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MarineParents.com Newsletter
a Place to Connect & Share 
In This Issue
Deployment Learning Center
Homecoming Learning Center
Please Visit Our Sponsors
Summer Care Package Drives!
One Civilian's View
SALE! This Week Only!
Remembering the Brave Ceremony
Sending Tobacco Overseas?
NEW! Marine Parents Book Club
DONATE with every swipe of your card
Support for You:
a Place to
Connect & Share™
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Learning Center:
Operational Security
Operational Security

NOTE: When communicating online, your Marine's privacy is as important as Operational Security. Please respect YOUR Marine's privacy!

Learning Center:
About Deployment
 
 
 
 
 
 
Learning Center:
About Homecoming
 
 
 
 
 
 
Tip: While in our store, check in your Marine's unit store for more homecoming shirts!
Unit Chat Nights
Unit Chat Night Schedule:
 
Monday: 1/3, 1/2
Wednesday: 3/4, 3/7
Thursday: 1/6
Friday: 3/6
Sunday: 24th MEU, 1/9
 
For additional information about the Chat Room and Unit Chat Nights for your Marine's Unit, please see:
           MarineParents.com Chat Gif 
Local Support Groups in Your Area
NEWEST SUPPORT GROUPS:
 
Huntsville, AL
Chandler, AZ
 
Hartford, CT
 
Lexington, KY
 
Greeneville, TN
 
For a list of all support groups in our database or to find one in your area, see:
 
If you are interested in starting a local support group in your area, please visit the "Support Groups" section of our website:
Support Our Marines!
 
 
Purple Heart Hero Support™ an Outreach Program of Marine Parents.com
 
 
Show your support of our Marines and their families!Participate in one of the Marine Parents Outreach Programs today! Our Marines need YOU!
Visit Our Sponsors
Sign Up for the Newsletter 
Join Our Mailing List
July 15, 2010
Greetings Marine Families!
 
If this is the first edition of the MarineParents.com Newsletter you have received, WELCOME! If you are a returning reader we are glad you have joined us.
 
The hot summer has everyone sweating just a bit.  With Marines in Afghanistan enduring 120 degree days right now, we've got no room for complaints. The week's newsletter gives you an opportunity to help out the Marines overseas. We're starting a drive for baby wipes and olive drab t-shirts to put in our care packages this coming August 28.  
 
This week's newsletter also offers a chance to get to know one another better. We've got an expression of thoughts from a soon-to-be Marine Dad, a book club you'll want to join.
 
We'll be providing news and updates on the recent law and the resulting guidelines from the US Postal Service about shipping tobacco overseas to our Military men and women. This newsletter includes a link to that page.
Summer Care Package Drives!
Covering the Essentials for Deployed Marines
 
This is the summer of drives! We're holding two drives for items to ship to Marines and we're asking YOU to hold a drive in your community as well.
 
Donate Wipes for Marines in Afghanistan!Our warehouse is virtually empty and we've got to ship 1100 care packages to Marines in Afghanistan on August 28.
 
We've got the funding well under way with the Dollar Campaign, and now we need the products to send!
 
Join Marine Parents in covering the essentials our troops need. Contribute to one of our care package drives today!

Donate T-Shirts for Marines in Afghanistan!Olive Drab T-Shirts
 
While overseas, men and women are still required to follow uniform regulations.
 
MarineParents.com is counting on our volunteers and donators to help our men and women serving overseas have clean T-shirts that are "within regs."
 
 
The goal of this drive is to collect 1100 olive drab skivvy shirts (S, M, L, or XL) for the upcoming August 28th packing day. This is the T-shirt your Marine wears under his or her camouflage uniform and it's suitable during deployment as well as stateside or in-country.  
 
One Civilian's View of the Culture of the Marine Corps
Family and Friends Spotlight  
 
One Civilian's View of the Culture of the Marine CorpsWritten by a soon-to-be Marine Dad shortly before his son left for bootcamp:
 
One of my favorite TV shows is NCIS. The main character, Gibbs, a retired Marine, is played by Mark Harmon. Gibbs often says something like "there's no such thing as an ex-Marine," "no man left behind," and other adages about the Marine Corps.
 
My son got his first taste of the Marine culture the very first time he went to PT (physical training) after he enlisted. It wasn't just him and other enlistees being ordered around by one Marine; there were several Marines there. Some were there to help with the enlistees, and some were there because they wanted to workout.
 
