Task Force Tigershark FRSA Flash

1 March 2012

Special Notes of Interest

On 30 March, Fort Drum

Arts and Craft Center will

be closing their doors for

the final time.

Road construction in the

area of Gas Alley and Iraqi

Freedom( new entrance

lanes) will restart on 12

March 2012. Construction

will not interfere with traffic

entering either entrance.

This work will provide an

additional entrance lane

and has a completion date

of June 2012.

Carthage School District

Dear Students, Parents, and Staff, This year has certainly been an unusual year for the weather. As is our custom, the district included five emergency days into the in-structional calendar, just in case we need to close school. Thus far, none of these days has been used this year. Therefore, the Carthage Central School District Board of Education passed a resolution on February 27 that the instructional calendar will be modified so that students and instructional staff will not be in attendance on the fol-lowing dates: March 23, 2012 March 30, 2012 April 9, 2012 May 7, 2012 May 24, 2012 However, if additional days must be used for emer-gency closings, the first day will be taken on March 23, then March 30, April 9, May 7,

and May 24. In the event of long term emergency closings, the Board of Education reserves which makeup days will be used from any scheduled re-cess periods and/or holidays, consistent with any language

that may exist in district labor agreements.

Judy L. Waligory

Interim Superintendent of Schools

The Women's Conference

2012 is cancelled due to

lack of registration. Thank

you to all those that have

donated, registered, volun-

teered to be a workshop

presenter and outside ven-

dor. Your hard work hasn't

gone unnoticed.

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The Spouses' Club Fort Drum is now accepting scholarship applica-

tions for the 2012-2013 academic year.

Eligible individuals are:

Spouses and children of active duty, reserve, or retired active duty military (officer or

enlisted)

-time accredited degree pro-gram during the upcoming 2012

-2013 academic year (fall & spring terms).

communities.

The application can be found at www.fdosc.com, under "Forms" and must be postmarked

by March 31, 2012.

Please direct any questions to Scholarship Chair Mary Gauvin at ftdrumscholarships@hotmail.com.

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S c h e d u l e o f E v e n t s

March 16, & 30 – Indoor Paintball – Youth Cen-

ter

March 9 & 23 – In Her Shoes: Living With Do-

mestic Violence – Army Community Service

March 9 – Youth Conflict Resolution Training –

Youth Center

March 10 – Ice Fishing Trip – Parks and Recrea-

tion

March 10 – 2012 Basketball Tournament –

Sports Office

March 10 – Maple Days – McEwen Library

March 10 – Texas Hold ‗Em Tournament – BOSS

March 10 – Trip to Monster Truck Jam – Parks

and Recreation

March 10 – Midnight Sports – Youth Center

March 12 – 2012 Volleyball League Begins -

Sports

March 16 – Indoor Triathlon – Monti Physical

Fitness Center

March 17—St. Patrick‘s Dinner, 1700, The Com-

mons

March 21—Spouses‘ Silent Auction, 1800 The

Commons

March 22— Volunteer of the Month Ceremony,

1030-1130, The Commons

March 24, 25— Maple Days ,1000-1400, 45IN

Hill (Water Tower)

March 26— DIVISION DONSA

March 26—CYSS Child Development Centers

Closed (ALL), All Day, All Locations

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2 3

4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15 16 17

18 19 20 21 22 23 24

25 26 27 28 29 30 31

March 2012

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Volunteers needed!!

Location:

Pine Plains Complex

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United Gives Break to Pet Owners On PCS

Moves

United Airlines is making an exception for military families who ship their pets on that airline when making permanent change-of-station (PCS) moves and developed a special process for military families. Under this new policy, military travelers on PCS orders will be able to ship their pets under United’s “PetSafe” program without having to pay an addi-tional fee to a third-party freight forwarder which typically could add an esti-mated $1,500 to $4,000 per pet to a traveler’s costs. Military families should contact a United PetSafe desk for details on the special process. To read further about this new pet program, please see: http://bit.ly/yhFzbz

OPERATION AT EASE

Operation At Ease (OAE) is a resort situated two hours east of Fort Bragg at Saint

James Plantation, NC. Volunteers at the coastal community have created a resort

specifically for Soldiers and their families to take it easy, enjoy some peace, and

generally feel at ease beside the Atlantic Ocean. OAE operates on an eight-month

schedule, hosting Families between the months of March and October, with few

exceptions on the second and fourth weekends of the month. To sign up for a

weekend with Operation At Ease, apply through the Operation At Ease website at

www.oaeamerica.org.

