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Stay up-to-date with news and information about your military education. You can get the information you need to make informed decisions about your online and military correspondence programs. Learn what's going on with military education and how you can make a smooth military transition. Your civilian career awaits you!

Military Spouses Cope with Guard & Reserve Deployments

Monday, August 18, 2008

When you're the spouse of a Guard or Reserve service member, things are usually pretty clear: your service member spouse has a civilian job, plus military duties one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer - and you plan accordingly. But the military's increasing reliance on Guard and Reserve ranks to round out the active-duty force, has turned this familiar routine upside down.

Sara Horn, the wife of a Navy reservist, writes in a recent issue of Military Spouse Magazine about the particular issues that face military spouses whose Guard or Reservist spouse is deployed. To emphasize the reality of this trend, she cites DOD stats noting that 650,000 Reserve and Guard members have deployed since Sept. 2001.

While all military spouses face difficulties with deployments, Guard and Reserve spouses have unique challenges; Horn mentions a few of the issues facing these particular spouses:

- They are generally not connected to a military installation community
- Much of the military jargon is brand-new
- Loads of deployment paperwork
- Possible issues involving a spouse's civilian employer
- Reservists can sometimes be deployed with units in another state

Sara Horn has a blog where she writes about issues affecting the spouses of Guard and Reserve members. And though spouses may be tempted to fill the months of deployment with worry, they can also fill the time with education instead, thanks to the number of spouse-friendly colleges for military spouses and military spouse scholarships that now exists. Distance (online) education also allows military spouses the opportunity to study while they continue taking care of their children or while holding down a full-time job.

In addition to more childcare and education, jobs for military spouses have been an important priority for the military and the DOD. Efforts by both organizations are aimed at improving the career prospects of this unheralded segment of American society.

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Posted by Allied @ 1:24 PM • 0 comments

Army Education Now Includes Pilot GED Classes

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Young men and women who join the Army know that Army education means basic military skills, like how to shoot an M-16 rifle. Yet for some new Soldiers, they'll also be getting reading, writing and arithmetic thrown in with the bargain.

In an effort to widen the pool of eligible recruits the Army has begun a pilot program at Fort Jackson to help high school dropouts get their GED. The school is called the Army Preparatory School and consists of a four-week curriculum, which is expected to expand to eight weeks in the coming months.

Civilian contractors will teach the academic classes, while NCOs will be on hand to teach Army customs and courtesies. At the end of their education, the Soldiers will then enter basic training like any other new Soldier entering the Army.

The school is the result of Army concerns that the eligible pool of young people who meet the Army's requirements are drastically shrinking. It's estimated that there are as many as 300,000 young people who could benefit from Army GED schooling.

And once Soldiers get their GED, they can then go ahead and take advantage of Military Tuition Assistance, which helps Soldiers pay for vocational and college courses while they serve. In many ways this Army continuing education allows service members to both, contribute to their military career, as well as prepare for the day when they separate from the service. Service members can also take advantage of military distance learning classes, which can be taken 100% online as long as an individual has access an Internet connection.

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Posted by Allied @ 9:12 AM • 1 comments

Top Ten Military Books

Monday, August 11, 2008

Whether you're a Marine grunt or an Air Force administrator, it's always good to have a book on the military or military history stashed away with your gear. You never know when you'll have a few hours to kill or when something you read may actually save your life on the battlefield.

In no particular order, here's ten books that will keep a service member's head in the game:

1.) The Art of War, Sun Tzu - It's on everyone else's best book list, so why not this one?

2.) The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, U.S. Grant - At the end of his life, battling throat cancer, the former President and Union General wrote a tour-de-force about the military life. President Lincoln said of Grant, "I can't spare this man. He fights."

3.) First to Fight: An inside View of the U.S. Marine Corps, Lt. Gen. Krulak - It's the first book listed on the U.S. Marine Corps' official reading list, what else do you need to know?

4.) Black Hawk Down, Mark Bowden - You've seen the movie; here's the book. Read about Delta Force battling bad guys in Mogadishu.

5.) We Were Soldiers Once...and Young, Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore - The commander who lead troopers in the legendary Battle of the Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam writes of his battalion's three-day fight for survival.

6.) The Civil War: A Narrative, Shelby Foote: If you remember the PBS documentary on the Civil War, Shelby Foote was the southern historian with all the great stories! One warning: this book comes in three volumes!

7.) Moment of Truth in Iraq, Michael Yon - It's too early to tell which Iraq War books will stand the test of time, but few journalists know the war in Iraq like Mr. Yon.

8.) The Peloponnesian War, Thucydides - It's Athens vs. Sparta in one of the ancient world's great struggles.

9.) Goodbye, Darkness, William Manchester - A marine's memoir of the island campaign against the Japanese in World War II.

10.) A Soldier's Story, Gen. Omar Bradley - A humble, straight-forward account of the European campaign during World War II by one of its top commanders; Bradley's nickname was the 'G.I.'s General.'

