After a first deployment to Afghanistan in 2010 and a second to Kuwait in 2014, Sgt. Terrence Hinton and his family received orders to a highly coveted duty station amongst the Army community: Hawaii. In 2016, Sgt. Hinton, accompanied by his spouse, son, and daughter, was assigned to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division in Oahu, Hawaii. Also Read: Some military nonprofits are MIA at a time when families need them mostMonths later, Sgt. Terrence Hinton was tragically killed in a training accident. The May 14, 2017, incident left his spouse, Jillian, a young widow and single parent to their two children, ages 15 and 5. His death deeply affected his family and community, who remembered him not only for his military service but also for his commitment, dedication, and love for his family.Overnight, Jillian became a Gold Star Spouse. Remember. Respect. Honor. Every year on April 5th, the nation honors our surviving wives and husbands (and sometimes broader families) of military service members who died in the line of duty. These individuals are known as Gold Star Spouses—a term tied to the service banner tradition dating back to World War I. These banners, sometimes called “service flags,” were flown by military families during the Great War, with blue stars for every family member serving in uniform. If a loved one was killed, the blue star was replaced by a gold star. This allowed members of the community to know the price the family had paid in the cause of freedom, and it represented (as it does today) profound loss and sacrifice.In 1936, the nation honored the mothers of these troops with Gold Star Mothers’ Day every April 5th. After World War II, it expanded to Gold Star Wives’ Day. It eventually evolved to Gold Star Spouses’ Day, but April 5th is still the day of commemoration. Children Need Help, Too. In 2020, the Hinton Family moved to Florida when Jillian began to notice her young daughter disconnect from peers, was afraid to leave their home, and exhibited extreme separation anxiety. “Mom, I’d like to figure out how to die so I can see my dad one more time,” her daughter once said. Jillian was spurred to action.Through her intense search for resources and help for her daughter, she learned about Dogs Inc from another Gold Star widow. Jillian initiated contact and went through the multi-step application process while their family underwent multiple interviews and completed a home visit to ensure a lifetime of care and connection. Through Dogs Inc, her daughter would receive a skilled companion dog Within a few short weeks, the Hinton Family was introduced to Taylor.Taylor’s impact was immediately noticeable, as her daughter naturally settled into healthy sleep patterns throughout the night and ventured outside to play and socialize with peers.Now that her daughter was taken care of with Taylor by her side, Jillian could shift focus to other priorities. But it wasn’t until five years later, in 2025, that she realized she had not processed her own grief. She reached out to Dogs Inc again, as they had just launched their Gold Star partnership. Jillian was matched with her service dog, Kylo, and became the first Gold Star service dog team of Dogs Inc. Within the first six months of their relationship, Jillian’s anxiety eased as she and Kylo traveled to six states, spent a week at Disney World, watched a University of South Florida football game from the sidelines, attended a concert, and went to Tampa Bay Lightning games. After almost a decade as a Gold Star Spouse, Jillian began her own healing journey and built strength because of Kylo. Service dog programs from organizations such as Dogs Inc provide support for Gold Star Spouses and Families through task-trained support for survivors where dogs are trained to interrupt panic attacks, PTSD, traumatic grief, and isolation, provide deep pressure therapy for anxiety, and help with daily tasks. The goal of service dogs is to honor the lives of our fallen service members by fostering courage from their families to re-engage with life after loss. For more information, visit Gold Star Family Dog – Dogs Inc or Gold Star Spouses of America, Inc. Don’t Miss the Best of We Are The Mighty • Why it feels like everything is crashing down around you all at once• A 4-step action plan for milspouses to reclaim their own ambitions• It’s time for the VA to recognize spouse proxy for catastrophic veteran illnesses Mighty MilSpouse Mighty MilSpouse A Gold Star spouse’s healing journey amid unimaginable grief By Sara Jane Ginn Mighty MilSpouse Reports show a military spouse commits suicide every 8 days By Sara Jane Ginn Mighty MilSpouse Some military nonprofits are MIA at a time when families need them most By Sara Jane Ginn Kids & Family ‘Running for Their Names:’ A Marine mom’s race to remember  By Marilyn Talley Mighty MilSpouse Why it feels like everything is crashing down around you all at once By Adam Gramegna The post A Gold Star spouse’s healing journey amid unimaginable grief appeared first on We Are The Mighty.

