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Phyllis Zimbler Miller's Blog (67)

Expiation for Killing: Young Soldiers Are Taught How to Kill But Not Taught That Killing in Combat Is Okay

In my July 27th post (http://tinyurl.com/55zq2z), National Guardsman Big Tobacco (www.big-tobacco.blogspot.com) currently deployed in Iraq provided his response to my July 20th post about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in military personnel (http://tinyurl.com/6eu789). In that same July 27th post I put forth an… Continue

Added by Phyllis Zimbler Miller on August 1, 2008 at 11:47am — No Comments

Help Needed for Military Spouses – Especially During Deployment Times

This week An Army Wife’s Life blog is having a giveaway contest for MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL (see http://tinyurl.com/5gay8z). To be eligible for the giveaway, people must leave a question for me. And after the giveaway is over I will answer some of the questions.



I’ve been keeping an eye on the comments, most of which fall into the following categories:



What prompted you to… Continue

Added by Phyllis Zimbler Miller on July 31, 2008 at 1:43pm — No Comments

An Active Duty Military Personnel Describes What PTSD Means to Him

In response to my July 27th post about expiation for combat killing in connection with an ongoing discussion of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) – see http://tinyurl.com/55zq2z – I heard from another active duty military personnel:



I spent the mainstay of my early military career as a paratrooper. Mechanized infantry wasn't an option for me, because I hated being closed in, much the same reasons why I avoided life as a… Continue

Added by Phyllis Zimbler Miller on July 29, 2008 at 11:48am — No Comments

Jewish National Guardsman Scheduled to Be Deployed Worries That He Won’t Have Enough Prayer Books to Conduct Services in Iraq

My July 23rd blog post “U.S. Military Personnel Trained as Jewish Lay Leaders in Iraq” discussed a July 10th article in the Jewish Daily Forward that I had spotted on www.jewsingreen.com. (See my blog post at http://tinyurl.com/5pk8zu.)



The Forward article describes how Rabbi Jon Cutler, currently one of three Jewish chaplains in Iraq, had brought together… Continue

Added by Phyllis Zimbler Miller on July 28, 2008 at 1:57pm — No Comments

Biblical Act of Expiation for Killing in Battle Might Have Helped with PTSD

My July 20th blog post talked about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in military personnel (see http://tinyurl.com/6eu789). I then asked for an opinion from BT, the National Guard infantryman now serving in Iraq who had a guest post here on July 9th (see http://tinyurl.com/5nahvc). Here’s BT’s reply to me:



I have mixed feeling about the accuracy of PTSD.… Continue

Added by Phyllis Zimbler Miller on July 28, 2008 at 1:56pm — No Comments

Then (Vietnam War) and Now (Iraq War): Fraternization With the Opposite Sex

An older National Guard soldier due to deploy to Iraq told his wife the following:



What a huge difference between the fraternization briefings I got when we were shipped to Germany in 1976 (an armored brigade to Fulda on the East-West border) and now.



The 1976 briefing was four hours of telling us not to fraternize while assuming we would. The motto then: "Sleep NATO."



The same briefing lasted five minutes this May.…
Continue

Added by Phyllis Zimbler Miller on July 25, 2008 at 4:39pm — No Comments

U.S. Military Personnel Trained as Jewish Lay Leaders in Iraq

The article about Jewish military personnel in Iraq training as lay leaders caught my eye on www.jewsingreen.com – an online resource for Jews in the U.S. military.



I clicked on the link to the July 10th article in the Jewish Daily Forward by Richard Tenorio titled “American Soldiers in Iraq Enlist in a Different Kind of Service.”



Here’s the beginning of the article:



A Jewish… Continue

Added by Phyllis Zimbler Miller on July 24, 2008 at 11:09am — No Comments

Episode 7 of Lifetime Television’s ARMY WIVES

Episode 7 of the television series ARMY WIVES had nothing outstanding about the episode. Yet it again reminded me of what I perceive as the strengths and weaknesses of the show:



As always, for me, the parts about the men ring true – Pamela’s husband Chase worried that in combat a team member won’t have his back, Roxy’s husband Trevor insisting it is his duty to return to his unit in Iraq.



And it’s always the parts about the women that don’t ring true for me. I continue to… Continue

Added by Phyllis Zimbler Miller on July 21, 2008 at 6:04pm — No Comments

Soldiers’ Angels Needs Help for Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan

Soldiers’ Angels is an organization benefiting U.S. troops that I have previously blogged about. And on my book’s website at www.mrslieutenant.com – in the section on military organizations that support military families – there’s a listing for Solders’ Angels.



So when my husband read in one of the milblogs he follows – www.blackfive.net – the blog post with… Continue

Added by Phyllis Zimbler Miller on July 21, 2008 at 6:03pm — No Comments

New Vietnam War Movie Based on Non-Fiction Book Announced by HBO Films

The July 17th Daily Variety announced HBO Films is developing a movie based on former CIA agent Frank Snepp’s 1999 non-fiction book IRREPARABLE HARM: A FIRSTHAND ACCOUNT OF HOW ONE AGENT TOOK ON THE AGENCY IN AN EPIC BATTLER OVER FREE SPEECH.



This is a follow-up to his 1977 non-fiction book DECENT INTERVAL: AN INSIDER’S ACCCOUNT OF SAIGON’S INDECENT END, TOLD BY THE CIA’S CHIEF STRATEGY ANALYST IN VIETNAM.