Picking up a few good books may also inspire service members to go back and open up some school textbooks. Active-duty service members, along with Army National Guardsmen and Army Reserve Soldiers on active-drilling status, qualify for 100% US Military Tuition Assistance, which pays up to 100% of tuition and fees for schooling. That means service members get a $4500 a year military education benefit that can be used for certificate programs or toward university degree.

Service members should also keep in mind the option of Military distance learning, which these days means 100% online courses, allowing even deployed service members to take advantage of education while they serve. Military elearning can help service members earn promotion points as well as prepare for their civilian career after they separate from the military.
Allied Schools www.education4military.com

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Posted by Allied @ 7:54 AM • 0 comments

Use Tuition Assistance Funds Now Before They Run Out!

Friday, August 8, 2008

Service members should keep in mind that the we're closing in on the end of the fiscal year 2008 and Tuition Assistance (TA) funds for the year will run dry on Sept. 30. If you haven't used your Tuition Assistance funds for this year, don't wait any longer.

U.S. Military Tuition Assistance pays up to 100% of a service member's tuition and fees for a military distance learning course.

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Posted by Allied @ 11:06 AM • 0 comments

Army PFC in Beijing for Summer Olympics

There'll be dozens of U.S. athletes in China over the next few weeks proudly representing their country, but for Army Pfc. Vincent Hancock, representing the stars and stripes is nothing new.

Hancock is in Beijing as a member of the U.S. shooting team who will compete in the skeet event. The nineteen year old Army truck driver is assigned to the Army Marksmanship Unit out of Ft. Benning. He got his chance to go to China by nabbing first place this past March at the Olympic shotgun trials in Texas.

Hancock is one of nine U.S. service members competing for Gold this summer. Click here to learn more about Hancock. Hancock married his wife Rebekah this past May and now that she is military spouse at Ft. Benning, she qualifies for Career Advancement Account (CAA) funds, which allow military spouses at select installations to use up to $3,000 a year for schooling.

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Posted by Allied @ 10:18 AM • 0 comments

Marine Sgt. Major Discusses State of the Corps

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

When a Sgt. Major of the Marine Corps speaks - people listen. So it was when the Marines' top enlisted man, Sgt. Maj. Carlton Kent, sat down with Marine Corps Times to weigh in on some of the day's important issues. Kent is a 32-year veteran of the Marines who served in Iraq in 2004.

Kent sat down for an interview with the paper and spoke on issues ranging from the GI Bill to HBO's new miniseries Generation Kill, which focuses on recon Marines during the initial invasion of Iraq. Here is a snapshot of some of what Kent said:

  • The goal is still to have 14 months of dwell time for every seven months of deployment
  • Two of the Corp's biggest priorities remain combat and the state of the Marine family
  • New programs coming soon include the Combat Fitness Test and changes to the Body Composition Program
  • The Corps needs to give NCOs as much responsibility in garrison as they have in combat
  • He didn't like Generation Kill; it didn't portray the Marine Corps he knew
  • On the new GI Bill, he takes a wait-and-see approach
  • Despite a spat of recent motorcycle accidents, the Corps can't ban Marines from buying bikes

In speaking about the marine family, Kent gave a nod to military spouses everywhere and the important role they play, when he said: "Our families are as important as ever. They're supporting the Marine, they're going through quite a bit and they're sacrificing so much. So, the commandant has refocused millions of dollars back into family support." Go here for the full interview.

One important educational resource for military spouses is military distance learning courses and military spouse scholarships. It's hoped that by offering more aid for military spouses that the consequences will ultimately be more jobs for military spouses.
Allied Schools www.education4military.com

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Posted by Allied @ 8:47 AM • 0 comments

In-State Tuition Rates for Military Gets Closer

Friday, August 1, 2008

One of the major sticking points for service members and military spouses looking to get an education may soon disappear. The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a bill that would rework the nation's laws regarding access to higher education, with particular provisions that benefit military families.

The proposed bill is a reform of the Higher Education Opportunity Act and has many promising provisions, including one which mandates that schools provide in-state tuition rates to members of the military and their families. Currently each state has its own laws on how to consider military families for tuition rates, but one federal standard would ensure that high out-of-state tuition rates will not be an issue for service members or their families.

Military families often have to move from their home states when service members are transferred to another duty-station. When military families look to resume or begin education, they are often faced with tuition fees double or triple what they were paying in their state of residency.

The proposed legislation will also establish a military family scholarship and military spouse scholarship program for military spouses and dependents of active-duty service members (or National Guardsmen in some cases) during a time of war or national emergency. The U.S. Senate will now take up the bill.

Right now, however, there is still one important way that military families can take military distance learning courses without worrying about in-state tuition rates - and that's distance (online) education. When you enroll in a course online, it doesn't matter where you live or whether you move during your education. Military continuing education online is an excellent way for service members and military spouses to avoid out-of-state tuition fees.
Allied Schools www.education4military.com

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Posted by Allied @ 1:21 PM • 0 comments