As the best non-profit organization for supporting military members, Veterans, and their families (in my opinion, of course), Soldiers’ Angels is appropriately headquartered in San Antonio, TX, a.k.a. Military City USA. The city wears that title proudly and fits perfectly considering it’s had a military presence for over 300 years. With such a rich cultural and military history, city-wide traditions take place annually to honor the battles fought and the legacy they’ve left behind, such as the Battle of the Flowers Parade, the founding tradition of Fiesta San Antonio. This is not just a parade. It is a tribute to sacrifice, a celebration of identity, and a powerful reminder of the deep military roots that helped shape Texas and the nation. The Origins: A Tribute Born from Remembrance The story of the Battle of the Flowers begins in 1891, when a group of San Antonio women came together with a shared purpose: to honor the fallen heroes of the Texas Revolution. Led by civic-minded organizers like Ellen Maury Slayden, these women envisioned a public event that would commemorate the defenders of the Alamo and the victory at the Battle of San Jacinto. April 21—the anniversary of San Jacinto—was chosen as the symbolic date, connecting the celebration directly to the moment Texas secured its independence. The first parade was unlike anything the city had seen. Participants traveled by horse-drawn carriage, bicycles, and on foot, all adorned with flowers. When they reached the Alamo, something spontaneous and unforgettable happened—participants began throwing flowers at one another. That moment gave the event its name: “The Battle of the Flowers.” What made this origin so powerful was its intention. This was not a festival created for entertainment—it was created for remembrance. The flowers symbolized both celebration and mourning, a duality that still defines the event today. From a Single Parade to Fiesta San Antonio The first Battle of the Flowers Parade sparked something much larger; It was the beginning of a legacy. By 1895, the event had expanded into a multi-day celebration that included festivals and cultural gatherings that still take place to this day. This evolved into what is now known as Fiesta San Antonio, a citywide celebration that spans more than a week and includes over 100 events. At the center of it all remains the Battle of the Flowers Parade—the event that started everything. Today, Fiesta attracts millions of visitors and raises significant funds for local nonprofits, reinforcing its identity as a “party with a purpose.” Some local businesses even have time off scheduled for their staff to participate in the festivities. Despite its growth, the parade has retained its original mission: to honor history while bringing the community together. What the Battle of the Flowers Is Today Today, the Battle of the Flowers Parade is one of the largest parades in the country, drawing crowds of more than 350,000 spectators each year. It is also unique in a way that sets it apart nationally: it is the only major parade in the United States produced entirely by women, organized by a volunteer association dedicated to preserving Texas history and civic pride. The parade features: Elaborately decorated floats High school and collegiate marching bands Military units and ceremonial groups Fiesta royalty and cultural ambassadors Cavalry units and equestrian performances One of the most enduring traditions is the wreath-laying ceremony at the Alamo, where participants pause to honor those who gave their lives in the Texas Revolution. For many San Antonio residents, this day is more than an event—it’s a local holiday. Schools close, families gather, and generations line the streets to watch a tradition that has endured for over a century. The Deep Military Connection At its core, the Battle of the Flowers Parade is inseparable from military history. It was founded specifically to honor those who fought and died in key battles that shaped Texas: The Battle of the Alamo The Battle of Goliad The Battle of San Jacinto These events are not distant memories in San Antonio—they are part of the city’s identity. The Alamo itself serves as both a physical and symbolic anchor for the parade, reinforcing the connection between past sacrifice and present celebration. Honoring Service Through Tradition From its earliest days, the parade has functioned as a public act of remembrance. The original flower-throwing was symbolic—an offering of respect and gratitude. Today, that symbolism continues through ceremonies, tributes, and participation by military members. Modern military involvement is active and visible. Units from Joint Base San Antonio (JBSA) regularly participate in the