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TRAINING SCHEDULE

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TRAINING SCHEDULE

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Between multiple deployments, relocations and time spent apart, Military Families must learn to make every second together count. While Soldiers are protecting our country, their Families are doing their part on the homefront to keep the tight-knit community from unraveling. To honor their sacrifices and to celebrate April as Month of the Military Child, The Mountaineer staff is looking for four Fort Drum youths who show exceptional character at home, in school and in the community. Submissions will be accepted through March 9 and should be limited to 200 words. Children will be selected based on the following criteria: * Scholastic activities and involvement * Family contribution (helping out at home, chores, etc.) * Community activities and involvement * Leadership skills * Volunteer service * Academic standing / achievement * Other activities, such as clubs, internships and summer work Include any awards and honors the child has achieved. A nominee must be a student within grades 7-12 and reside with a military service mem-ber assigned at Fort Drum. Selections will be made before April 1. The Mountaineer will highlight each child with a feature article and photos on the "Mountaineer People" page (B3). Families with more than one child may submit one entry per child or a combined entry. To submit a child for consideration, email the essay in a Word document to drum.pao@conus.army.mil with the words ―Military Child Nominee‖ in the subject line. Include the child‘s name and age, and the military parent‘s name, unit and telephone number. If a child is selected to be featured, The Mountaineer staff reserves the right to reprint any part of the essay in the article. Submissions received after the deadline will not be considered.

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BOSS

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In order to schedule an appointment, call 315-772-6727 after 1 p.m. the day before you

would like an appointment.

There is no charge for this service. For more information, visit www.facebook.com/drumtax. Legal Assistance Office, Office of the Staff Judge Advocate, 10th Mountain Division

Lewis Ave, Fort Drum NYLewis Ave, Fort Drum, NY 13602

2012 Tax Season

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The Surprise Rough Times of Reintegration

March 06, 2012, in Military Life, Reintegration by The New Normal

Before my husband came home from deployment last year, I at-tended all of the reintegration briefings, read all the pamphlets and handouts that were pro-vided and attempted to prepare myself for that last phase in our deployment — homecoming. Everything that I read or heard spoke about how while the re-union with our loved ones is joyous and much anticipated, it also can be very difficult and can take a while to finally feel back to normal. People and re-lationships change when faced with the unique challenges of deployment. New roles are taken on within the family. Hob-bies and interests change or develop. Independence and strength are gained in order to survive. All of these are good and necessary things to help adapt to the challenges of lengthy separations, but they are also changes that can re-quire some getting used to once our servicemember re-turns home.

Our family easily fell back into old routines and roles, with my husband taking over the cook-ing and trash duties (yay!) while I took care of other household chores. My husband was proud of the new skills that I had ob-tained while he was away and how resourceful I had learned to be, especially when it came to tearing apart and rebuilding the washing machine that broke a week after he left (it’s still working!). Things seemed to be

getting back to normal very quickly for us and I began to think that those couples that I read about in the reintegra-tion pamphlets who had a hard time reconnecting — nope, that wouldn’t be us! Everything was going smoothly … or so I thought. Our biggest obstacle during this reintegration time turned out to be one of the best things that helped me through the deployment … my new-found interest, blogging.

