Everyone Serves – Free ebook from Blue Star Families

Blue Star Families has awesome free ebook,Everyone Serves: A Handbook for Family & Friends of Service Members During Pre-Deployment, Deployment, and Reintegration. This is an amazing FREE resource! Having recently just gotten through a 15 month deployment, I’m so excited to share this free resource with my readers!

This is an interactive resource tool! It has video clips, quotes from military spouses, checklists, worksheets, and many other resources, I was really impressed with the quality and contact of this ebook. Also it has several ways you can read it: ebook, on the web in your browser, or in PDF form. I viewed it in my browser and thought it was great that in the header you can easily print any page by clicking the Print This Page button, they make is super easy to get instant access to the information and resources.

The ebook Everyone Serves includes 8 sections full of information, videos, and resources to help family and friends during their deployment experience. Below I’ve listed the sections and a highlight from each one.

Getting Started
This is an intro to the ebook which highlights what the ebook is intended to be and not be. It is intended to be relatable resource concerning the emotional ups and downs of deployment, provide helpful tips from real experiences, and is designed to increase awareness and knowledge. It is NOT and inclusive guide that is able to address all aspects of deployments, however it has a huge resource chapter for further help. In addition is is not to replace the care and guidance of a professional for any psychological health or emotional issues.

Pre-Deployment
Pre-deployment is a time of planning and getting the family ready for the deployment. Hopefully families get advance notice, but in our case for our last deployment, we had a whooping 5 days notice! Not much time to prepare! Thankfully we had been through a deployment before and knew what we needed to get in order but it would have been hard for a first time deployer and their family, and some things would’ve been forgotten. This ebook provides a great Pre-Deployment Checklist! This is great if it is your first deployment to your twentieth! It’s divided into 5 easy to read sections: Legal matters, Family matters, Personal property, Financial matters, & Family care plan. I’ve seen way too many families have a loved one deploy without a Power of Attorney and then they are stuck in a situation where they need it! Also many military families neglect having a will done, I know thinking about these things are not fun, but really are necessary!

Deployment
This section has tons of great information, especially the section on Communication. Communication is very important during deployment and thanks to modern day technology it is much easier than it used to be! I remember when my husband’s first deployment to Saudi Arabia where he got one 15 minute phone call home a week, now thanks to technology I heard from him almost everyday of the last deployment. We used email, Facebook messaging (so we could talk back & forth while I was out and about), and even FaceTime over Wifi! A great tip in the deployment section is to avoid comparing your communication with your spouse with the communicant of another deployed couple. This is really important because depending on location and jobs each person will have different amounts of access and availability.

Reunion
The number one tip for homecoming is “Semper Gumby” be flexible, and I have to agree! This is also true for the reintegration process as well! We always look forward to our reunions but it can also be overwhelming to the service member coming back and getting thrown back into a normal daily routine after being out one for so long. Mr. B wasn’t used to having so much ‘free time’ on is hands so many ‘honey do’ projects got taken care of during those first 2 weeks home.

Reintegration
According to Everyone Serves “Reintegration is a process — not an event — in which service members return to their homes or communities to resume their lives following deployment. Usually accompanied by an initial whirlwind of new developments and followed by a series of smaller, less obvious changes, reintegration encompasses the physical, mental, social, and spiritual transitions shared between service members and partners, children, parents, extended family, coworkers, friends, neighbors, and the larger civilian community. In the case where the service member separates from military service and/or suffers from an illness or injury, it also is a time when the military may take a role in supporting your service member’s transition. While it is common to think of homecoming as the most important component of reintegration, it is, in fact, just one small piece of the post-deployment reintegration experience.”

I think this fully encompasses what the reintegration process is about!

Caregiving
This section covers the process of caregiving or attending to your loved one who may be experiencing treatment or rehabilitation after the return home. While no one likes to think about the possibility of this situation, this book provides some great insight and resources for those who may be going through the process. I have not personally had to play the role of a caregiver but I know some amazing women who have!

Conclusion
A short conclusion of the book, I love the 1st photo!

Resources
This section provides a wealth of resources! From DOD links, Air Force, Army, Marines, Navy, Veterans, Children, Mobile apps, and more! I had no idea there were so many mobile apps that can help with deployment and the thereafter!

Over all I think this is a AMAZING resource for our military and their families!  Best of all it’s FREE and available at the tips of your fingers, it doesn’t get an easier than that! I’m so thankful for those who worked hard to put this together and offer it to our military families and their loved ones.