parade, marching alongside civilians and reinforcing the city’s nickname: “Military City USA.” Sailors, Soldiers, Airmen, and Veterans all take part, bridging the gap between historical and contemporary service. A City Built on Military Presence San Antonio’s identity as a military hub strengthens the connection even further. With installations like Fort Sam Houston, Lackland Air Force Base, and Randolph Air Force Base, the city has long been a center for training and supporting U.S. Service Members. The Battle of the Flowers Parade reflects this reality. It is not simply remembering military history—it is actively engaging with a living military community. Conclusion: A Living Legacy The Battle of the Flowers Parade is more than a spectacle—it is a living legacy. It began with a simple idea: to honor those who gave everything. That idea has grown into a citywide celebration that blends remembrance, culture, and community into something truly unique. Every float that passes the Alamo, every wreath laid in silence, and every Service Member who marches in uniform is part of a story that began in 1891—and continues today. In San Antonio, history is not just remembered. It is celebrated, honored, and carried forward—one flower at a time. If you want to be part of Military City USA, and honor those who are serving today, right now, consider volunteering with us by sending care packages, writing letters to deployed, helping low-income Veterans locally, and much more, then Click here! About the Author Adrian Martinez is currently the Marketing and Communications Manager for Soldiers’ Angels. He served in the U.S. Navy for 4 years and graduated from The University of Texas at San Antonio in 2021. The post San Antonio’s Battle of the Flowers: Texas history becoming American Tradition appeared first on Soldiers' Angels.

Please read that again.We lose a military spouse by suicide every eight days. This is unconscionable. Today’s military spouses are not the stereotypical post-World War II spouses shaped and modeled by generations of spouses of yesteryear (traditionally female spouses from that time period) operating with societal expectations with a stern focus on reproducing, raising children, and domesticity in the home. Also Read: The most famous ‘war brides’ and how they served their country behind the scenesMilitary spouses are anything and everything—except vanilla. While a ton of present-day military spouses enjoy contributing to the growth and development of their service members’ careers through their active support, a large percentage of these same military spouses have careers of their own and straddle military and civilian worlds the very best they can while managing the homefront along with everyone they care about.Mighty MilSpouse is dedicated to providing our military-connected community, especially military spouses, with the very best information, resources, and journalism intended for overall well-being. Military spouse suicide is a very real issue that we will not shy away from covering because it’s hard. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Because military spouse suicide has become so prevalent in our community, this is precisely why Mighty MilSpouse will continue to raise awareness, educate, and provide action-based support. The weight is heavy; please allow your community to carry it with you.  Collecting Military Spouse Suicide Data Here’s the backstory.Military dependent suicide data was first made available in 2017, sourced from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics National Death Index. The NDI is a database of death record information compiled from state offices.  In Section 567. (B) of the “Carl Levin and Howard P. ‘Buck’ McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015” (Public Law 113–291), states that “any death that is reported as a suicide involving a dependent of a member of the Armed Forces” is required to be collected by the Department of Defense: “567. Improved consistency in data collection and reporting in Armed Forces suicide prevention efforts (a) Policy for standard suicide data collection, reporting, and assessment (1) Policy required: The Secretary of Defense shall prescribe a policy for the development of a standard method for collecting, reporting, and assessing information regarding—(A) any suicide or attempted suicide involving a member of the Armed Forces, including reserve components thereof; and (B) any death that is reported as a suicide involving a dependent of a member of the Armed Forces.” A “military family member,” also referred to as a “dependent of a member of the Armed Forces” above, is limited to spouses and dependent children (minor and non-minor) who are eligible to receive military benefits under Title 10 U.S. Code, where spouses and dependent children are registered in the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS). Providing background information on why, where, and when the data collection originated is a major first step in measurement for our military-connected community, given that we are such a close-knit subgroup of the American population.Identifying needs, highlighting challenges, and demanding attention to crises move awareness to action.  