I Became a Mrs. Lieutenant 38 Years Ago Today
I had planned to write this post about my interview yesterday by Anita Rufus of the Anita Rufus Show, KNewsRadio, Palm Springs. (And I will get to that interview.) Yet, as I typed today’s date for my own records, I realized that my husband officially began active army duty 38 years ago today.
After all this time I can’t remember how I felt the first time Mitch left our furnished apartment in Muldraugh, Kentucky, to be officially on active duty. Instead, here’s what Sharon Gold thinks of her husband Robert’s first day of Armor Officers Basic (AOB) on May 13, 1970, in my book MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL:
He'll be putting on his uniform, checking one last time, she knows, that his boots are shined, his insignia pinned on correctly.
She’ll write in her journal today, she tells herself. She hasn’t written anything – the pages all virgin white. Yet today she’ll record her feelings of watching her husband leave to become part of the war machinery.
Robert reemerges from the bedroom in his uniform, carrying his uniform hat, and stands in front of her for inspection. She wants to say "good luck." The words stick in her throat – don't these words imply the opposite is feared? She says: "You look terrific."
And he does look terrific if you like men in uniforms.
He kisses her good-bye at the front door. She stands on the balcony and watches him down the stairs to the car. He waves and mouths "I love you." Then he's gone.
She is without wheels and all alone.
Yet, as I told Anita Rufus in the radio interview, I was not all alone for long. Although the army hadn’t told the AOB class members they could bring their wives nor was housing provided for married officers attending AOB, it turned out that there was a “training” program for the wives of the new officers so we could learn how to be a proper officer’s wife.
Check out my website at www.mrslieutenant.com and click on the section ORIGINAL ARMY DOCUMENTS. Then if you click on AOB WIVES MAY 19 INVITATION, you’ll see the actual invitation that I received for my first “official” social obligation. And in my next post I’ll talk more of what Anita Rufus and I discussed in the radio interview yesterday: the rules and expectations for the wife of an army officer during the era of the Vietnam War.
Here’s just one excerpt from Mary Preston Gross’ booklet “Mrs. Lieutenant” (Third Edition): “…it is true that a wife has no rank, but she does have position created by her husband’s rank, which is respected and accepted by Army custom.”
Yes, 38 years ago today, I became a Mrs. Lieutenant.
Phyllis Zimbler Miller's Blog
I have an online history with copywriter Cathy Goodwin. When I self-published my novel “Mrs. Lieutenant” in the spring of 2008, I emailed Cathy, as a “Top 500” Amazon book reviewer, asking if she would review my novel.
I thought she might be more likely to say yes because we both had an M.B.A. from Wharton.
What she said was no – she didn’t like to review first-time novelists because their books usually weren’t very…
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Posted on October 24, 2011 at 2:30pm
Miller Mosaic, LLC focuses on strategies for using Twitter effectively in its September monthly WeTeachWebMarketing.com program.
“We both love Twitter,” Yael K. Miller, partner in Miller Mosaic, LLC, said. “And we want to share our strategies with our program’s members.”
Miller Mosaic, LLC partner Phyllis Zimbler Miller often writes about Twitter for her National Internet Business Examiner column at www.InternetBizBlogger.com.
Join now at…
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Posted on August 31, 2009 at 10:18pm
Internet marketing training can cover many different aspects of the Internet. And choosing which areas to start learning about can be an overwhelming task in itself.
Let’s simplify this process by planning a “learning” agenda:
• Social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn can be good places to start because, once understood, these do not need that many hours a week for effective Internet marketing.
Twitter appears to be the simplest with…
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Posted on July 15, 2009 at 1:08pm — 1 Comment
If we’re book authors and we want to sell more books – and who doesn’t – we need to use all the savvy of traditional marketers and Internet marketers to help sell our books.
In my opinion one of the most overlooked book promotion strategies is what I call “persuasive selling.” It’s putting yourself in the potential buyer’s mind.
In other words, instead of saying what you want to say about your book, you say what the potential buyer needs to hear to be motivated to buy your…
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Posted on July 14, 2009 at 11:57pm
A good friend said to me: “Why would anyone be on Twitter?” Mind you, he’s never been on Twitter and he doesn’t know a thing about it. But he’s a successful lawyer and thinks he knows what’s what.
In reply, I’ve decided to come up with a list of answers for when someone asks you this question:
1. Getting news updates before the news media
2. Asking technical software/hardware questions and getting answers
3. Asking for referrals for a plumber…
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Posted on July 7, 2009 at 2:39pm
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Bert Martinez
www.bertmartinez.com