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If this is the first edition of the Marine Parents newsletter you have received, WELCOME! If you are a returning reader we are glad you have joined us and thankful for your support.

In This Issue

Tomorrow is Military Spouse Appreciation Day, a day to say "thank you" to the ones left at home when a military member gets deployed (and maybe bake them some cookies). Check out our story and find out the history of this day.

Also in this issue: Vietnam veteran Ernie Fantini has created a poster showing a timeline of the Marine Corps, from its founding to today. We're selling it in our EGA Shop, too.

MarineParents.com™ recently partnered with the Parris Island Officers' Spouses' Club, donating items for the club's silent auction. The money raised went to benefit military families' schools with supplies and sports equipment.

And we'll tell you about the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms winning its third Commander in Chief award for installation excellence.

God bless and Semper Fi!

Tracy Della Vecchia

Photo by Marine Sgt. Justin J. Shemanski Cpl. Stelio Montini kisses his wife, Amber, after coming home from a seven-month deployment to Afghanistan.

The baby is crying. The dog is barking. And that smells like dinner is burning in the oven.

Home life can be stressful in the best of times, but now imagine that your spouse is 10,000 miles away and won't be home for another five months. For thousands of military families, they don't have to imagine: It is reality.  

That's why May is set aside as a national military appreciation month, and the Friday before Mother's Day is Military Spouse Appreciation Day.  

This year's spouse appreciation day is tomorrow.

Click here to read more ...  

It's a story as old as the military itself. A young man adrift and in need of direction joins the military, and his world falls into place. Marine Corps Vietnam veteran Ernie Fantini is no different.

"The Corps changed my life for the good," he says, "but of course, I was lucky. I was a young man heading for trouble. The Corps gave me an inner discipline that has never left."

To pay it back in his own way, Ernie developed a poster entitled, "Epic events of the United States Marine Corps: 'Tell it to the Marines.' "

It cost him $2,000 to pay the Lawrence, Kansas, designer and have the 18.5 x 9-inch poster printed in North Kansas City, Missouri. Ernie said he made the poster for himself, but when other people saw it, they encouraged him to print more and sell it. To do so legally, however, he needed a license from the Marine Corps. After six months of paperwork, he started marketing the poster, of which he had 1,000 copies made.

Click here to read more ... 

Click here to buy the poster ...  

The Marine Corps family stretches far and wide across the land, and when one family member is in need, MarineParents.com™ is there to help.

So when the Parris Island Officers' Spouses' Club asked for our help, we were happy to oblige. The PIOSC held a Bunko charity event to benefit Department of Defense schools in Beaufort, South Carolina, on April 27, 2012, and they needed items for the silent auction portion of that night's activities.

On May 1, Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta announced today the winners of the 2012 Commander in Chief's Annual Award for Installation Excellence. They include: 

Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, Twentynine Palms, California. (It was the third consecutive year this center was recognized with the award.)

Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Jacksonville, Florida. 

According to a Department of Defense website article, Frank Kendall, acting undersecretary of defense for acquisitions, technology and logistics, hosted the Commander-in-Chief's Annual Awards for Installation Excellence ceremony on May 2 in Washington, D.C.

"The commander-in-chief's award is the highest award a military installation can receive," Kendall said. "But it's clearly about people more than it is about installations. Today we honor the best of the best from each of the military services and from the Defense Logistics Agency."

Click here to read more ...  

MarineParents.com™ wants you - to send photos of your family decked out in the apparel you buy from us.

It could be your family at graduation, all sporting red 1st Battalion T-shirts (or yellow 2nd Btn. or blue 3rd Btn.). Or maybe your whole family has relationship-specific T-shirts such as "The Few, The Proud the Father of a United States Marine." Or maybe, just maybe, you're wearing a Semper Gumby T-shirt because you're always flexible.

So get snapping, and send us photos of you and your family wearing clothing from our EGA Shop at MP@MarineParents.com. You just might wind up in our slideshow!

Click here to see our first slideshow ...

Having your Marine deployed for the first time can be a nerve-racking time full of worry and doubt - and a lot of questions.

As "a place to connect and share®", MarineParents.com™, Inc., is here to help you find the information you need in an OPSEC-appropriate manner. On our Marine Family Network website (click here to access), you can find groups, start a blog, ask questions and find out how to take part in events around the country or online.

On our main MarineParents.com™ website (click here to access), we have links to deployment; links to your Marine's specific battalion and unit; links to unit-specific information pages; and links to information about the country in which your Marine is deployed.

You can also learn about operations security (OPSEC) procedures and ways in which to communicate with your Marine; about sending care packages; issues that arise during deployment such as identity theft, income tax filing and power of attorney; suggested reading and much more.