Here’s the IRREPARABLE HARM review by John J. Miller (no relation)… Continue

Added by Phyllis Zimbler Miller on July 17, 2008 at 5:27pm — No Comments

U.S. Military Personnel Who Served from 1972-1984 Re-Joins in 2007

Here’s a guest post from Specialist Neil Gussman – he has quite an interesting story to tell about his military service. (When he’s not training with the Army National Guard, he writes about the history of chemistry at Chemical Heritage Foundation, a museum and library of the history of chemistry and early science located in Center City Philadelphia.) And to read more of his writing, check out his blog at http://armynow.blogspot.com:

When… Continue

Added by Phyllis Zimbler Miller on July 17, 2008 at 5:26pm — No Comments

ARMY WIVES Episode 6 of Season 2: Derogatory Reference to Gypsies

In episode 6 of Season 2 of Lifetime Television’s ARMY WIVES there was something that bothered me very much: Betty, the owner of the Hump Bar, uses the word “gypped” to mean “cheated.”



It amazes me that the writing staff of ARMY WIVES did not realize that this is a derogatory word based on the word Gypsy. The use of this word as a verb is very offensive to Gypsies.



Many people may never have seen real Gypsies. When my husband and I were stationed in Munich, Germany (from… Continue

Added by Phyllis Zimbler Miller on July 17, 2008 at 5:25pm — No Comments

Racial Prejudice in MRS. LIEUTENANT and the movie AMAZING GRACE



Racial prejudice is a theme in MRS. LIEUTENANT, which takes place in 1970 only six years after the Civil Rights Act became law in the U.S. and only 20 years after the U.S. Army was integrated in the Korean War in 1950.



Racial prejudice is also the theme of the 2006 movie AMAZING GRACE, which my husband and I just watched on Netflix. Although I knew that the song “Amazing Grace” was written by a slave captain who repented of his trade (John Newton around… Continue

Added by Phyllis Zimbler Miller on July 13, 2008 at 8:39pm — No Comments

HBO’s Mini-Series GENERATION KILL Tells of the First 40 Days of the War in Iraq

After reading the review in the July 10th Daily Variety about HBO’S seven-part miniseries GENERATION KILL starting July 13, I really wished we got HBO so I could watch the series. (And, yes, we finally got Showtime to see SLEEPER CELL and then kept it for THE TUDORS, but I don’t think we’ll get HBO now.)



The review by Brian Lowry praised this mini-series that tells of the first 40 days in 2003 of the war in Iraq. The movie is based on… Continue

Added by Phyllis Zimbler Miller on July 13, 2008 at 8:38pm — No Comments

Guest Post from Iraq: People Like Him Don't Do Things Like That

Here is a guest post sent today from Iraq by U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Big Tobacco (check out his own blog at www.big-tobacco.blogspot.com):



"Don't take this the wrong way, but people like me don't do things like that. So why do you?"



I'm confused by this statement. I look across the table at my date. Her face is as perfect as a Russian doll. Her blond hair falls in ringlets… Continue

Added by Phyllis Zimbler Miller on July 13, 2008 at 8:36pm — No Comments

Guest Post from Iraq: People Like Him Don't Do Things Like That

Here is a guest post sent today from Iraq by U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Big Tobacco (check out his own blog at view link"">view link):



"Don't take this the wrong way, but people like me don't do things like that. So why do you?"



I'm confused by this statement. I look across the table at… Continue

Added by Phyllis Zimbler Miller on July 13, 2008 at 8:35pm — No Comments

Honoring U.S. Military Dead: Episode 5 of Season 2 of Lifetime’s ARMY WIVES

Episode 5 of Season 2 of Lifetime Television’s ARMY WIVES dealt with a very serious topic – the commitment of the U.S. to find and bring home the remains of Americans missing in action of past conflicts.



And those of you who have read the non-fiction book on which the series is based – Tanya Biank’s ARMY WIVES – will understand the poignancy of Trevor’s radio talk remarks about the people who go to the far corners of the world looking for… Continue

Added by Phyllis Zimbler Miller on July 8, 2008 at 6:00pm — No Comments

JewsinGreen.com: U.S. Jewish Military Personnel Today -- Part II

Brian Kresge, a sergeant in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, continues his response to my offer on www.JewsinGreen.com for someone to write a guest post about Jews serving in the U.S. military:



Because of my own experience, I often speculate what crafts the negative perception of American Jews with regards to military service.



Contemporary perceptions of American Jewish service seem more apt to be influenced by several… Continue

Added by Phyllis Zimbler Miller on July 8, 2008 at 5:59pm — No Comments

JewsinGreen.com: U.S. Jewish Military Personnel Today – Part I

The website www.JewsinGreen.com is an online resource for Jews in the U.S. armed forces. Recently the website has been collecting names of Jewish military personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. In a comment to this list of names, someone said that he felt most Americans didn’t realize that Jews serve in the armed forces of the United States.



In response to this comment I offered to have someone write a guest post about Jews in the…
Continue

Added by Phyllis Zimbler Miller on July 8, 2008 at 5:58pm — No Comments

Lifetime’s ARMY WIVES Episode 4 of Season 2: What a Difference a Writer Can Make



This episode 4 of season 2 of Lifetime’s ARMY WIVES – titled “Leaving the Tribe” – is on an entirely different plane than the first three episodes of this season. I looked up on www.imdbpro.com the credited writer of the episode – Bruce Zimmerman – with story credit to Nick Thiel.



And then I knew why this episode was so emotional I’m writing this blog post with zig zag lines in front of my eyes… Continue

Added by Phyllis Zimbler Miller on July 2, 2008 at 3:53pm — No Comments

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