Spouse Suicide Demands Awareness We lost 98 military spouses by suicide according to the Department of Defense Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness’ “2023 Annual Report on Suicide in the Military.” This was higher than in 2022, when 93 military spouses were reported. Another notable finding in the 2023 report was the demographics of Military Spouse suicide. Counts and percentages reported in 2022 show that 47.3% were male and 52.7% were female, with the under-40 age group accounting for 78.5% and the over-40 age group accounting for 21.5%.Now that we’ve identified that there is certainly a problem among spouses, we have to address it. So, what can we do to support military spouses in their deepest, darkest mindset? Our collective military-connected community around the globe needs to acknowledge Military Spouse Suicide Awareness as a priority and put in the work to combat it.If you or someone you know has experienced suicidal ideation, including active or passive thoughts, please know that your feelings of pain are very real. What is also real is that those same feelings will pass.You can talk to someone you trust. Please share the weight and allow others to shoulder or carry the weight with you. But if it’s too heavy, we beg you to reach out for help from organizations committed to your well-being.Suicide Prevention Resources for Military Spouses: Veteran and Military Suicide Prevention Resources Preventing Suicide in Military Communities D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families Peer Support for Military Spouses and Partners Blue Star Support Circles We Are The Mighty and the Mighty MilSpouse team will continue to elevate the issue of military spouse suicide. We will not stop raising awareness, educating, and providing action-based support to support our military spouses in their darkest hour. Don’t Miss the Best of We Are The Mighty • ••  Mighty MilSpouse Mighty MilSpouse Reports show a military spouse commits suicide every 8 days By Sara Jane Ginn Mighty MilSpouse Some military nonprofits are MIA at a time when families need them most By Sara Jane Ginn Kids & Family ‘Running for Their Names:’ A Marine mom’s race to remember  By Marilyn Talley Mighty MilSpouse Why it feels like everything is crashing down around you all at once By Adam Gramegna Mighty MilSpouse What happens when the veteran becomes the military spouse By Daniella Horne The post Reports show a military spouse commits suicide every 8 days appeared first on We Are The Mighty.

Fought on the night of June 9-10, 1965, the Battle of Dong Xoai was, as was often the case in the Vietnam War, hard to pin down as to the winner. One thing is certain, however. It produced two Medals of Honor — and one had the unique distinction of being a Seabee.Marvin Glen Shields was born in Port Townsend, Washington, on Dec. 30, 1939. After high school his family moved in 1958 to Hyder, Alaska, where he worked in a gold mining project for the Mineral Basin Mining Company. On Jan. 8, 1962, he enlisted in the Navy, choosing the multi-training of a construction battalion member, or Seabee. After training at Naval Air Station Glynco, Georgia, and Port Hueneme, California, he graduated as a naval construction mechanic in May 1963, and served his first assignment at Okinawa from Nov. 18 to Sept. 1964. On Nov. 1, 1964, Construction Mechanic 3rd Class Shields swerved into harm’s way when he was assigned to Seabee Team 1104 of Naval Construction Battalion 11. After final training, on Jan. 22, 1965, he and his nine-man unit transferred to Saigon, Vietnam, just 10 days later. From there, Team 1104 was transported 55 miles north to Dong Xoai, where it joined the 11 members of Army Special Forces Team, A-342, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 1st Special Forces, in constructing a fortified Special Forces camp. Further reinforcing the area were 200 local anti-communist Montagnards and 200 soldiers of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). The area was also crawling with enemy troops, ranging from local guerrillas to full-fledged infantry units trained and organized in North Vietnam before returning south. The latter included the reinforced 272nd Regiment, about 