Amazing Mom takes care of Military Families While Husband is Deployed

by Jyl Johnson Pattee on September 5th, 2009 | 6 Comments »

On a typical day, Tammy Munson's alarm clock wakes her up at six o'clock in the morning. She gets herself ready, feeds the dog, wakes her daughters, sevenyear old Rebecca and 11 year old Kiersten and gets them off to school.

Then she is off and running - blogging at her own site, ArmyHousehold6, managing the PTO as its President, cleaning her house, and talking to her husband for 30 minutes a day, sometimes on the phone and sometimes by instant message.

SgtDanMunson For the last 90 days, Tammy has done her job as a parent alone. Her husband, Sgt. Dan Munson is in the middle of a 365 day deployment. This mother of two does it all with a smile, knowing her husband's job is dangerous, but necessary, "He is protecting our freedom and providing for our future. I just keep things going until he can come back to us."

Being the one at home is challenging, as much of the information she gets about her husband is 'need to know' only. She explains, "You don't know what he is doing, if he is safe, if he is hot or cold."

So Tammy keeps busy, very busy. She checks on the needs of her 'adopted troops', gathers expired coupons for military families abroad to use, generates donations for care packages for the troops in her husband's platoon, and does everything in her power to honor the men and women who serve our country.

The program she is most proud of is Help A Service Member Out (HASMO). HASMO is a rapid reaction team that responds to the needs of military service members and their families. Just about a year ago, Tammy learned of a young soldier severely, Pfc. Hunter Levine wounded in Iraq. Moved beyond words, Tammy created HASMO to help soldiers like Levine and their families get the support they need. HASMO has an email list of people willing to help as well as a list of those in need.

TammyFamily Tammy comes by her respect of the military honestly - her grandfather spent more than 30 years in the service and her father was a member of the National Guard.

Now, her husband, her children's father, fights for freedom. He will be home in the Spring for a short time and then he will be gone again. His deployment ends in Summer 2010. He is guaranteed to be home for 12 months once he is comes back to his family.

Here at home, Tammy counts the days, takes care of her own children and protects her extended military family with her every thought and action.

About the Author: Danielle Smith is a mommy to two smart and sassy small people, as well as the founder and primary author of ExtraordinaryMommy.com. You can catch her hosting a brand new live show, The Spin Cycle, on MomTV.com every Wednesday at 9pmEST. She also hosts a show on Blog Talk Radio and contributes to WhyMomsMatter. Danielle is thrilled to be contributing to MomItForward as ‘giving back’ has always been an important part of who she is and what she hopes to teach her children.

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Jyl Johnson Pattee

An active part of the Mom It Forward team, Jyl primarily writes about parenting, social good, and all things travel related. In a past life, Jyl was an award-winning copywriter and designer of corporate training programs for Fortune 100 companies. Offline, Jyl is married to @TroyPattee; a mom to two teen boys and a beagle named #Hashtag; loves large amounts of cheese, dancing, and traveling; and lives in the beautiful Rocky Mountains. Topping her bucket list is the goal to visit 50 countries by the time she's 50.