United We Roll at Stardust Radio

The United We Roll live show planned to air on Tuesday 8/25 will play on a later date due to techinical difficulties. An update will be provided as soon as possible.

Thank you for your patience!

United We Roll World Tour Show
Stardust Radio – www.stardustradio.com
Tuesday, August 25th, Show Schedule 2-4pm Central
Repeats Wednesday, August 26th at 6:30pm Central

We have four great visits with 12 deployed Heroes of Freedom to share with you all this week… and we will only run over our two hour mark by a handful of minutes. Remember, if you are not able to stay with us through the show this afternoon, it will repeat again tomorrow evening, Wednesday, Aug 26th at 6:30pm Central. In addition, an MP3 copy will be placed on our show archive site for listening and downloading. You can reach our archive site at www.stardustradio.info or by entering our full website at www.stardustent.com or www.stardustradio.com

Our first guest is 6 months into his deployment with the 732nd Provost Marshall Office, Detachment 5. Air Force TSgt Lawrence Saiz has made time in his schedule to join us and talk about his current duties as a supervisor in this military police detachment, working to protect military members and civilians in his area. As with so many other units throughout our forces nowadays, the 732nd Provost Marshall Office is made up of a blend of military members, combining the strengths of those in the unit.

Coming up next is our visit with LTC Michael Ude, who is currently deployed with the 225th Engineer Brigade in Iraq, where he heads a team of Army Engineers who assess projects that are needed with Iraqi government and civic leaders, then develop the projects with Iraqi contractors and then conduct quality control checks of those projects that are worked on by Iraqi civilians. This son of an Army Chaplain shares with us information on what it is like to be working with standards and supplies other than those here in the US, in addition to other experiences from his career.

Our third visit will include five members of the 376th Security Forces Squadron who are currently deployed to Manas Air Base in Kyrzgstan. SrA Jonathan Burns, TSgt Patrick Poe, SSgt Mike Alvarez, SrA Larry Thompson and Sgt Marcus Rodriguez are all involved in the security of those with whom they serve as they perform duties at the base gates, escorting people on and off the base, monitoring the flightline and more. It is a 24 hour job, requiring shifts of at least 12 hours from each member and not much time off to attend to personal matters. SrA Jonathan Burns was just recently named Warrior of the Week in recognition of his outstanding service.

Our final visit is with five members of the JBB (Joint Base Balad) First Four Organization, which is a program that is run by volunteers from the deployed members stationed at the base. Coming from several different areas of job responsibility are SrA Jamael Skeete, SrA Danielle Toland, A1C Evan Albeck, SrA Steven Denny and SrA Constance Hames, who were all involved in the last effort of the First Four which was a 5K run to raise money for the Fisher House Foundation. As many of you are aware the Fisher Houses are located at several of the hospitals where our wounded military members are going through care and treatment. These houses allow for families to affordably stay close by and also for some patients who can’t leave the hospital grounds to at least move in with their families while they continue treatments. All of the members who are joining us in this visit have full time jobs in other areas and do this for those with whom they serve.

As always, we are extremely honored to bring you these visits with our Heroes of Freedom. And, we are very honored to have you, our listeners, join us each week.

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And, folks, we would like to ask that you take a moment of your time to help the family members who have had to give so much in order to be caregivers for their wounded loved ones. There is pending legislation that needs your attention!

PLEASE DO NOT TURN AWAY FROM THIS REQUEST. FOR INFORMATION ON THE LEGISLATION AND HOW TO HELP GO TO THE WOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT WEBSITE AT: http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/

If you take a few minutes to read through the blogs written by family members of our wounded on Caring Bridge or other locations, you will see how much ALL of their lives have been changed. From our wounded Hero to the family members who have had to leave other children at home or who have to leave jobs at home in order to be with their loved one who is so critically injured, the hardships have just begun.

Many of the injured men and women face years of rehab from their injuries that run from loss of limbs to Traumatic Brain Injuries. Some injured patients are able to come home, but require special equipment that the family cannot afford so they must stay in a medical facility and away from their loved ones. Others may come home, but they require the help and supervision of their loved ones. This often means someone has to give up a job, an income, a home and more to take care of their injured son/daughter/husband/wife/father/mother/brother/sister.

These young men and women are injured because they went into harm’s way to keep Freedom alive, not just in a land far away, but here at home as well. We need to stand up and do something to help – and there are a lot of ways you can help. This is one way that will not cost you anything, that will not take much of your time, that will not require you to stand on a street corner and wave a flag (though we should all be proud to do so), but can make a HUGE difference in the lives of our wounded and their families.

PLEASE DO NOT TURN AWAY FROM THIS REQUEST. FOR INFORMATION ON THE LEGISLATION AND HOW TO HELP GO TO THE WOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT WEBSITE AT:
http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/

Advocacy Alert
HELP PASS LEGISLATION TO ASSIST OUR MOST SEVERELY WOUNDED WARRIORS
AND THEIR FAMILIES TODAY!!!

