bad West: Thus to our enemies. If, as the government claims, Ahmed Hashim Abed is the guy behind the horror, he should thank Allah he has survived long enough to be able to accuse one of his captors of punching him in the stomach. Or the face.” (courtesy of reader Rhonda Ringstad)
Petty Officer 1st class Julio Huertas, 28, pleaded not guilty to charges of dereliction, impeding an investigation and lying to investigators. Petty Officer 2nd Class Jonathan Keefe of Yorktown, 25, is charged with dereliction and lying. These two SEALs will face the man they “hit” in a trial now set in Camp Victory, Iraq on April 5th.
A third SEAL, Petty Officer 2nd Class Matthew McCabe, 24, deferred a plea on charges of hitting a detainee, dereliction of duty and lying to investigators.
The SEALs are attracting much support in the form of 350,000 members on a Facebook pages and protestors at the court house. The mother of one of the slain contractors drove from Ohio to offer the men “everything I can give them.”
I personally feel that this situation is ridiculous. From now on, every captured terrorist will cry that he has been “mistreated.” Do terrorists have that kind of consideration for their victims? Hell, no. Let’s stop wasting government money taking our warriors to court for doing their job and rounding up the scum of the earth. Please show your support for these three Navy SEALs by signing a petition online and/or writing your congressman and senator.
My thanks,
Marliss Melton
Navy SEALs Series Team Twelve

As veterans there is one thing in common we carry with us throughout our lives and that is our time in service. Whether it was just a few years or an entire career, it gives us a common language and a common bond. We were and always shall be brothers and sisters in arms.

Although our service rarely comes up in cocktail conversation I find it really is something I enjoy knowing about people.
I recently watched the much anticipated premiere of Human Target on Fox, starring Mark Valley. Being a major action/adventure fan (as well as an action/adventure writer) I was anxious to find out more about the series after thoroughly enjoying the pilot.

As it happens I saw an interview with Mark Valley and McG, the executive producer, that was quite enlightening. They were old Army buddies from Desert Storm. I liked that. I researched a little further and discovered that Mark Valley is a West Point graduate with a degree in mathematics.

I didn’t intend this to be a commercial for Fox or the show, Human Target. My point is, Mark Valley is one of us. I would like him even if he weren’t – his writers are writing great script, he’s easy on the eyes and he plays a great alpha hero. I hope that someday actors who are veterans will play the action heroes that I write but, until then, I hope we can help a brother out and keep Mark Valley working on a great show.

Check it out: http://fox.com/humantarget

Lisa Pietsch is a freelance writer and novelist. Her interests include terrorists and terrorism, the small arms trade, human trafficking and drug trafficking. All of these topics are represented in the Task Force 125 books which are stories of espionage and paramilitary operations centered around the character of Sarah Stevens who is recruited into the CIA’s Special Activities Division. You can find more information on Lisa’s service and her books at www.LisaPietsch.com.

Contest: Win Stephanie Tyler’s Hard to Hold Trilogy

Stephanie Tyler is one of the founding members of Romance Roll Call. I emailed her out of the blue in Iraq and said hey, I’ve got this idea and she jumped on board. Look for her to start blogging with us later this month and regularly after that.

So it’s with great pleasure that I’m announcing Romance Roll Call’s first giveaway. We’re spotlighting Stephanie’s new back to back Hard to Hold Trilogy, featuring her sexy Navy SEALS Jake, Nick and Chris.

Lt. Jake Hansen has survived some of the riskiest missions known to man. But now the wounded Navy SEAL faces his toughest job yet: Smuggling Dr. Isabelle Markham out of Africa without triggering an international incident. Not easy to do when the gorgeous hostage happens to be a senator’s daughter —and about as easy to resist as an oasis in the desert…
If it weren’t for Jake, Isabelle would still be halfway across the world, where rebel forces left her for dead. The Special Ops warrior may have saved her life, but she doesn’t need him to protect her now. Tell that to the ruggedly handsome hunk in full battle fatigues who’s just been assigned Isabelle’s personal bodyguard. Close quarters aside, Isabelle won’t let Jake anywhere near her heart — until danger throws them together again…and nothing in the jungles of wildest Africa could prepare them for a passion this wild. This crazy. This hot….

