According to recent statements made by Secretary of The Department of Defense, Robert Gates - MyCAA program may be starting literally any day now.

For more information about this and other pertinant facts please get in touch with James at (352) 354-2273 or email me at jdc352@gmail.com

when I started to write this post I directed it at the LAMES who wanted to put down military wives but after typing for 30 mins I decided I would encourage my fellow milspouses.

So to the lovely ladies of the Milspouse "club" I would like to say thank you for your service. Thanks for protecting me and my children. Thanks for scraficing valuble time with your hubby so that other can spend it with theirs. And most importantly thank you for allowing your husband to go out into the field and watch over mines. I understand how it feels to go from a two parent home to being a single mother overnight. I know how it feels to have to say Daddy is at work everyday for 365 days straight. I know how it feels to go on interview after interview only to be told you dont qualify for the position. I know how it feels to be told that Target is hiring or Walmart or to have to work at the gas station or to make minimum wage at Home Depot. Ive been there. I know what it feels like to have your back up against the wall and the only person you have is nobody because the only person you need is nowhere to be found. I've been so lonely that i second guess if my husabnd was the right man for me. I know w

I'm writing to ask your members of congress to join the Congressional Military Family Caucus in
signing a letter to the Pentagon urging Defense officials to reinstate
Military Spouse Career Advancement Accounts (CAA).

The Pentagon suspended CAA enrollments last week, citing concerns about
the potential cost because much larger-than-expected numbers of spouses
were enrolling.

Congress authorized the CAA program last year to authorize financial
support to help military spouses with education, training, and
certification/licensing expenses needed to offset career disruptions
caused by military-directed relocations.

The suspension has left 38,000 applicants hanging, with no viable
alternative. The abrupt suspension jeopardizes the tremendous goodwill
and appreciation engendered among spouses for this extremely important
program.

Additionally, my spouse is one of the 38,000. She was entering her class
codes into the system to complete her application at 5 pm one evening and
saw that they had shut down the program only 1 hour earlier. We couldn't
believe it - she had already been told by program officials by email that
she had been approved for th

MyCAA recipient since June/July 2009
Frustrated by the lack of useful information provided by the MyCAA resource line, and clearly not understanding why more specific detail or notice has been given, I started looking into the reasoning behind the sudden stop the MyCAA program has implemented. The resource line rep at MyCAA kept referring to “they” in their reasoning which I finally learned was the DOD – but who at the DOD. I started making phone calls……

On Friday, 26 February I spoke with a DOD representative supposedly connected to, or in charge of, the MyCAA program, Pat Shanaghan. This after speaking with a very secretative DOD spokesperson April Cunningham – she let Shanaghan know of my interest in speak with someone in charge of the program and passed on my contact info – she refused to give me contact information.

While talking by phone, Shanaghan unequivocally told me that the MyCAA program is an unguaranteed benefit program which never promised to provide funds past what is approved through the financial assistance voucher process, regardless of being told a total of $6000 is allocated per approved spouse. The figure that was listed in the top

Now everyone, don't forget your spiffy little magnet ribbon that shows how much you "support the troops" (by the way your money more than likely didn't help the people who sacrifice themselves and their families for you.) while you smear their spouses. They truly appreciate your hard work!

Our spouses WORK for that money. And guess what, when we move that dollar amount can go up and go drastically down. Also if the government spends too much money on say unemployment, medicaid, cash for clunkers, first time homebuyers credit and can't find ways to cut money elsewhere our "free money" decreases.

How willing would any of you be if you were told you were going to work over 100 hours in a week and have to sleep under a tree in that time and you won't be guaranteed a hot meal, definitely would never get access to an actual bathroom (pack toilet paper, you'll need it), and overtime isn't even in the vocabulary. You'd have your rear end at a lawyer or news agency rather quickly I am sure. I am sure my husband enjoys civilians trying to smear military spouses in the news on the weeks when his pay comes out to about $1.50 an hour when he's out in the field.

At what point does the opinion of the tax paying soldier/sailor/marine/air men/coast guard matter? Because apparently only the civilian tax payer matters when it comes to military benefits.

Now everyone, don't forget your spiffy little magnet ribbon that shows how much you "support the troops" (by the way your

We have spent enough of our married lives knowing that if we need something we have to get off our rear ends and find it for ourselves. We sought out education benefits because it would help our spouses financially. It helps my husband know that he won't have to leave the Army for us to be a dual income family since no one will hire me because they are convinced we'll have to move again before they can profit off of me. Most of us prefer to avoid added debt and don't enjoy just signing on the dotted line for a commitment of a loan for the foreseeable future. We are resourceful people because we have spent most of our married lives playing the role of single parent and without our spouses. We suck it up and do what needs to be done.

And yes the pay is itemized to show a "housing allowance" and I'm sure your employer could easily change up your pay stub to say this percent is for your home. Just because they itemize how our spouses are paid doesn't mean that we are getting something you aren't. Yes some people live on military bases in housing and guess what, they don't keep that money. They do LOSE that money. So it's not FREE. Our spouses WORK for that money. And guess what, wh

Okay since most people don't take the time to educate themselves BEFORE they open their mouths I'll help you out.

First of anyone who thinks YOU and the rest of the civilian world are the ONLY ones who are paying my husbands salary, our insurance, or ANY benefit we get you need to learn something. My husband pays taxes also. Military pay taxes year round UNLESS they are facing the enemy thousands of miles away doing a job quite frankly most of you apparently aren't brave enough to sign up for. Nice benefit you get right? You sleep soundly at night while my husband is on his third tour of combat. Must be nice to know that if Iran goes off their rocker YOU won't be called up because enough of our husbands and wives have done that job for you. Good not to have the draft isn't it? Yeah I thought so.

Secondly, a lot of non-military companies offer scholarships to families (INCLUDING the apparently lazy, good for nothing, freeloading wives that you all think we are.) or they match dollar for dollar the money spent on a spouse or child's education. See here's the difference between a military spouse and a civilian spouse. We have spent enough of our married lives knowing that if we

To whom it may concern:

I am writing to you for answers on the sudden halting of the MYCAA funding. I have read the statement from Mr. Thomas and in my opinion only validates the frustration of myself and fellow military spouses. The fact that you knew that this "pause" was coming and gave no warning to its recipients, including the counselors at the MYCAA is disrespectful and deploring action on the part of the DOD!

Let me first start of saying how valuable of a program this is to our military spouses! The was the first benefit we have received ( we didn't ask for, but surely appreciated) that was truly for the spouses in the sole purpose of finding a portable career that will fit the military lifestyle. This program gave a lot of spouses the opportunity to better themselves and their families as a whole.

This "pause" as they are calling it, is a pause that only benefited the DOD, for the spouses like myself who were just about to use the funding and or the ones that had just finished up or in the middle of, found themselves in dire straights. Spouses who were in the career paths such as nursing, LPN/LVN, dental assisting, Hygienist school etc..... are finding t

Never do I take any assistance I may receive for granted. We're all fighting a battle, don't assume yours is harder than mine, just because it's different.