WWP’s top priority this year is for Congress to pass legislation to establish a national program to train and provide ongoing support and a modest allowance to family caregivers of our most severely wounded warriors. The Senate bill (S. 801) won committee support and could come to a full Senate vote in the coming weeks. The House bill (H.R. 3155) was just passed unanimously out of committee and will be reported to the full House shortly. Both bills contain the needed elements for a coordinated, comprehensive national program; however, S. 801 covers the OIF/OEF families who need this help so desperately while the House bill still leaves many of these families without healthcare or a monthy allowance.

Thank You!

SMSgt Rex Temple is not only on the job in Afghanistan where he is deployed as an ETT – hear his interview on United We Roll August 18, 2009 – but he is also a very interesting and educational journalist/photographer. With the help of his wife, Liisa, his blog is like a beautiful coffee table book – one that I would gladly add to my collection.

Who knew that Saffron could grow in Afghanistan? That savory, expensive spice that has such an unusual and pretty flower seems to like that countryside. I knew that raising livestock was a major way of life, but I did not know that they could take over the roadways. Who would have imagined a beautiful lake in the countryside there? And so much more!

But there is the very real side of why our men and women are in Afghanistan as well. The heart-gripping memorial to a young Marine Captain from his unit members and others who served with and around him. A young soldier who says he was just doing his job as his actions saved the life of another. How often do we hear this - "just doing my job"? And more about the very special men and women who protect freedom. As SMSgt Rex Temple reminds us, they are there with humanitarian missions to “win the hearts and the minds of the people” which will lead to the road of success. And we know that, ultimately, it is to keep the fight out of our backyard.

Reading Rex’s blog is something to which I look forward – I never go away without having learned something and usually I have found a smile or two as well. I hope you all will make this a favorite place of yours, too.

Thank you Rex & Liisa! For all that you do!
Rex’s Blog – http://afghanistanmylasttour.com

One of our guests from our show on Tuesday, August 18th (SSG Maria Hudgeons) is featured in this article:

Airmen aid coalition with multilanguage skills
http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123160675

by Staff Sgt. Olufemi Owolabi
376th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

7/28/2009 - MANAS AIR BASE, Kyrgyzstan (AFNS) -- Thought not traditional Air Force linguists, two multilingual Airmen bring a unique skill to Manas Air Base.

Capt. Jecek Dempnaik and Staff Sgt. Maria Hudgeons, who speak a combined seven languages, reduce communication barriers between Air Force members and coalition forces through written translations and verbal interpretations.

They are the ears and eyes to the director of the Transit Center here. When acting in this capacity, they are referred to as the 376th Air Expeditionary Wing coalition coordinators and linguists.

Shifting tongues between English, French and Spanish is as easy as breathing for Captain Dempniak. As if that is not enough, he could even spice it up with Polish and German. Whenever he likes, the captain can also get his point across to his NCO, Staff Sgt. Maria Hudgeons, using either English or Russian.

"I am responsible for coordinating support for all coalition forces transiting or stationed at Manas," said Captain Dempniak who is deployed from Travis Air Force Base, Calif. "I also perform liaison duties with the Kyrgyz ministry of defense and other Kyrgyz government agencies."

The Airmen are the point of contact for everything that has to do with coalition forces and foreign dignitaries or any visitor that doesn't speak English. In the last three month, they've processed more than 4,000 coalition force soldiers from 17 different nations going in and out of Afghanistan.

These two Airmen have two things in common, apart from working in the same office; they were both born and grew up in foreign countries where they honed their language skills and they both volunteered from different career fields. Captain Dempniak was born in Poland and was in the political affairs job back at his home station, and Sergeant Hudgeons was born in Russia and came here from the finance office at the 2nd Comptroller Squadron from Barksdale AFB, La.

Captain Dempniak described the coalition coordinators and linguists duty as unique in nature because there is no similar job stateside, it can only be found in deployed locations.

"This is a multidimensional environment," he said. "It is very dynamic. It's never the same every day. We are called to assist in duties that don't usually happen in the CONUS, such as language interpretation during a national holiday at the French Embassy or on combat mission flight to Afghanistan. We attend high-level meetings to ensure translations are correct in form and intent."

In addition, Sergeant Hudgeons said they are the spot-checker for the local translators here.

"We have to ensure the translations are up to the U.S. standards," she said. "We are here to make sure everything is correct and in the interest of the United States."

Due to the absence of coordinators' offices for the French and Spanish detachments here, Captain Dempniak also works as the coalition liaison and a translator for these two detachments.

The two Airmen both agreed that they both find the job very interesting because it provides a lot of opportunities for interaction.

Interacting with different people in different cultures and languages is an everyday experience for coalition coordinators and linguists, which is what makes the job interesting, Sergeant Hudgeons, who is on her first deployment, said.

For members who would like to explore the culture here, the team also offers Russian Classes to help people understand the language and the local citizens.

We are diplomats in a military uniform, Captain Dempniak said. The job is not about meeting quotas, it is to make our coalition partners happy members of the Transit Center, and it is about making their experience pleasant here.

"We always make sure the job gets done every day, (because it's continuous in nature.)" Sergeant Hudgeons said. "It's not like a one-day (deal); things come and go every day, and the impact we make overall is to continuously safeguard the mission."