He’s an elite Navy SEAL living a risky double life. She’s the gorgeous reporter hot on his trail.

Nick Devane’s life is one big, classified secret. Until Kaylee Smith busts his covert world wide open, threatening to blow his cover. Digging around where she doesn’t belong could get them both killed…especially when the beautiful journalist uncovers top-secret information that could set off a global disaster if it falls into the wrong hands. Nick can’t let that happen, even if he has to battle deadly mercenaries and an irresistible attraction that is all consuming…
Kaylee didn’t expect her search for her missing ex-husband to lead to this sexy and dangerous SEAL. Now she’s teamed up with Nick on a mission that takes them into deepest Africa–and into the middle of a massive government cover-up. With rogue agents hot on their trail, Kaylee’s going to unearth all Nick’s secrets. Before they both vanish without a trace. Before the passion burning between them sets off an explosion no one may survive…

Chris Waldron, an elite U.S. Navy SEAL, is used to getting out of tight spots. But all his years of training can’t prepare him for the crisis he now faces. When a mission to rescue a kidnapped ambassador and his wife goes tragically awry, an FBI hostage negotiator is killed and Chris finds himself at the center of the ensuing investigation. Leading the charge is the blistering hot special agent and onetime lover who has re-ignited their mutual attraction.
Jamie Michaels is determined to keep things professional with Chris Waldron this time. But seeing him bruised and battered in that hospital bed has rekindled all those feelings she thought she’d left behind during their brief, passionate encounter in Africa. Now Jamie must keep her craving for danger at bay as she spearheads a search for the truth that just may blow Chris’s career to bits—and put them both in the crosshairs of an unseen enemy.

So stop by RRC all this week and tell us what your favorite thing about Navy SEAL books is. Tell us why you want to read Ms Tyler’s series, what you love about them if you’ve read them and why you can’t wait to get your hands on Hold on Tight BEFORE IT’S RELEASED.

Winner to be announced Monday, January 25th!

Thank you so much for inviting me to blog today about Summer of Two Wishes. This book, (released last summer), is about a soldier who was believed to have died in Afghanistan, but who turns up alive and comes home to find that life has moved on without him: His wife has remarried, his horse ranch is gone, and there really isn’t a place for him. The real story is about his wife and the choice she has to make. She loved him, she grieved for him, but she thought he was dead and fell in love again. Whose wife was she? The wife of her first true love, whom she thought she lost to the war? Or to the man who pulled her out of the ashes of despair and taught her how to love again?

I backed into this idea by accident; I didn’t start out to write a book about a military hero. Other than having a nephew who has served two tours in Iraq, what do I know about coming home from war? What I set out to do was write a book that was simple in its construct, but packed an emotional wallop. The idea came to me one day when I was reading the Austin American Statesman.

I don’t know about where you live, but about once a year in Austin, the paper has a special edition in which they print the faces, names, and death information of all the soldiers from Central Texas who have made the ultimate sacrifice for us. It is gut-wrenching to look at those pictures. I cannot imagine how the family of those faces must feel. They must all wish for one more day, one more moment, or just to hear a voice. They must all wish for their loved one to walk through a door. It is a sobering reminder of the sacrifice so many noble people make in the name of our country and freedom.

I wondered what would happen if one of those faces literally returned from the dead. What would her or she find? Anyone who has lost a loved one knows that life continues to march forward and nothing can stop it. The wheels keep turning and the past keeps evolving into the present and on into the future. The construct was simple: who was she going to choose? Someone was going to be hurt no matter what she did.

I think that having to come back to a life that has moved on without him would have been enough for this hero. Layer onto that the burden of very difficult, soul-searching choice and I had my basic conflict that thrummed with emotion. It was a hard book to write. I thought a lot about loss. I didn’t know which man the heroine would end up with until I was three-quarters through the book. And I have not written yet about the husband she didn’t choose because that is another really emotional book, and I needed to let it simmer. I learned a lot about the military (thanks, Jess!) and a lot about my personal goals and strengths as a writer. I hope you enjoy Summer of Two Wishes. I am always interested to know which way the reader goes: Team Finn? Or Team Wyatt?

