Military Officer - April 2006 - (Page 24)

rapidfire Spotlight Retiree Attention! Check out these military-related entertainment offerings. BOOK >> Under the Sabers: The Unwritten Code of Army Wives (St. Martin’s Press, 2006, $23.95): Tanya Biank, a journalist and the daughter of a career Army officer, follows the lives of four women at Fort Bragg, N.C., to offer an insider’s account of the strains that military life puts on families. FILM >> Roving Mars (Walt Disney, 2006): This new film shown in IMAX Theatres documents the remarkable NASA mission that sent two intrepid, death-defying explorers — Spirit and Opportunity, the Mars rovers — to the red planet. TELEVISION >> Over There: The Complete Series (Fox Home Entertainment, 2006, $39.98): Fox has released on DVD this gripping drama from legendary television producer Steven Bochco that depicts the war in Iraq. The four-disc collection features all 13 episodes of the TV series, along with commentary from Bochco and the cast. C ol. Eileen Collins, USAF-Ret., is commander of STS-114, NASA’s return-to-ﬂight mission on the space shuttle Discovery. When did you first become interested in aviation? We lived near the National Soaring Academy when I was young, and I loved to watch the gliders ﬂy overhead. I started taking ﬂying lessons when I was 19 years old. How did the military help prepare you to be an astronaut? It helps you build self-discipline and the ability to handle several different jobs at once. Being an aircraft commander on a C-141 helped me learn to work with different types of people. What are your duties as a space shuttle commander? Before the ﬂight, ensuring that my crew is trained to carry out the mission objectives. During the ﬂight, the commander is responsible for the onorbit execution of the mission. The main tasks are ﬂying the rendezvous and docking with the International Space Station, as well as re-entry and landing. What’s the most challenging part of the job? The leadership role. That’s harder than the ﬂying or any of the on-orbit activities. It’s a challenge to bring together a crew and hundreds of support personnel and have everything go smoothly. Will you be sorry to see the space shuttle program retire? The shuttles are old; they’ve ﬂown for twice their projected lifetimes. They’re amazing technical achievements, but it’s time to move on. — Mark Cantrell New Payments for Traumatic Injuries new insurance program from the VA offers payments to servicemembers who have suffered certain traumatic injuries while on active duty. The Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance Traumatic Injury Protection program, effective Dec. 1, 2005, makes payments ranging from $25,000 to $100,000. The program provides ﬁnancial help to military families through extended periods of medical care and healing. Beneﬁts also are payable retroactively to Oct. 7, 2001, for those who suffered injuries while serving in operations Enduring Freedom or Iraqi Freedom. “Injured servicemembers should be able to focus on their recovery and adjustment back to military or civilian life,” says VA Secretary R. James Nicholson. MO RESOURCES ■ Veterans with eligibility questions should visit the VA’s Web site, www.insurance.va.gov, or call the SGLI office at (800) 419-1473. A PHOTO: STEVE BARRETT http://www.insurance.va.gov

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Military Officer - April 2006

Military Officer - April 2006 Contents From the Editor President’s Page Your Views MOAA Directory Rapid Fire Washington Scene Financial Forum Ask the Doctor Chapter Activities Lap of Luxury Magic Carpet of the Rails Blue Ridge Wonderland Salud, Santé, Cin Cin! Cover Story: Wounded Warriors On Duty MOAA Scholarship Donors MOAA Member Services Pages of History Information Exchange Member Books MOAA Calendar Advertising Index Sounding Taps Encore

Military Officer - April 2006

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