My son was already physically strong, but he hadn't really done anything aerobic for several years. After he stumbled back into the house and collapsed on the couch that night, he told us about his first PT.
 
He got kind of emotional when telling us about the long run they had done. He was really struggling, and started to drop out of the formation. Two Marines behind him put their hands on him and kept him upright. They didn't know him; heck, he still isn't allowed to call himself a recruit, much less a Marine, but they were not going to let him fail. No man left behind.
 
SALE! This Week Only!
Ribbon and Skull Marine Corps Tee 
 
SALE! This week only!This black T-shirt features a sword and skull surrounded by a red ribbon. The text on the ribbon reads: Always Faithful, U.S. Marine Corps.
 
A classic tee for any Marine, family member, or supporter, this shirt is 100% cotton and on SALE this week only!
 
Regularly $14.95, but you SAVE 10% this week! Plus your purchase directly supports the troops!
 
Look for more specials and new items every Thursday in The EGA Store's promotional Email.
 
We thank YOU for supporting our outreach programs each time you make a purchase!  
Remembering the Brave Ceremony
Saturday Evening ~ 11 September 2010
 
2010 Remembering the Brave CeremonyTo our Gold Star families and families who have lost a service member:
 
The President of the
Remembering the Brave Foundation
and The Westin
request the honor of your presence at the
2010 Remembering the Brave Ceremony

Our gracious sponsors have taken care of your meals but we need your reservations, seating desires, and some other important information to prepare for this special evening with you as we honor you and your loved ones and express our deep gratitude for our American Heroes.
 
Funding permitted; we desire to bring a service member to the ceremony who served with your loved one so they can be there with you on this special evening. 
 
 
Sending Tobacco Overseas?
How the PACT Act Effects Military Families 
 
Sending Tobacco Overseas?S.1147 A bill in the US Congress that was recently passed, was "to prevent tobacco smuggling, to ensure the collection of all tobacco taxes, and for other purposes."
 
However, they've restricted it so much that as of June 29, 2010, families can no longer legitimately send tobacco to their military loved ones serving overseas.
 
After some careful research, we have determined that the legislation was not to be interpreted as a restriction to military families, but rather is a snafu of under-planning on the part of the legislators which now makes it impossible to implement correctly, and unfortunately, impacts military families unfairly.
 
The legislation (coined PACT Act for "Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking") bans the postal service from handling smokeless tobacco, chewing tobacco and roll your own cigarette tobacco.
 
Additionally, interpretations of the law are making it confusing for not only family members, but postal workers to make a firm decision on whether or not we are allowed to send a pack of cigarettes to our deployed military men and women.
 
NEW! Marine Parents Book Club
Discuss Military Books with Fellow Families
 
NEW! Marine Parents Book ClubJoin the brand NEW Marine Parents Book Club!
 
If you're like many Marine Parents, your quest for knowledge about the Marine Corps is never-ending.
 
We share that quest with you and want to share reading books on Marine Corps history, past and current conflicts, military lifestyle, PTSD, Combat Recovery, parent support, and dozens more topics.

Join us online, introduce yourself, stop into the EGA Store to buy a book or start a thread to share gently used books with one another, and let's get reading!

You can see what folks are saying about some of the more popular military books. Let that help you decide which one you'll read first!
 
DONATE with every swipe of your card!

We hope this week's edition of our email newsletter has been useful for you and your family. If there are topics you would like us to address, or if you have other suggestions for the newsletter, please contact us.

The banner used at the top of this newsletter is a July, 2010 USMC Photo by Cpl. R. Logan Kyle of an assaultman with scout platoon, Headquarters and Service Company, 1st Tank Battalion, firing a Rocket-Propelled Grenade-7 during a live-fire exercise. Click here to read additional credits. 
 
MarineParents.com, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity. MarineParents.com, Inc. was founded in January, 2003 in response to parents' needs to find information and to have a Place to Connect & Share™ with one another during deployments. Our free online services and connections have expanded to support and educate Marine moms & dads, spouses, families and friends. We've helped over 40,000 Marine and recruit families during bootcamp, training, active duty and deployments. We've shipped thousands of care packages overseas to our Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan, sent thousands of prayers and letters to injured Marines and served hundreds of meals to Wounded Warriors and their families on both the East and West coasts. You've found a Place to Connect & Share™. 
God Bless and Semper Fidelis,
 

Tracy Della Vecchia
Founder and Executive Director
MarineParents.com, Inc.
 
Neither the United States Marine Corps nor any other component of the Department of Defense has approved, endorsed, or authorized this service.