Free Republic

Every region of the country has its own unique phrases, but they have nothing on the complex lexicon shared by people in the military. Aside from the way uniformed folks seem to speak in acronyms — "I was on the FOB when the IDF hit, so I radioed the TOC" — there's also a series of commonly used phrases which deserve some attention.

WASHINGTON, June 26, 2008 – Sunny days will be just around the corner when Elmo and his friends bring “The Sesame Street Experience” to 43 military installations to help children trying to cope with parents’ deployments. Jillian Kules, 13 months, shows Leslye Arsht, deputy under secretary of defense for military community and family policy the new DVD she got June 26, 2008, at the launch of Sesame Workshop's "The Sesame Street Experience." Both the DVD and the live show were developed with the support of Arsht's office to help young military children cope with parents' deployments. Defense Dept. photo...

In August, Brian and Shellie Starr of Snohomish received a final message from the son they lost on Memorial Day. In plain view on a desktop computer returned to the United States by 22-year-old Cpl. Jeff Starr's fellow Marines was a letter he had composed for his girlfriend. It was to be read if he did not return. "Obviously," he wrote, "if you are reading this, then I have died in Iraq." On his third deployment to Iraq since the war began in March 2003, Starr was well-acquainted with war's horror and uncertainty. Starr rubbed shoulders with death in April...

HOPKINSVILLE, Ky. (AP) - With studies showing divorce rates as high as 21 percent among couples where one spouse has been sent off to war, the Army is spending $2 million on a variety of marriage programs, including vouchers for romantic getaways to places like the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tenn. When Sgt. Jose Bermudez returned from Iraq early this year, he came home to a new baby and a troubled marriage. "We were on the brink of divorce," Mandy Bermudez acknowledged as the couple ate lunch recently with their three children, all under age 3. The Bermudezes were among...

MIA/POW families are organizing to expose what John Kerry did to them in his quest to normalize relations with Communist Vietnam, 1991-1994.

Slain soldier's daughter offered a bit of solace Stephani Mata's pain is a private affair despite the spotlight shined on the heroic death of her father, Army Chief Warrant Officer Johnny Villareal Mata, last month in Iraq. The 7-year-old's mother, Nancili, asked Nixon Elementary not to disrupt Stephani's classroom routine. The school respected her wish and that of other military parents. Half of Nixon's students come from military families. "Their parents want them to come to school and not have to deal with it," Principal Ginny Hunt said. Thursday, the young girl's tragedy was acknowledged in one simple, loving gesture:...

WASHINGTON - Cash-strapped families of American servicemen and women may get a pay raise for facing hostilities overseas. Without fanfare, the Senate voted Wednesday for a 50 percent pay increase for those facing imminent danger, and a 150 percent increase for family separation. The measure was tacked on to a nearly $80 billion measure aimed mainly at paying for the Iraq war and homeland security. The Senate approved the pay raise by voice vote. The measure now must be reconciled with the war-spending bill passed by the House of Representatives, which contained no military pay raise. The Bush administration...