Marines to meet recruiting goal

Parris Island, S.C. (July 31, 2023) - Marine leaders say they will make their recruiting goal this year, while the active-duty Army, Navy and Air Force all expect to fall short. The services have struggled in the tight job market to compete with higher-paying businesses for the dwindling number of young people who can meet the military's physical, mental and moral standards.

 

Credit: Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego - Copyright: Public Domain

Brig. Gen. Walker Field, who heads the Eastern recruiting region, says the Corps has historically put an emphasis on selecting top-performing Marines to fill recruiting jobs. He says that has been a key to the Marines' recruiting success, along with efforts to increase the number of recruiters, extend those who do well and speed their return to high schools, where in-person recruiting stopped during the covid-19 pandemic.

He said his recruiters -- who cover the territory between Canada and Puerto Rico and as far west as Mississippi -- will meet their mission and expect to have 30% of their 2024 goal when they start the next fiscal year Oct. 1. More broadly, Marine officials say they expect the Corps to achieve its recruiting target of more than 33,000.

Last year, the Navy, Air Force and Marines had to eat into their pools of delayed-entry applicants in order to make their goals. The Marines will avoid that this year.

Operation Storytime: Book for the military child

San Diego, California (July 13, 2023) - United Through Reading has announced “Book for the Military Child” for 2023 as part of Operation Storytime, its three-year initiative to connect the next one million military and Veteran family members through the read aloud experience. The Book for the Military Child unites and celebrates military children across the globe through their shared experiences.

 

Service members or Veterans will read a book while being video recorded and then send the video and book back home to the child. The child at home watches the video and follows along with the book. When a child may be especially missing a parent who is away for military service, hearing the parent’s voice and seeing their face serves as a calming, loving reminder of the parent’s presence.



Operation Storytime, made possible in part by a $1 million pledge from the Reader’s Digest Foundation, is a three-year campaign with the goal of reaching 1 million military families through four distinct literacy missions.

“Reading together is one of the most important things any family can do, and military families often sacrifice that time due to service to our country. By supporting United Through Reading’s Operation Storytime, we at the Reader’s Digest Foundation can help the next million military family members maintain their reading routine, no matter the distance,” said Bonnie Kintzer, President and CEO of Trusted Media Brands and Chairman of the Reader’s Digest Foundation.

Learn more at: UnitedThroughReading.org/OperationStorytime

Blue Star Fathers: A simple introduction

Indianapolis, Indiana - Times have changed and so has society in general. Fathers have become increasingly more involved in their children's lives and have become integral in providing support as well as encouragement. Yet in spite of societal changes, certain organizations still treat fathers as second class citizens with merely associate status without any voice or voting rights. Instead of matching pace with the growth in fatherhood, they are instead still shunted to the side.

 

Not only that, there was also the issue of blended families and father figures which weren’t being addressed. Today’s modern families and role models come in all shapes and sizes. There was no place for these family members in other, similar organizations. Blue Star Fathers does not put an age limit to when the father, father figure or step father has been in their child’s life.

Blue Star Fathers was conceived in the spring of 2022 by a group of fathers who wished to have a more direct and impactful involvement with their sons and daughters serving in the military. They reached out to a Veterans focused non-profit on the Eastside of Indianapolis for guidance on creating their own organization. In the summer of 2023, Blue Star Fathers became official when it was registered with the State of Indiana.