Ruff's War
Page 22
Perhaps the greatest lesson I learned is the question of evaluating one’s own vulnerability to one’s own death. For eight years, my cousin Kathy lived each day as though it was her last. She desperately tried to teach her family the meaning of this. I cannot say I truly understood her teaching until I went to Iraq. My life was changed, and now I understand what Kathy meant.
I continue to practice my love of anesthesia at a local surgery center. Not a day goes by without my thinking about the tremendous training I received from and the commitment instilled in me the Navy Nurse Corps to provide care to our active-duty frontline sailors and marines. Despite how hectic my civilian job may get at times, it has become easy for me to put life back into perspective simply by reminding myself, silently, “At least no one took a shot at me today.”
Support Our Troops
Today thousands of active duty military personnel continue to protect the United States of America, bravely serving our nation in hotbeds of violence like Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Department of Defense–sponsored Web site America Supports You—Our Military Men and Women (http://www.americasupportsyou.mil/) lists many independent organizations that are ready and willing to help you support the troops. These organizations will help you send morale-boosting mail, messages, and packages to the troops. Through these organizations you may also donate frequent flyer miles, fund scholarships for military children, give gift certificates and phone cards, and provide help for the wounded and homes for disabled troops.
Some of the organizations included on the Web site are
The Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund
825 College Blvd Suite 102
PMB 609
Oceanside, CA 92057
Web site: http://www.semperfifund.org/
AdoptaPlatoon Soldier Support Effort
AdoptaPlatoon-Nanny Fran
P.O. Box 1457
Seabrook, NH 03874
Web site: http://adoptaplatoon.org
Letters From Home Program
c/o Chris and Jim Jovenitti
6631 Ridgway Jbg. Road
Johnsonburg, PA 15845
Web site: http://lettersfromhomeprogram.org
About the Authors
Cdr. Cheryl L. Ruff, U.S. Navy Nurse Corps (Ret.), presently lives in Portsmouth, Virginia, and is a nurse anesthetist at the Chesapeake Surgery Center. She enjoys traveling, running, gardening, and spending time with family, friends, and her beloved cocker spaniel, Misty.
Cdr. K. Sue Roper is a twenty-one-year veteran of the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps. While on active duty she served at various duty stations within the continental United States and overseas, specializing in the fields of psychiatric nursing and education management. Following her retirement from the navy in 1995, she was appointed to the adjunct faculty of Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia.
Author of numerous published magazine articles detailing current events, special interests, and personality profiles, she is the editor-in-chief of the NNCA News, the official newsmagazine of the Navy Nurse Corps Association.
Commander Roper lives in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and enjoys traveling the country in her RV, collecting and recording the stories of those she meets and documenting the vast and illustrious history of those who have served or are presently serving in the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps.
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Members of the Naval Institute support the education programs of the society and receive the influential monthly magazine Proceedings and discounts on fine nautical prints and on ship and aircraft photos. They also have access to the transcripts of the Institute’s Oral History Program and get discounted admission to any of the Institute-sponsored seminars offered around the country. Discounts are also available to the colorful bimonthly magazine Naval History.
The Naval Institute’s book-publishing program, begun in 1898 with basic guides to naval practices, has broadened its scope to include books of more general interest. Now the Naval Institute Press publishes about one hundred titles each year, ranging from how-to books on boating and navigation to battle histories, biographies, ship and aircraft guides, and novels. Institute members receive significant discounts on the Press’s more than eight hundred books in print.
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