PHOTO: The Yellow Flower

(Warning: Shameless Self-Promotion): I'm excited to share that my photo, The Yellow Flower, has won 2nd Place (out of nearly 3000 entries) in the 2009 Army Digital Photo Contest! See more here.

SCREEN: Dear John

Get the tissues ready! Tearjerker Dear John opens today:

Savannah Curtis (Amanda Seyfried) was on spring break when she first met John Tyree (Channing Tatum), a military man home on temporary leave. For the smitten soldier, it was practically love at first sight. Over the course of the next seven years, when each deployment seemed more treacherous than the last, the love letters that Savannah sent to John were one of the only things that kept him going. However, those loving and heartfelt correspondences would ultimately yield consequences that neither the brave soldier nor his one true love could have ever foreseen.

GIFT IDEA: Fort Rucker Remembered desk calendar

Shameless plug: I made the paper in Dothan AL for the Fort Rucker Remembered desk calendar that I shot and produced. Below is an excerpt of Debbie Ingram's piece:

Anne Kristoff, a longtime media and entertainment executive from New York City, has created a 2010 desk calendar with images taken at Fort Rucker.

The black and white spiral-bound calendar is a collection of some of Kristoff’s favorite images from around post. It includes photographs of a vintage airplane at the Army Aviation Museum; a soldier’s boots; a blackhawk helicopter at Lowe Field; a soldier’s salute of the flag; and a rattlesnake crossing sign near Lake Tholocco.

A portion of the proceeds from the calendar sales will be donated to TAPS.org, a 24/7 tragedy assistance resource for anyone who has suffered the loss of a military loved one. The calendar is available for $15 at http://www.poofny.etsy.com

TODAY is Military Spouse Appreciation Day

By Tara Crooks for Military.com: May is an awesome month for military families. It’s a time when the country pays tribute to our community for Military Appreciation Month — and specifically to military spouses on Military Spouse Appreciation Day. Back in 1984, President Reagan proclaimed the Friday before Mother's Day of each year to be Military Spouse Appreciation Day. (This year it falls on May 8).

Have you ever heard that old expression "if the military wanted you to have a spouse they would have issued you one"? Aren't you glad that's not the way it is now? So am I!

You may not realize it but you’re an important part of your Soldier’s career. You’re an integral part of this military life. What you do makes a difference.

Think about all of the things you do to support your military community: running Family Readiness Groups, planning hail and farewells, hosting the coffee group, organizing fundraisers, teaching Army Family Team Building, paying the bills, running the household, and raising your children. You’re the glue that holds it all together.

Military spouses are amazing creatures, truly a breed of our own. We’re resourceful, multi-talented, and ambitious. We stick together, support each other, and we love even in absence. We are strong. We overcome. We are [or at least we like to think] invincible.

Think about your journey through military life thus far. Whether you’re at the beginning or heavily “seasoned,” you quickly realize that you have become or are becoming a part of something bigger than yourself. You live a life full of tradition, a life full of pride. You live a truly glorious life [notice I did not say glamorous] that most civilians will never understand or ever be strong enough to experience. A life full of loving madly and missing badly, a life full of adventure and change, a life that sometimes makes you wonder how you ever do it.

Can you imagine a military without spouses? I can't. What we do is so very important to the life that we lead and the community that supports it. Our contributions are what make this big operation "tick." We may not have sharp shooting skills or defuse bombs but we do save lives.

Recently, I had a discussion with a Vietnam Vet. Through his tears, he told me “you’re [the spouses] the heroes.” What he said brought me to tears. I couldn’t help but think what life was like for him and his family while he was away at war. My, how times have changed, we now have many resources available to us. We have Internet and e-mail. We have DoD-funded resources such as Military One Source, and the Military Spouse Career Network. But most importantly, we now have the support of the American people.

So here’s to you military spouses! Reach your arms out and then wrap them around yourself for a huge hug! For everything you do — Thank You!

STAGE: Streamers @ Roundabout Theatre in NYC

David Rabe's award-winning drama, Streamers, is playing at Roundabout's Laura Pels Theatre in NYC thru January 11, 1009.

