Blog from a daddy out in Afghanistan

Thankyou to Louise Fetigan for allowing us to reproduce the blog placed on the
mydaddyisasoldiertrek blog.

What's it like to be away from your family? That’s really hard to ask and put into words the answer. Even though this is something we as soldiers do and I have done many deployments including Kosovo, Iraq, Cyprus and previously Afghanistan, I am on my sixth tour now since our daughter was born, it does not get any easier I can tell you that and you don’t get used to it.

Something changes when you are away, a part of your wall disappears and you become vulnerable, you miss things that are important to your family, Christmas, birthdays, school plays and parents evenings, things people take for granted in a normal life. Life at home can’t stop and my Louise then becomes Mother, Father, friend, taxi driver! and everything else... the strain that happens when I go away can be felt on the phone and in the letters that are written which makes it even harder for me when I'm away as all you want to do is be there and make things better for them.

I'm so happy that Madison has found something to channel her energy into and I cannot express how proud I am of her, it brings a tear to my eye when I see her on the news or hear her voice on the radio.

I believe that this HELP for HEROES trek that she is going to undertake is going to be hard for Madison and her friends but if she has got the same strength that her mother has shown over the last year I know I will be seeing pictures of smiling faces on top of Snowdon very soon!!!

All the luck in the world for your trek girls' from all of us here in Afghanistan to all of you there in England.

The proud father of a very special girl xx

The Big Society of Twitter

We are indebted to Madkentdragon for her contribution to our blog. She is one of our staunch supporters and her blog is well worth visiting. Madkentdragon, is part of our Big Society, she worked for the Royal British Legion for 20 years before retiring and still helps out on a temporary basis when there is a problem or lack of staff.

Here's her blog

What is Twitter? It is defined as a “micro-blogging site” where a Tweeter can use 140 characters to describe what they are doing. But to many of us, it is so much more!

When I was first introduced to it by Nicola (@NicolaRBLClubs, I looked at her page and thought “Is this for me? Can I understand the abbreviations and the protocol and most of all – what do I say?”

At the time, although I found plenty to say, I had to minimise my opinions and use it mainly for the Charity I worked for and also found it useful to pass on information on what the Royal British Legion was doing in my County.

However, since I retired I have opened up a whole new world of news, funnies, and other Charities. I have read more about what is happening in the world, so much more than I could see on the news on TV and read in the papers and often within a few minutes of it happening – it is so interesting!

I have also discovered so many charities and fundraisers, all promoting a charity or an activity to raise money for the charities, I have also found out more about the charity I worked for – more than I knew than when I worked for it! The world is my oyster!

I’m a pensioner and cannot afford to donate to every charity – but I can help promote them just by re-tweeting them so that my followers can read about them. Because of my family’s military associations, I do tend to support the military charities more than the others and of course the Royal British Legion is my primary charity. However the military personnel leave behind families who are left to cope with raising a family, paying the bills and keeping it all together – these people are “serving” just as much as the spouse who is “over there”.

One of the Charities I have become involved with does just that – The Home Front Forces Org., which is there to support the parent and children who are missing the other part of their family and need a little help; but without Twitter I would never have known them.

Finally, and most importantly I have found friends! OK they aren’t the ones you sit round the table and have a coffee with, but they are the ones you can make a coffee and chat to on Twitter. I am sometimes house-bound, I have COPD, and to chat to someone on Twitter – may be more than one at a time means that you are not alone; you have friends who will support you, advise you, tease you and make you feel worthwhile; not a housebound person with health problems staring at the walls!

Recently, I had family problems and a nasty flare up of my condition and the caring comments and inquiries and support I received was fantastic! I even had an offer from a Tweeter to visit my son in hospital in Wales because I was unable to travel to see him!

So, you Mums and Dads who are coping whilst your other half is “over there”, come and join us, you’ll find plenty of like minded people on here – and even special offers at times! And by the way, I’m @madkentdragon – I’ll introduce you – so come and find me!!

Emotional lifelines: channels of communication for military families

We are indebted to

Clare Gibson, of The Army Children Archive (TACA), http://www.archhistory.co.uk
for her permission to publish a copy of this article which can be found on the TACA drum blog

The military lifestyle is not usually compatible with a settled family life. Not only are they often on the move as family units, but forces families are frequently divided. This may happen during times of conflict, when military personnel are sent on active service to combat zones, leaving civilian family members behind, and during peacetime, when they go on exercise, for example, sometimes for prolonged periods. And many children of mobile military families must regularly exchange their homes for boarding schools during term time. During such periods of separation, it is vital for families to keep the channels of communication open, with the ways in which they have historically done so* reflecting changing technology.



Until relatively recently, the most common way for separated forces families to communicate with one another was by post, usually through the British Forces Post Office (BFPO); more information about the BFPO, as well as about BAOR postcodes and BFPO numbers, is given on TACA’s ‘Memories & miscellanea’ page. (And an item added to TACA in December 2010, ‘BACKGROUND INFORMATION: A SINGULAR AND MOST UNUSUAL SUB-POST OFFICE', looks at the sub-post office that once existed at the Duke of York’s Royal Military School in Dover, Kent.) Regular telephone contact has also become increasingly possible following the advent of mobile phones, but maintaining this is more difficult when a family member is on active service – often for security reasons – which is when free ‘blueys’ (aerogrammes) and e-blueys (electronic blueys) may come into their own (for further details, see the BFPO website: http://www.bfpo.mod.uk/).



When it comes to modern media, today’s generation of forces families is increasingly turning to the internet with which to keep in touch using e-mail, instant-messaging and social-networking services (Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and Twitter, for instance), as well as e-blueys. Envisaged as functioning along similar lines as other social-networking websites, but created with the families of the British armed forces specifically in mind, those behind the HomeFront Forces website hope, funds permitting, to provide an age-appropriate – that is, for younger children – and secure link between separated forces families (visit the website to read more about its aims: http://www.homefrontforces.org/).



Chronicling as it does the history of British army children – and increasingly also of navy and RAF children – TACA tracks developments and initiatives that affect and support forces children. The rapid rise of the internet, mobile phones and social-networking sites clearly transformed the way in which military children communicated with their absent parents during the first decade of the twenty-first century. But will these communications media soon become outdated in their turn? And, if so, what will replace them?






*As well as being a fascinating read, Judith Millidge’s book, Letters from the Front (Brassey’s (UK) Ltd, London, 2002), provides a comprehensive historical overview of the logistics of communication between the battle front and the home front.

Madison on British Forces Television

Today our Patron Madison spoke on British Forces Television about her role in HomeFront Forces you can watch the piece here

Madison on BFTV
http://www.bfbs.com/news/top-story/forces-website-connects-families-across-world-christmas-42661.html

A Tough Christmas for Military Families