Are you as GOOD as a 1st Grader?

How cool and cute and AMAZING is this? 6 year old Benjamin Hinkle of WV is raising money to buy Jolt Gum to send to troops overseas for xmas presents. Needless to say, we’re seeding and then matching his donations. Forget the part where it’s Jolt Gum – just imagine if our country had more kids (or people!) like Benjamin.

In remembrance of all U.S. veterans who have fought and sacrificed for us, we wanted to share this post from the Military Times Broadside Blog:

It was a day of peace.

November 11, 1918 was the day the guns were silenced. The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month marked an armistice between the Allied powers and Germany, marking the de facto end to World War I.

A year later, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed, “To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…”.

Twenty Years later, on November 11, 1938, Congress added that the day should be, “…dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as “Armistice Day.”

But the war to end all wars, the war Congress proclaimed to be, “…the most destructive, sanguinary, and far reaching war in human annals”, never lived up to its billing. Many, many more men and women would lose their lives in wars to come.

In 1954, the day was renamed Veterans Day, to honor all of those who have served their country in uniform. While celebration of enduring world peace was a noble goal, it was more appropriate and proper that we honor those who have striven for peace with their service and blood.

Veterans Day

Today it is a day of honor, sadness, and dignity. There will be parades. There will be flags. And there will be memories. A ton of memories.

Those who lost their lives will be honored, but so will those who lived. They all raised their hands and swore to protect and defend the Constitution and the country whose course it directs. To them, that country has a face. It is the face of a mother who wakes up each morning with a prayer to keep her son or daughter safe. It is the face of a child who misses her parent, whose last words to her were, “I’ll be home soon.” It is the face of a friend, brother, wife. It is a small town who waits for its children to return home to a hero’s salute.

It is America.

Veterans are ordinary people who willingly confronted extraordinary events, because someone had to. They are still out there, on the frontier. To them, and to those who have served throughout the history of this nation, there is only one appropriate and proper thing we can say.

We can say thanks.

A break from the usual programming to introduce ya’ll to Corporal Angel Cadena. Jolt Energy Gum is proud to announce that we are sponsoring him for the Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge, an endurance race from the Florida Keys all the way to (no joke) Alaska, the proceeds of which go to plenty of deserving groups.

Corporal  Cadena enlisted in the Marine Corps in June  2006. Active duty and a Veteran of both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Angel is looking forward to the next phase in his life in which he plans on majoring in Political Science at Southern Connecticut State University and spending time with his newborn daughter. Here’s what he has to say.

The Challenge which will take place on June 20, 2010, is an endurance race from the Florida Keys to the Peninsula of Alaska.  The Hoka Hey Motorcycle challenge supports many military and civilian charities some of which include the Vietnam Veterans of America, Disabled Veterans of America, American Indian College fund and many others. The prize for being the first (hopefully me) to complete the challenge is $500,000 worth of gold.

I am looking for secure several sponsors to help secure entrance fee for other Veterans and myself.  Riding accessories to help on the long journey and just plain words of encouragement.  If you would like to sponsor me or one of the other veterans involved in the challenge  please contact beth.durham@hokaheychallenge.com with details of how you would like to support your troops. Thank you Jolt Gum for your sponsorship… Till We Speak Again — Angel Cadena.

We’re proud to introduce our guest blogger. Please welcome Army Staff Sargeant Natasha Gibson. She’s currently stationed at Fort Dix in New Jersey. Though she’s from Southern New Jersey, Natasha says, “I was born in Germany and lived there with my parents for seven years. Yes, I am a military brat. I have been serving the U.S. Army for nine years exactly.”

The Push Up

I’ll finally took my first Army Physical Fitness Test since giving birth to my 8-month-old daughter on Dec. 29, 2008. Prior to getting pregnant, the push up part of the test was always a breeze. My goal was always to “max out” by hitting a level of 100 percent fitness for my age group by doing at least 45 push-ups in a two-minute period. “Too easy”

On Sept. 8, I took a PT test and discovered that what was once a quick 45 push-ups in well under two minutes turned into a slow 23 barely keeping myself from collapsing face first in to the dew-coated grass beneath me. I asked myself, “Am I still out of shape? Have all those months of training up after child birth been in vain?”

The answer I was given was “No.” I had just forgotten the correct form and thus worked twice as hard only to produce half the results. So I did some research and found this help video. In this video, two Army Drill Sergeants demonstrate how to execute the a correct “Army” push-up. Check it out.

From MilitaryTimes.com

The makers of Jolt Gum want to supply one lucky company with 100 packs of their minty, spill-proof caffeine delivery system.

To be the caffeine fairy of your unit, write OFFduty@militarytimes.com with a story of a recent accomplishment. A winner will be chosen randomly from the entries, which may be used on the Jolt Gum blog. But even if you don’t get any Jolt free, you can still get it at a discount: The company is offering 1-cent shipping to any APO or FPO address through October.

We are interrupting out regular gummy program to bring you a guest post from the author of Mrs. Lieutenant, Phyllis Zimbler Miller!

When my novel Mrs. Lieutenant was published in April 2008, I was focused on sharing the fictionalized account of my experiences as a new Mrs. Lieutenant in the spring of 1970 right after the Kent State shootings.

My goal at that moment was to present the point-of-view of new officers’ wives during the Vietnam War-era.  Yet only a few months later I had become actively involved in volunteer activities to support our military personnel and their families today.

In November of 2008 Nancy Brown of YourMilitary.com asked me to be her co-host on the new BlogTalkRadio show YourMilitaryLife.com.  I said yes, and Nancy and I were off and running. [More...]

Our show has given us the opportunity to interview an incredible range of people supporting our troops and their families.  And Nancy and I have been most impressed by the efforts of everyday Americans to step up to the plate to provide for needs that aren’t met by the government.

You can read blog posts about some of these amazing people at the Mrs. Lieutenant blog and you can listen to audio replays of show interviews at YourMilitaryLife.com.

Plus check out my two websites OperationSupportJewsintheMilitary.com and InSupportofOurTroops.com. I’m planning to add to this latter website the stories in their own words of some of these everyday Americans.

Phyllis Zimbler Miller

And in an effort to both educate the general American public about troops serving now as well as about troops serving in the Vietnam War, I’ve just launched History Through the Arts to encourage high school language arts, U.S. history and social studies teachers to use my novel Mrs. Lieutenant as an adjunct to classroom textbooks. You can read more about this project at here and here.

FYI – Nancy and I have done several BlogTalkRadio interviews to get out information about help for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). There’s a free report at InSupportofOurTroops.com that everyone should read in order to recognize the signs of PTSD.

I am truly thankful that my novel Mrs. Lieutenant has led me to “meet” so many wonderful Americans. And, as Nancy ends each of our BlogTalkRadio shows, God bless our troops!

Check out armyvet Robbie Hall catching a wave at Surf Camp, put together by Wounded Warrior Project and Billabong.

From HamptonRoads.com

The organizations came together on July 24 to host a one-day surf camp for disabled veterans from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Fort Bragg, N.C., and Naval Medical Center Portsmouth at the south end of Croatan. “It’s pretty awesome when you catch the first wave,” said Hall of Chattanooga, Tenn. “This is the first opportunity I’ve ever had to surf, so it’s pretty exhilarating.”

The Wounded Warrior Project, which runs its sports programming through the Maryland-based Disabled Sports USA, provided surfing as a form of therapeutic recreation. The nearly dozen participants were either brain trauma victims or amputees.