Set in 1965 Virginia, Streamers is the story of four soldiers just out of bootcamp who, according to NY Mag, grapple "with race, class, and sexuality as tensions rise in Vietnam."

SCOOP: FT. RUCKER, AL by Katrina Rodgers

Just in time for Veteran’s Day, Army wife-to-be Katrina Rogers gives us “THE SCOOP” on Ft. Rucker, AL:

When I tell people I live in Alabama, they usually think I’m close to Birmingham. I actually live 3-4 hours south of Birmingham and have never been here; Alabama is bigger than you think! Chances are, if you are not an Alabama native, you’re not exactly up to speed on your Alabama geography, and I’m sure if my fiance and I had not moved here with the Army, we would never have heard of the area known as the “Wiregrass.” This area includes southeast Alabama, very northern Florida, and southwest Georgia. You might be wondering what on earth there is to do in this area of the country—I know I was! Well, you just have to know where to look.

If you’re feeling ambitious, Atlanta is only 3 and half hours away, and there are so many thing to do there I couldn’t even begin to count (the aquarium is fun; the Coca Cola factory lets active duty military in free!) Montgomery, the capitol of Alabama, is not quite two hours away, and that’s where you’ll find the closest reasonably priced airfare. Panama City and Destin, Florida, are only a two and a half hour drive—here you can find the Gulf of Mexico, many beaches, and all accompanying activities (crab restaurants!)

But no one wants to go that far every weekend, and certainly not with the high gas prices we have had lately as a result of hurricane season. So what is there to do in your own backyard down here? The first thing you have to see in Enterprise is the statue in the middle of town. Long ago, the Boll Weevil, an insect, destroyed all of the area’s cotton crops. Farmers were forced to switch to another crop, peanuts, which turned out to be a fantastic economic change for the region. The statue was erected in 1919 to honor the Boll Weevil for bringing, in a roundabout way, prosperity to the area. Originally the statue was just a woman; the Boll Weevil at the top was added in 1949. The statue in the center of town now is just a replica—the original was moved to the Enterprise Depot Museum in 1998 due to vandalism (the Boll Weevil was stolen right off the top). It is the only statue in the country and most likely in the world to honor an agricultural pest.

Peanuts are also honored in the Wiregrass area. The city of Dothan, 30 miles from Enterprise, is known as the Peanut Capital of the Nation, and rightly so. Sixty-five percent of all the peanuts grown in the United States are grown within a 100 mile radius of Dothan! To celebrate this title, Dothan holds the National Peanut Festival every fall. The festival was first held in 1938 and lasted 3 days; it is now a 10 day event that draws over 163,000 visitors. Be prepared to wait in line to park! At the festival, you can find more than your average share of carnival rides, carnival games, displays (this year they had sea lions!), arts and crafts, a parade, fireworks, and a Miss National Peanut Festival Pageant. In addition, Dothan is a good place for many army wives to find jobs. There also an airport here, although it is horribly overpriced and only flies to and from Atlanta.

Speaking of army wives: last but never least, the Wiregrass area is the home of Ft. Rucker, the primary home of Army Aviation and flight training. It is also the home of Warrant Officer Candidate (WOC) School. Ft. Rucker opened on May 1, 1942 as Camp Rucker (the name was changed in 1955). The population on post in the 2000 census was 6,000, but many army folks live off post. The important thing to remember is that because of this, Enterprise and neighboring Daleville are much more transient areas than other towns. Flight training generally takes about one and a half to two years, so the real estate trends don’t necessarily follow the economic trends since people are always buying, selling, and renting. I have never seen so many townhouses in my life as in Enterprise, Alabama!

So, bottom line: there is more happening here than you think. A good place to get more information about local events and activities in the Wiregrass is on the website of the local radio station, WKMX in their “What’s Up Wiregrass” section. There are things going on at Ft. Rucker several times a month, so there are no excuses for not getting out and getting to know the area! (end)

Katrina Rodgers is a Gettysburg College graduate with a degree in Women’s Studies. She is currently living in Enterprise, Alabama with her fiance and looking forward to finally marrying him in December!