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!

A SOLDIER’S CHRISTMAS

‘Twas the night before Christmas, he lived all alone,
in a one bedroom house made of plaster and stone.

I had come down the chimney with presents to give,
and to see just who in this little house lived.

As I looked all about, a strange sight I did see,
No tinsel, no presents, not even a tree.

No Stockings by mantle, just boots filled with sand,
On the wall hung pictures of far distant lands.

With medals and badges, awards of all kinds,
A sobering thought came through my mind.

For this house was different, it was dark and dreary,
The home of a soldier, I could now see clearly.

The soldier lay sleeping, silent, alone,
Curled up on the floor in this one bedroom home.

The face was so gentle, the room in such disorder,
Not how I picture a United States Soldier.

Was this the hero of whom I’d just read?
Curled up on a poncho, the floor for a bed?

I realized the families that I saw this night,
owed their lives to these soldiers who were willing to fight.

Soon round the world, the children would play,
and grownups would celebrate a bright Christmas day.

They all enjoyed freedom each month of the year,
because of the soldiers, like the one lying here.

I couldn’t help wondering how many lay alone,
on a cold Christmas Eve in a land far from home.

The very thought brought a tear to my eye,
I dropped to one knee and started to cry.

The soldier awakened and I heard a rough voice,
“Santa don’t cry, for this life is my choice”.

I fight for freedom, I don’t ask for more,
My life is my God, my country, my corps.”

The soldier rolled over and drifted to sleep,
I couldn’t control it, I continued to weep.

I kept watch for hours, so silent and still,
as we both shivered from the cold night’s chill.

I didn’t want to leave, on that cold, dark night,
this guardian of honor, so willing to fight.

Then the soldier rolled over, with a voice soft and pure,
whispered, “Carry on Santa…., It’s Christmas Day…., All is secure.

One look at my watch, and I knew he was right,
Merry Christmas my friend…. and to all a Good Night.

~ Author Unknown *~

I’m tired of cops, FBI agents and special ops heroes getting all the fun jobs in novels. I mean, how much effort does it take to make one of these career fields sexy, dangerous and appealing? None. Today I start on my campaign to make other military career fields prime for heroic action! Let’s start with public affairs.

I’ve been in public affairs for 25 years. I know special ops career fields tend to be a favorite of authors, but really, what do those guys do? Rescue a few people? Secret squirrel stuff we never hear about? But in PA, our affairs are all public. Seriously public, but in a funny way.

When I was a young 23-year-old Air Force second lieutenant, I got my first hint of what this career would be like. I had to write a fact sheet on a space mission that was to fly on the first polar shuttle launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. (This isn’t secret squirrel stuff. It never happened because Challenger blew up into a billion tiny pieces and NASA needed to focus on getting the shuttle back in the air.) I opened Aviation Week and Space Technology and read an article they’d written on the program, which was called Teal Ruby. With help from the program office, I crafted a brilliant, two-page fact sheet on this stationary system that would sit in the shuttle’s bay and monitor the aurora borealis, among other things. Then I got approval from the project office, and sent the information off for security review from our higher headquarters.

The fact sheet came back classified.

That’s when I learned many engineers call my magazine source for information Aviation Leak and Spy Technology. Oh, and that you shouldn’t believe everything in print. Give me a break! I was 23.

I write romantic suspense, and I admit, I like to leave a few bodies lying around in my novels. Not serial killer type, I can’t think like that. More, how the he** did that happen? This may have been influenced during a court-martial for the death penalty in Britain. A technical sergeant had stabbed a master sergeant several times over the senior ranking man’s flirtation with the other man’s wife. For those internationally savvy folks out there, the U.K. doesn’t have the death penalty, so the media were all over us. And as the ranking PA officer on base (by now I was a first lieutenant), it was my job to keep things orderly.

The court room sat 12 audience members, outside the legal teams, the judge and the jury. No room for reporters, so we’d take them into the courtroom before and after sessions and let them film it empty. I took a television crew in one day and the sound man picked up a photo off the prosecutor’s desk to do a camera lighting check. The white on the back of the photo was perfect for this task. But as he held up the photo, I saw what was on the other side: the bloody body of the master sergeant.

“Please don’t turn the photo over,” I tried to say as off-handedly as possible. “If you do, I’ll have to confiscate your film.” The sound man raised his eyebrows when he saw the photo and fortunately did not turn the picture over. I haven’t a clue how to confiscate film. But I imagine it would involve calling in armed security forces and really big headlines in the news.

Then there was the time I was offered black market goods in Moscow. Operation PROVIDE HOPE was public relations move to get European nations to help send food and medicine to agencies that lost their government support when the Soviet Union broke up. We PA folks were supposed to be taking media on flights with our humanitarian cargo. My AP reporter backed out on me while we were on a stop in Moscow, on our way to Ulan Ude, Siberia. In February. It was snowing in Moscow and as I turned around from the pay phone I’d just used, a man approached me, his hand holding his coat closed. He said in English as he opened his coat, “Would you like to buy a ham?”

Yes. In a large pocket inside his coat was the highly coveted canned ham of Moscow. I fought off laughing, even as I realized how desperate things must have been there at the time.

The life of public affairs officer is filled with unique experiences that many special ops men would question participating in. I fought off dozens of international media when the Yugoslavs got lucky and took out an F-117 stealth fighter jet during the Kosovo war. It was my job to keep the information out of the news while those search and rescue guys (yes, special ops) did their job of rescuing the pilot. For six hours we answered, “I have no information I can give you on that.” (That’s secret PA code for “I have information on that, but I can’t give it to you.” Not a lie, but also not what the media wants to hear.) More recently, it was reporters trying to find out information after CNN reported a C-17 cargo jet had crashed in Texas. It hadn’t, and it takes a while to find the whereabouts of nearly 200 planes to make sure we weren’t missing one.