2,000 strong, which on the night of June 9, 1965, set out to eliminate the compound at Dong Xoai. Soon, every defender at Dong Xoai was fighting for his life. As described in his citation, that included Shields, who was wounded early in the fighting as was the commander of Team 1104. In spite of that: “Shields continued to resupply his fellow Americans who needed ammunition and to return the enemy fire for a period of approximately three hours, at which time the Viet Cong launched a massive attack at close-range with flame throwers, hand grenades and small-arms fire.” Though wounded a second time during this attack, Shields assisted in carrying a more critically wounded man to safety, then rejoined the fighting for another four hours. Then a call came up from 2nd Lt. Charles Quincy Williams who, with the wounding of his commander, had taken charge of the Special Forces troops. He needed a volunteer to join him in a sally to eliminate a well-placed Viet Cong machine gunner whose accuracy was endangering the lives of all personnel in the compound. Without hesitation, Shields volunteered for this hazardous mission. Proceeding toward their objective with a 3.5-inch rocket launcher, Williams and Shields closed to approximately 500 feet and Williams succeeded in destroying the machine gun emplacement. As the Green Beret and the Seabee made their way back to their defensive positions, however, Shields was hit a third time and Williams twice more.After a grueling 14-hour siege, Dong Xoai’s defenders were finally evacuated. In the process, Williams eventually recovered from his injuries. Shields was not so fortunate, dying before he reached Saigon. On June 19, he was buried in the presence of a Marine honor guard in Gardiner Cemetery, Washington.Although the 272nd Regiment finally overran Dong Xoai, the VC knew enough not to hold it long against an enemy with complete air superiority. As far as casualties went, postwar statistics testify to the overnight siege’s butcher bill. The Americans claimed to have killed 300 VC and captured 104 weapons, while Vietnamese records claimed the loss of 134 men killed and 290 wounded. On the South Vietnamese side, 416 of the ARVN and Montagnards stationed in and around the compound were killed and 176 wounded and 233 missing. Of the Americans, nine Special Forces troops were killed and of the Seabees, besides Shields, Petty Officer 2nd Class William C. Hoover was killed in the VC’s opening mortar attack. All seven surviving Seabees were wounded. On Sept. 13, 1966, Shields’ family traveled to the White House, where President Lyndon B. Johnson awarded him a posthumous Medal of Honor. Later, on June 5, 1966, Charles Q. Williams was alive to receive his Medal of Honor. Shields’ name was later christened to the guided missile frigate USS Marvin Shields (FF-1066), as was Camp Marvin Shields Construction Battalion Support Base in Okinawa.

Published in January 1929, “All Quiet on the Western Front” sold a million copies in Germany in its first year and two million around the world.Just a little over a decade after World War I ended, Erich Maria Remarque’s readers found themselves behind the German front lines, empathizing with German soldiers who had once been mortal enemies to the Americans, British and the French. Like the outcropping of surrealism after WWI, “All Quiet on the Western Front” opened up a new genre of books for veterans to process what they had gone through.“The novel attracted global audiences in its own time — and continues to do so nearly a century later — because it lays bare features identifiable in virtually any war: deprivation, terror, trauma, kinship, black humor, alienation from society, and (usually) some questioning of the cause,” Samantha Power, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., writes in the forward of the book’s most recent translation.However, while it is one of the most famous books to come out of WWI — or any war for that matter — “All Quiet on the Western Front” has only been translated twice from German to English. Once in 1929 by an Australian; the second translation, from 1993, is available only in the United Kingdom.Arthur Wesley Wheen’s 1929 edition, despite its numerous mistranslations and stylistic flaws, is the dominant one today, having been the only one available in the U.S. for almost one hundred years.Maria Tatar, the John L. Loeb professor of Germanic languages and literatures and chair of the Committee on Degrees in Folklore and Mythology at Harvard University, saw a gap in the literature and painstakingly restored the novel with contemporary prose while remaining faithful to Remarque’s voice. With “All Quiet on the Western Front” now in the public domain, she writes in her foreword, “we have the opportunity to try to convey its power in a new translation, and to introduce it to a new generation.”