Thanks so much for having me here today. Happy Reading!

Non Fiction Spotlight: Martha Raddatz The Long Road Home

One of the reasons I started Romance Roll Call was to also provide a place for writers and readers to find resources. I’ve been asked multiple times where are good places to start and I’ve got my own backlist of great books out there. But for authors who have no personal military experience but who want to write about soldiers, research is required and the sheer amount of books out there in your local book store can be daunting, to say the least.

So today marks the first Non Fiction Spotlight. It will run every third Monday and will feature non fiction books, either on the military itself or on writing. The spotlight will tell a little about the book and let you decide where to start.

One of the most powerful books I’ve read about the Iraq War to date is Martha Raddatz’s The Long Road Home. Not simply because it’s about 1st Cavalry Division troopers and the 1st Cav is where I earned my combat spurs, but because I’m friends with some of the men in that story. My brigade commander was the battalion commander there and I had no idea what he’d gone through when I was tasked to be his aide one week in 2008. But after a bad training run in a MOUT (military operations in urban terrain) site, he asked me if I knew what happened in Sadr City. He told me I needed to talk to CPT Aguero and listen to him.

I found this book within a day of coming back from the field and read it. I didn’t know any of the men at the time of reading it. Aguero is somewhat of a legend but when you get to know him, at the heart of him is a warrior. A man who simply wants to be at war, doing what the army trained him to do.

See CPT Aguero was the platoon leader who was pinned down inside an alley with his platoon in Sadr City. They’d been out on a mission when the Mahdi Militia decided they were ready to fight. They picked the fight on the day of TOA (transfer of authority) before the battalion commander officially owned the battlespace.

There is some focus in this book about Casey Sheehan and his mother, anti war activist Cindy Sheehan’s reaction to his death but this book is not completely about her or her son. Ms Raddatz takes you onto the FOB. You can feel the devastation of the men as they fight to bring their trapped platoon home. And you can feel the horror of the soldiers who have to make some of the hardest decisions in war in order to survive.

If you want to feel the urgency of needing to get into the fight to save your men, if you want to feel the pain of the wives back home, waiting for notification, read this book. Ms Raddatz’s storytelling is profound and this book marks a significant contribution to our war’s history.

You can order The Long Road Home through AMAZON, BARNES & NOBLE, BORDERS or wherever you find books.

I’m a soldier but I’m also an army wife. Granted, I have a little bit different take on the army than army wives who have never been on active duty but so many of our army wives do have military service in their background. Regardless of our background, we all share a commonality: we love a soldier.

The thing I love about army wives is the way they stick together. During the last decade, army wives have had to find ways to support each other and their soldiers all the while being mommy, daddy and everything in between. There are so many challenges in being Household 6 and one of the toughest parts of that job is loving a soldier who isn’t going always be there. There will be missed birthdays and anniversaries. Sometimes the best gift is a phone call or an email from a far off combat zone, just letting us know our soldier is safe.

So it’s quite an honor for me to be invited over to the Army Wife Network to talk about Romance Roll Call. I’ll be there on January 25 at 2100-2130 streamed live over the internet. I hope you’ll stop by and listen to what should be a great interview. I’m putting out a call for guest bloggers to join us here on Romance Roll Call as well as looking to fill a few regular spots.

So mark your calendars, pass the word and show your support for the hardest job in the army: the army wife!

I’ve lived in 14 states and two other countries. The “14” doesn’t count moves, just locations. When it came time to pick a retirement location, I knew the background of nearly every region in the U.S. I knew where I wanted to go and hubby was with me. We chose an area where the Defense Department is the major employer. But that’s not what this blog is about.

This is about making friends during all those freakin’ moves.

Settling down is a lot harder work than I thought. In the military, your friends are your co-workers. But if you’re the spouse who follows or the kids who change schools, you don’t have co-workers. You have to make friends. Fortunately, most learn how to do this, and it’s a skill you use for the rest of your life.