One of the best suggestions that I was given during the de-ployment was to keep myself occupied to pass the time. Luckily my kids keep me very busy, but I needed something that was for me, especially dur-ing those quiet, lonely hours after the kids went to bed. I be-gan blogging to document our life while my husband was away and through this I met so many incredible women who were going through, or had been through, the same situa-tions. It became my support system. My outlet for my frus-trations and a place to share in the joys. I also found a love for writing that I didn’t know I pos-sessed. My husband thought it was great too, because he could follow what was going on back home. But once he came home, he didn’t need those daily updates and it became something that took up time. Time that could be spent with him. I saw it still as my support network because even though

he may be home, I still needed this support to help me through some of the difficult times of re-integration! And I had found friendships that I wanted to con-tinue and a community that I still wanted to remain a part of. Needless to say, my new inter-est became the hurdle to over-come in our reintegration.

After much frustration for both of us, we used another golden piece of advice that was handed out at every briefing I attended — communicate! We sat down and figured out how we could make each other happy without having to give up the things we enjoyed. Simply put, we compromised and found what would work for the both of us. We are both happy with the outcome and feel like things are once again back on track to figuring out what “normal” is for now.

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The New Normal is a proud Army National Guard wife, mom of two, teacher, runner and keeper of the household zoo. She currently writes for SpouseBUZZ and blogs at The New “Normal” about everything from the struggles of reintegration to her 7-year old son’s “puppy love.”

I never thought that a hobby or interest is what would have caused our rough spot during reintegration. Luckily we learned a lot about communication dur-ing the deployment and were able to continue to use that in our new situation. Whether it is a new hobby, gained independence, adjusting to new family roles after a de-ployment (and during!), or just simply reconnecting as a cou-ple, communicating with your spouse is the best way to get through the tough spots. Getting back to normal, or figuring out that the new “normal” is for your family, will take time after a de-ployment, but by telling each other what you need and how you feel will go a long way to making it an easier transition.

What things caused tension when your SO returned home from deployment? How did you resolve it?

Changes Will

Strengthen Military

Health System, Top Doc

Says…

A proposed new governance

structure will make the military-

health system more effective

and produce savings, and the

system's 9.8 million beneficiar-

ies worldwide will never miss an

appointment, the Pentagon's top

health affairs official claimed re-

cently. Dr. Jonathan Woodson,

Assistant Secretary of Defense

for Health Affairs and Director of

the TRICARE Management Ac-

tivity, discussed three govern-

ance reforms under way for the

military health system. One in-

volves creating a defense health

agency to take on the functions

of the TRICARE Managemen-

tActivity and assume responsi-

bility for implementing shared

services across the system .

Another proposed reform will

establish market managers for

multiservice medical markets, ex-

cept for the national capital region.

The third reform involves transfer-

ring responsibility for running mili-

tary treatment facilities in and

around Washington, D.C. to a na-

tional capital region directorate

within the new Defense Health

Agency.

“Truth can

grow legs and

change into

rumor”

Quote of the Week

Roman God Mars

Zodiac: Pisces and Aries

Famous Birthdays: Sin-

clair Lewis, Ronald

Reagan, Abraham Lincoln,

Charles Darwin,

Thomas Edison, Gertrude

Stein, Rosa Parks,

Birthstone: Aquamarine

believed to have healing

powers for the eyes and

throat overall wellbeing.

Flower: Jonquil (aka Daf-

fodil or Narcissus) symbol-

izing friendship and do-

mestic happiness

Fun Fact: March 21st is

the first day of Spring!

March was named after the

National What Month? -

Irish American Month,

Music in our Schools

Month, Women’s History

Month, Poetry Month, Red

Cross Month and Social

T A S K F O R C E

T I G E R S H A R K

“ S H A R K B A I T ”

M a r c h F a c t s & T r i v i a

FIND US ON FACEBOOK

TF TIGERSHARK

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!

Contents of this newsletter are compiled from multiple Military Family news sources. Material presented does

not represent the views or endorsement of TF Tigershark or the United States Army. This material is for per-

sonal use of the readers. All readers are encouraged to do further research for all applicable restrictions and

guidelines.