“BLUF” or Bottom Line Up Front.
Serving in the U.S. military as an Intelligence Analyst, the BLUF style of writing is something I am very accustomed to. In plain English, a BLUF never gives an audience more than it needs, yet at no time leaves anything to question. As my time in the greatest American gun-club dwindles and I look to the next chapter in my life, I expect to overcome any shortfalls I am faced with in the future. This is my BLUF.
As time seemingly disappears and the end of my active service approaches, I have become increasingly anxious about what is yet come. My list of tasks towards a smooth transition into civilian life appears to grow as deadlines draw near, and I mark one item off my list only to add two more. If I have learned nothing else over my past four years of service, I have learned to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. This proves to be the most useful attribute I take away from my military experience. While the stress of college admissions becomes miniscule compared to the responsibilities I am faced with on a daily basis, the thought of my academic future being in the hands of a college board of admissions is still unsettling.
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A majority of those individuals are still teenagers, leaving home for the first time, learning to adapt to the “freedoms” of being at school and on their own. While I can confidently say I have matured in ways a traditional route college student has not, I still have much to learn. Learning to be away from home and on my own is not a problem for me, but learning to adjust to civilian life after service will be a challenge; a challenge I will undoubtedly face head on with full tenacity and commitment. One cannot be scared of the unknown, one must embrace
Tyson, A. S. (2005, November 4). Youths in Rural U.S. Are Drawn To Military. Washington
and continue to feel comfortable when completing the tasks that they are assigned to do. I am inspired by the Vietnam generation to venture out and accomplish something that not everyone achieves. Works Cited Haugen, David M., and Susan Musser. The Vietnam War. Detroit: Greenhaven, 2011.
As men and women serve this country we often forget the importance of what they did and how we give back to them for what they have experienced. Through student surveys that have been gathered, it has been proven in the course of knowledge that 80% of all thirty students surveyed that say they know of someone who is or was a veteran and only 57% of those Veterans receive help. Richelle E. Goodrich stated, “Have you ever stopped to ponder the amount of blood spilt, the volume of tears shed, the degree of pain and anguish endured, the number of noble men a...
This year, the United States is set to end over a decade of continuous combat operations in Afghanistan as well as reduce the size of the military in an effort to restrain the growing deficit of the federal government. While some welcome these actions, they will have a significant effect on the men and women of the armed forces. Since the military is now focused on returning to a peacetime posture and cutting personnel, more veterans will be entering the civilian market. These men and women, who come from all walks of American life, will have had vastly different experiences than their civilian counterparts. These veterans will have spent their formative years in a wartime military and while they have so much to offer society, often, their service and they as individuals are stereotyped with unflattering characteristics by civilian managers, which has a negative impact during their post-military search for employment. Some civilians see them as uneducated and suffering from a host of mental problems related to their service. This problem is not only relevant for recent veterans but for all of those who have volunteered to serve in the military. Veteran unemployment is a serious problem for the United States. Those who choose to serve in the military should not be negatively impacted in the civilian marketplace as a result of their sacrifice.
Every day a man comes home from war. Most having left their families as boys or young men trained in tactics and combat but never being trained effectively on stress management or the dangers of PTSD. Going into war soldiers are instructed to choke it down and bury it deep. Once introduced back into civilian life, where emotions are acceptable and tactics are not the answer, how do these men survive? How do they learn to cope? And most importantly how does the U.S. government train them for the next portion of their lives? In October of 2001 Operation Enduring Freedom, OEF, and Operation Iraqi Freedom, OIF, began and since then over 1.8 million troops have served at least one term ("PTSD in Service Members and New Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars," 2009). The Veterans population has increased immensely since the war began in 2001 and the type of warfare witnessed is much different than that of any other previous war.
Veterans have struggles with their civilian life after separating from the U.S Armed Forces. Returning to the civilian life seem to be a big challenge for veterans who have no prior job’s skills for civilian life because they had been influenced from military’s training, have physical and psychological damage.
It is well known that veterans have the opportunity to pursue a college education after they have served. The problem is students do not know how to appropriately approach or interact with them. Society has even been led to fear them. Edward Palm, author of, “The Veterans are Coming! The Veterans are Coming!”