I’m on the other side of the fence now. I don’t have to make new friends because I’ve lived in the same place for—wait for it!—four whole years! I’m the person who the military has to make friends with. Yay!

I’m going to tell you a dirty little secret now: Some civilians are wary of making friends with military families. Why? Because they move! As hard as it is for military families to pick up and move every two or three years, it’s just as hard to watch your friends leave. One of my civilian friends confessed that when her then-first grade daughter’s best friend moved away, it devastated her child, to the point she was wary of close friendships with military families after that.

There is a key word in that last sentence: close. In my adult life, I can count best friends on one hand, and two of those friends are where I live now. I would be willing to bet that even full-time civilians don’t have more than a couple of best friends, but loads of just friends.

As any military person will tell you, we have loads of friends too. We exchange cards with them every year; sometimes we track them on Facebook; and sometimes we move to the same location again. Even if we lose touch, we’re still friends. These are the friends that come over in the middle of the night to sleep on your couch while you run your sick dog to an emergency vet. They tell you about people they know in the area you’re moving to, so you’ll know someone when you get there. They offer to watch your newborn because your maternity leave is up and your baby is too young for childcare.

So maybe I am on the other side of the fence now, and maybe we’ll never be best friends. But if you come to my hometown, I got your back. Because military people aren’t just friends, they’re family. And I’ll do whatever I have to for my family.

Call me. I’m here for you. ~ AJ

www.AJBrower.com

After 9 moves in 21 years, we’ve settled in Florida, which feels like home to me since I’m a S.C beach girl. (I’m still thawing out after our years in North Dakota, Michigan and Ohio!) We’re planning on retiring here and hope our children will think of this place as home… But then after the transitory lifestyle of a military brat, who knows?!

And speaking of military brats, of course we military families know straight away “brat” isn’t a derogatory term, but rather just what we call a kid who knows the roller coaster life of being an active duty dependent. Sure, many aspects of the lifestyle can be fun and enriching. My four children have lived coast to coast. They have friends from around the world. (How many seven year olds have played Barbies with the daughter of a Mongolian fighter pilot?)

And some aspects can be heart breaking.

When our youngest – Maggie – was in preschool, my husband Rob was tasked to deploy to Europe as a part of the Kosovo Conflict. He gathered all of our children to explain about the war and the role he would play in helping supply food to boys and girls overseas. He pulled out a globe and pointed to where he would stay. The older three kids had lots of questions, but our youngest only had one.

“How will you find your way home again from so very far away?”

My heart broke for her as I thought about how even a few blocks seemed a world away to a four year old. But a whole ocean away? No wonder she worried.

My husband calmly explained, “I’m a navigator. I can always find my way home.”

Satisfied that we’d done all we could, we moved forward with our farewells.

The day after Rob left, Maggie’s preschool teacher stopped me in the carpool line. She had a rather puzzled look on her face. She told me that Maggie had shared a confusing story at show and tell that day.

Maggie had told everyone that her father had gone to war. But not to worry, he would be able to swim home because he was an “alligator.”

Of course I laughed, but I also had a tear in my eye. Little Maggie was too young to know the word navigator, so she’d settled on a similar sounding word to help her understand as best she could. That made me think of all the big worries military children face on a regular basis, concerns far larger than their young minds are ready to wrap around. But they search inside themselves with an inner strength for an understanding that all will be well….

Even if that means picturing their parent morphing into a uniformed alligator.

There’s a fabulous documentary about the “culture” of being a military brat: BRATS: OUR JOURNEY HOME . Well worth viewing! I hope you’ll also consider donating a copy to your local base/post library so other military families can benefit from the insights.

Thanks bunches for the invitation to join in!! Check out my website FMI on my adventures in military life – as well as the scoop on my current release RENEGADE, book 3 in my “Dark Ops” series from Berkley Sensation. Also, I hope you’ll keep an eye out for my other January release, BOSSMAN’S BABY SCANDAL from Silhouette Desire.

Aim High!
Cathy
Catherine Mann

 

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When you hear the label “military brat” – what comes to mind? What ways have you found to give your military brats a sense of roots even when on the move?