“I think my real mission was to bring back the voice of [protagonist] Paul Bäumer. To let him speak,” Tatar told Military Times. “In a way, this is a talking book. I’d like to think of it as a book that speaks to us, that gives somebody who is muted by the war, really, a voice.”“We get to process the violence of war through Paul,” Tatar continued. “And the interesting thing is that, of course, war is this world-shattering experience. Not just world shattering, but also word shattering. So there’s a strange paradox embedded in the book — we’re getting these sorts of unmediated thoughts of the soldier as he’s experiencing combat. I really did see my mission as trying to capture the register of Bäumer’s voice in English, which is, I have to say, not as easy as I thought it would be.”Calling the translation a “labor of love” Tatar strove to bring back, or rather preserve, the Germanness of “All Quiet on the Western Front.”“Translation means carrying over, carrying across,” said Tatar. “And I felt as I was translating that I was rowing across the river sticks, bringing back a dead man, giving him a voice and channeling Remarque as well.”Wheen’s 1929 translation has become the definitive translation of Remarque’s work, but according to Tatar, Wheen himself “admitted that his German was not very good.”“The manuscript was sent to me,” Wheen later reported, “as being one able to understand it, and on reading I found that I understood it less by reason of my knowledge of German, which I have but imperfectly, than by virtue of having made the experience recorded in it.”In some instances, Wheen includes the word “mate” in his translation — something no German on the Western Front would conceivably call his fellow soldiers. In another, Remarque writes about a guy “getting lucky,” which translates into English as “he had a pig.” According to Tatar, Wheen subsequently took that to mean the soldier had pork for dinner.While Brian Murdoch’s 1993 version comes closer to a true rendering of “All Quiet,” Tatar notes that there were “places where I felt uncomfortable, where the dialog is so difficult to capture in the right way, to get the right tone. And although Murdoch is successful in many ways that’s where I think he fell short, in not working hard enough to get the dialog close to something like a Hemingway style.”Remarque’s “All Quiet on the Western Front” serves as a semiautobiographical account of the author’s war. Conscripted in the German Army in 1917 at the age of 18, Remarque was hit by shrapnel in the leg, arm and neck and sent to a hospital to convalesce before returning once again to the front. Remarque’s unvarnished account of the war is evident in “All Quiet.” “It is written from the heart, not from the head,” Tatar noted. “Tim O’Brien describes in ‘The Things They Carried’ about the majesty of combat,” said Tatar. “I think he calls it the ‘esthetic purity of absolute moral indifference.’ But what I find in Remarque’s work is more of a grotesque esthetic. It’s not the majesty of combat. You get this fragmentation, destructive violence, disintegration, dissolution. And yet, in the face of all of that, there’s a subtext that endorses affective engagement, emotional engagement, sympathetic identification, almost as if to compensate for the unspeakable, physical injuries of war. So in the midst of all of this violence, we’re seeing what Paul sees. We’re feeling what he feels. You feel his pain in an extraordinary way. “As I was translating the novel there were so many, even on my 20th reading, I was still so often on the edge of tears,” Tatar continued. “And part of it is that Remarque is so skillful as a narrator, in drawing you into combat. First you get all these acoustical effects — the roar of cannon, the explosions. And then he gives you all these sensory, visual details. You’re really drawn into this explosive, terrifying scene of time.”The novel has endured for almost a century because while the tools for killing have evolved, much of warfare remains the same. There are and will always be soldiers seeking solace in the camaraderie of their peers and “wondering what the hell it achieves to kill and be killed for causes defined by others,” Powers writes.It also details the painful, deep disconnect of soldiers returning home from war.“They’re people I don’t understand,” Paul reflects. “And I both envy and loathe them.”Human nature almost ensures that there will be more generations who empathize with Paul, but Tatar hopes that her translation has “found the words for a story that we must keep reading to keep from repeating it.”