Andy grew up as a military child and he assures, “Being in a military family I can appreciate the veterans and their families more.” (Moore) Military children recognize the importance of sacrificial service that their parent committed. This ensures parents that raising a child in the military can help develop an appreciative, respectful, and prideful child by experiencing and interacting within the military lifestyle. The military provides a strong structure or values and traits that promote a healthy development of characteristics for
“While more than seven-in-ten veterans (72%) report, they had an easy time readjusting to civilian life, 27% say re-entry was difficult for them—a proportion that swells to 44% among veterans who served in the ten years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks (Morin, 2011)”. The military gives many stepping stones to be able to transition from military to civilian life. Many are required to take these stepping stones to ease the process of moving in another direction of their life. TAP or the Transition Assistance Program has helped veterans to better adjust to the challenges of re-entering civilian life by giving classes on skills needed to adjust to the upcoming life events (England,2003). Although the military
Another important factor that Klay brings up is the treatment of soldiers by civilians when they return home. In many of Klay’s short stories he tells of the awe and for some idol ship that the civilians have when the soldiers return. In “Bodies” the Marine, says “ It was another three weeks before I got home and everybody thanked me for my service. Nobody seemed to know exactly what they were thanking me for”( Klay 63). The Marine is touching on the fact that civilians do not exactly know all the horrors of war but they are quick to thank them. This idolization can make it difficult for soldiers to reintegrate themselves into society. In “Iraq Comes Home” Sue Randolph is an army veteran who discusses the difficulties that she had readjusting to life at home “The military says that they 're giving exit counseling and reintegration. What they 're calling reentry counseling, in my experience, was, "Don 't drink and drive. Pay your bills on time. Don 't beat your spouse. Don 't kick your dog." All of these things that once you 've reached a certain age, you 're supposed to know. None of it is, "If you have discomfort with dealing with crowds, if you don 't feel comfortable with your spouse, if you can 't sleep in a bed, if you don 't want to drive down the road because you think everything is a bomb, here 's what
Members often join the military because they have experience or contact with a current or former military member. This has compounded over generations, effectively creating a military society separate from the public. Without direct exposure to the military, civilians
A few weeks ago, my husband announced that in a few months, the Army would be reassigning him from Colorado to a unit in Florida. Immediately, my mind filled with questioning thoughts of the logistics of yet, another move and how this would impact continuing my education. Days later, I had a long discussion with my brother, who is a doctoral student with Grand Canyon University (GCU), he relayed his experience with GCU and suggested I contact an enrollment counselor and find out what options were available to me. With feelings of great relief and encouragement, I telephoned GCU and spoke with an enrollment counselor who assisted me in the step by step process to transfer into GCU and commence my academic journey in GCU’s online program.
Traditionally, financial reporting discloses only financial information to determine its financial performance. However, nowadays, success of one business is no longer solely depending on monetary gain, instead the impacts of companies’ activities have on society and environment as a whole is highly important. This trend has come across to increase the public expectation for organization to take responsibility for their non-financial impacts for example the impacts on the environment and community. Hence, Triple Bottom Line (TBL) which was first described in 1994 by John Elkington can be an ideal integrated approach that fit in to this approach in order to support the sustainability growth of the companies. Triple Bottom Line incorporate three dimension of performance and measurement namely social (people), environment (planet) and financial (profit) which attached to the theory of sustainable development reporting. It is an expansion of the traditional performance framework as it takes into consideration not just financial outcome but also social and environmental performance that businesses are dealing with. The explanations of the three pillars are as follow.
Not everyone who attends college takes advantage of the scholastic opportunities available as students. One reason might be because they have not yet aquired the academic confidence or perceive education as a priority. Looking back at my adolescence, both of these perspectives were displayed through my behavior. Nonetheless, the past eight years of my life illustrate major growth and development as an individual, a family member, a co-worker, and a student—a journey which led me to this moment. Literally, this very moment! I now possess the academic confidence to present an analysis of my life's history and academic objectives to a committee of scholars/professionals, which is unquestionably a significant achievement. Thus, becoming better acquainted with my life's history, as a child, teenager, military service member and scholar, will allow each of you to understand the challenges and achievements that I have experienced in order to reach this point in my life.
Reminiscing from my high school years, everything seemed so simple. I remember that I used to have everything under control in my life, but after I graduated from high school I realize that high school, in fact, did not prepare me for the real world. In high school, everything was effortless and unchallenging. Although, I had six classes, the effort needed for each class does not compare with what a real college class requires. During my senior year, I got admission offers from seven universities, but the one that stole my heart was the University of California Davis. UC Davis is a lovely university with a warm-hearted community ready to welcome you. Unfortunately, UC Davis was ready for me but I wasn’t ready for a life changing experience,