It’s no secret that military families are constantly reinventing what home means to them. The state of military housing has long been a topic of discussion and a need that must be addressed to improve the quality of life for our active-duty families. On today’s empowering episode Kathleen speaks with Sarah Lenox, Director of Strategic Initiatives for Armed Forces Housing Advocates (AFHA).

AFHA was founded to protect all current and future military families. They strive to provide comprehensive, free-of-cost services that empower residents to navigate the Military Housing Privatization Initiative (MHPI) system, ensuring their homes are safe and habitable. AFHA supports military families through a variety of housing situations including, but not limited to: mold, lead, asbestos, clean water, window falls, reasonable accommodations for families with disabilities, and PCS homelessness.  AFHA is primarily focused on CONUS situations, but does receive cases for OCONUS issues and does its best to research and advocate for military spouses wherever the base/post is located.

In today’s episode, Sarah shares information about AFHA, tips for families who may encounter housing difficulties, and her own personal experiences with housing struggles. She is committed to helping military families know their rights while they navigate through difficult housing situations. 

“Empowerment is the kinetic energy of the individual and of the community that drives lasting progress and change”. 

Thank you again to Sarah Lenox for joining us this week to talk about the amazing resource that is the Armed Forces Housing Advocates. If you would like to connect with Sarah and Armed Forces Housing Advocates, you can find them online or on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.

News 6

Here is this week’s News 6 mashup of stories for the week of November 7th, 2022, straight from AWN News 6 Correspondent, Emma Tighe:

If the Bra Fits, Issue it!

We all know the army issues everything but a spouse and the kitchen sink for incoming service members.

But for Female soldiers, noticeably missing from the list has always been bras.

Instead they are given an allotment and sent to the nearest post exchange for their undergarments.

Not only that, but it has been a concern for years that while service members are given flame and weather resistant top and under clothing, bras have never been included.

That may soon change as the Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center, or DEVCOM, has come up with four prototypes for combat sports bras for female military members.

These bras carry important features such as flame resistant materials, a dog tag pouch, a front zipper for medical emergencies and breathable mesh, which is imperative for female soldiers in training or war zones going days without changing. 

More than 200 female soldiers are testing the brassieres and the results will be brought to the army uniform board on December 7th.

Lead designer Annette Lafluer told ABC news that “The less that they can think about what they’re wearing and focus on their mission or their training, the easier it’s going to be for them.”

Sounds like they’re hard at work on every woman’s dream sports bra, and no one deserves them more than our female service members!

Find out more at abcnews.com.

Three Soldiers Save Lives at Seoul Halloween Tragedy

Jarmil Taylor, Dane Beathard and Jerome August, three U.S. soldiers stationed at Camp Casey, South Korea, went to Seoul on October 30th to celebrate Halloween. Instead, they found themselves assisting in a terrifying disaster.

Originally a Halloween street party, things took a scary turn when the crowd grew too big and started to surge. Immediately seeing the danger, these three friends began to pull people out of the crowd.

An unidentified South Korean man told the local Yonhap news that An American soldier “rescued him from the crowd as if pulling radishes from a field.” 

They were not the only U.S. service members to rush to the scene to aid. Military Police from Yongsan Garrison were originally there as a courtesy patrol but found themselves providing first aid and helping with crowd control. 

We are proud of our military service members always, but are even more so, and not surprised, when they answer the call to help in the face of tragedy. Whether they are on duty or off.

Learn more at stripes.com

DOD Gives Hawaii Military Schools a Financial Boost

The Department of Defense Education Activity, or DODEA for short, has granted 5 million dollars to military connected schools in Hawaii.

“These grants help to improve educational resources in our public schools in Hawaii that support military families here in Hawaii, ” Col. Steve McGunegle, U.S. Army Garrison Hawaii commander, said in a news release. “Investing in our keiki (or kids in Hawaiian) is incredibly important, and these grants help demonstrate the importance of our public school system and the education it provides.”

The grant is split up into three districts:

$2 million for the Aiea-Moanalua-Radford complex area.—$2 million for the Kailua-Kalaheo complex area.—$1 million for the Leilehua-Mililani-Waialua and Campbell-Kapolei complex areas.

These grants are given in the support of closing education gaps, promoting continuity for military children, and providing academic programs to keep our military kids academically competitive. 

Happy studying, keiki! Here’s to you surfing into a prosperous academic future 

Learn more at americanmilitarynews.com.

You can check out more of this week’s top stories here

Empowerment Patrol Report with Amanda B.

 Today we are showcasing our Platoon Member of the Month, who is someone that is recognized for being a positive influence and supporting us on our social media accounts. This month’s winner is Tina McRae, who was nominated for being so supportive and empowering to fellow milspouses and on our social media.

Tina McRae is a 44-year-old born into an Air Force family, who at the age of 17, switched teams and became an Army wife to her amazing husband, Rashan. They have 4 incredible kids, 2 sons & 2 daughters. Rashan has been active duty since he enlisted on Tina’s birthday a few months before they met in Philadelphia, but is currently AGR. As he closes in on 30 years active federal, Rashan is on his path to retirement at JBMDL in New Jersey. During their almost 27-year marriage, they have PCS’d 7 times and weathered a few deployments. While stationed at Fort Wadsworth in Staten Island, Tina helped to open and organize a six-unit empty housing building to accept and distribute donations for Military families affected by Super Storm Sandy. 

COVID-19 was one of the hardest times for our family because for the first time, her husband was a GEO bachelor while their youngest two finished high school and that was very new to them especially when travel bans were placed, and he was unable to come home. Like most families navigating 2 high school students and a special needs child, virtual schooling was a huge challenge, however, as other Military spouses, she learned to rise to any challenge. One of their favorite pastimes is to travel to Orlando and Disney World. Recently, Tina began vlogging about all the wonderful Military offerings and savings in Disney and Orlando-based attractions called, The Travel Life Of Tee. Being able to travel to places her kids still love as much today as they did when they were little brings her extreme joy and she cherishes every trip. As a stay-at-home mom and fulltime caregiver to their son, she always felt it was her duty to give her soldier a special warm place that outside of his military obligations were loving, fun and filled with laughter.

 She has always gotten great joy at lending a hand and mentoring the new generation of military spouses as she believes we are the force beside the force. Tina has spent years teaching military spouses how to coupon efficiently and save those hard-earned paychecks allowing for an improved quality of life. Raising a son with Autism has made her work even harder to help military families navigate their way around a diagnosis of Autism and to ensure they are being amazing advocates for their own child. Their son has taught their family more empathy and compassion than she thought was possible and her other children are impeccable siblings to him, so they couldn’t be prouder.

As Rashan sets his sights on retirement, which is a new territory for our family, she looks forward to continuing their connection as retirees of military life and the new relationships that come with it. Tina shares she can only take credit as the amazing Army Wife she is is all because of the magnificent mentor she had as a young Army Wife, whose knowledge was invaluable. Being an Army wife has been one of the most significant, rewarding, and proudest time of her life and she is honored to wear the badge of Army Wife. 

So very happy to recognize you, Tina, and we truly appreciate your support on our network. Also, we thank you again for doing your part to empower military families across the globe.

Thank You

Thank you for tuning into this week’s episode. Please leave a five-star rating and review on Apple podcasts, then send us a screenshot of your review to info@armywifenetwork.com or DM us on Facebook or Instagram @armywifenetwork to receive a special in-real-life gift as a thank you on behalf of AWN. We appreciate your engagement and support.

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