There’s also the time the water in India attacked me. Believe me, when the flight surgeon says don’t drink the water, don’t even brush your teeth in it! I’d like to see anyone do their job horizontal on KC-10 flying over the Burma Hump. (Okay, so even PA can’t work with dysentery.) And then there was the community group we took to Berlin to see U.S. operations there. Five hours after we left, the Berlin Wall came down. We’re good. Real good.

I’d like to see those special ops guys do that. Or better: let’s make them talk to a reporter. You know, that secret squirrel stuff makes it hard for them to answer questions. Yes, that’s right. You would need a public affairs trained professional to do that.

Hello, my name is Jambrea and the summer before my senior year in high school, my older sister joined the Air Force. It was in the back of my mind to join too, but I didn’t want to feel like I was doing it just because she was. So I finished high school and went on to college for a year. It wasn’t for me.It took leaving

Indiana for California and coming home again for me to decide I wanted to go into the military. Now most people didn’t think I could do it. Heck, I wasn’t even sure if I could, but I wanted to try. In May of 1997 I enlisted.

When I got to basic training, I was weight listed (overweight by the military scales) so I had one more thing to struggle with. The worry was always there that I wouldn’t be able to lose the couple pounds. Most people who knew me would not believe that I enjoyed basic training. I was worried about the yelling, afraid I would cry, but it didn’t happen. I did hear a lot of “Your other left foot, Jones!” during marching. lol I’ve always been directionally challenged.

One of my proudest moments was when my mom showed up for graduation and watched me march in formation. Basic flew by. Of course, back then it was only 6 weeks long. I’m pretty sure it’s 12 weeks now.

The next step was tech school. I went in as a computer operator and really found myself. I was confident for the first time and not as shy as I would normally be. I actually became the Red Rope, leading the Yellow Ropes, Green Ropes and rest of the squad. Never in a million years would I have attempted something like this before the military. It gave me a piece of myself that could shine.

I was excited for tech school to be over so I could go to my first duty station. I anxiously awaited news of where I would be stationed. My sister had been stationed in England her first assignment, I was hoping for something just as fun. I got…Offutt Air Force Base, NE. lol When I got there, it wasn’t much different from Indiana. Plus, they put me in as a base operator. I answered the phones. Not very glamorous, but I really enjoyed it. The people I met were great.

I was only in the Air Force for two years. I developed asthma as was medically discharged. I still miss it. It was one of the best times in my life.

So, what was I to do next? I ended up getting married and having a child. Then it happened. The next stage of my life…writing. Reading had been a passion for a long time. I dabbled a bit with writing here and there until I found Yahoo Groups and ended up doing some reviewing. That led to writing. I now have my first military book with Liquid Silver Publishing. It’s in ebook form about a Marine and an NCIS Agent called Semper Fi: Magnus. I’m very proud of it and hope people enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Today, Dec. 11, 2009, a few authors from Liquid Silver are doing a blog tour. If you want to take a look, it starts here http://trinamlee.com/blog/ at 7am. There are prizes to be had if you want to follow along.

You can find me at a couple different places. I’m sure I’ll be here from time to time, but you can also find me at a couple blogs and a yahoo group. I’ll list those below. You can always email me at jambrea@jambrea.com

http://jambrea.wordpress.com/

http://internationalheat.wordpress.com/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Heat_Wave_Readers/?yguid=80421025

I have the utmost respect for women who’ve pledged their hearts to a man in the military, especially for the wives of Navy SEALs.  Every military spouse has to make amazing sacrifices. Having been married to both an Army officer a Navy petty officer, I know what it means to wait and worry. Lots of women do it, but the wives of Navy SEALs are a special breed. The first thing you notice when you meet them is they’re beautiful. All of them. But there’s usually an amazing brain behind that beauty. Like their Navy SEAL husbands they are all intelligent and accomplished human beings. And like their husbands, they are also impossibly brave. Imagine letting your husband go without a moment’s notice to face the worst imaginable and terrifying dangers halfway across the world. It takes faith to do that–faith that what your husband is doing is in America’s best interest; that it will save lives; that it is noble and worthy. 

     Two years ago, I had the privelege of meeting Laura and Patsy, the widows of Navy SEALs Michael McGreevy and Danny Dietz. Both men perished in Operatin Redwing, Afghanistan, 2005. Every year Laura and her friends raise money for a scholarship in memory of her husband. Both women have soldiered on without their husbands. Having made the choice to love them, they also made the choice to be just as brave–perhaps even more brave, for keeping it together when they were left behind. God bless you both, Ladies.

The whole point of this blog is to focus on military romance and those who write it, love it and live it.
But why do so many women love a man in uniform? Whether it’s a fireman, a police man or a military man, a uniform gets women’s attention.

And on a book cover, the attention grabber for me is dog tags. I love a photo of a man wearing dog tags. I even make my husband wear his around the house.

What is it about a military man that makes him stand out? Why is it a Marine will stand out in a crowd of soldiers, or a soldier will stand out in a crowd of airmen. And what is it about military men that makes them to die for heroes in romance novels?

SB Sarah had a blog post a few weeks ago where she mentioned that the alpha male was overrated but the end result was a guy who was always there when you needed him. I suggested we call this hero the steadfast hero, after the motto of the 4th Infantry Division.

Maybe the steadfast trait is something we’re looking for and if someone can commit to a military lifestyle, maybe we harbor a secret hope that he can commit to us. Military romance is harder to pull off, I think, because we speak our own language and it’s obvious when someone gets it wrong. When authors get it right, though, watch out.
Military men burn up the page with their take charge and still hold the baby attitude.

So readers, what is the attraction for a man in uniform? Why so many Navy SEAL or special forces heroes?