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To:
First Lady Laura Bush

March 28, 2008

Dear Mrs. Bush,

I am a Coast Guard spouse in addition, I am also a USCG veteran. I am extremely proud of our active duty members and give them my full confidence, however, I must address Mrs. Tina Whyte's letter about her "deplorable" living conditions. I find her description vastly exaggerated and utterly devoid of any personal responsibility. It makes me sad that she believes that the United States Coast Guard does not take care of their own, which is wholly untrue. Her entitlement attitude is indicative of a common theme a lot of us USCG spouses are seeing run rampant throughout not only our service, but in the DOD as well.

Mrs. Whyte accuses the Coast Guard of not having any sort of support in place for spouses. She is sadly and grossly mistaken. I would have to say that close to 90% of all USCG units have an Ombudsman available to help Coast Guard families with a multitude of problems and can always point those spouses and members towards the appropriate resources that they may need. Not only do Ombudsman exist, but the USCG also employs a department known as Work-Life, which helps members as well as their families with counseling and various other support programs. Of course, we can unit Chaplians at some of the larger units, but each Sector has a CEA or Command Enlisted Advisor that can help too though they tend to be more for the USCg member than their family, but these CEAs are not without resources to pass on to the family.

The coast Guard, while much smaller than our four sister branches does have 2 very good online support forums chocked to the gills with mounds and mounds of information for just about every unit the USCG contains. www.coastiechicks.net and www.mycoastguard.com hold thousands of members that visit each day, many times a day to help those who need anything from a cyberhug or exchange phone numbers to have someone to talk to or provide vital information about housing, schools, job market, doctors offices, and grocery stores. My point is that there are various resources out in the world for Coast Guard members and their families, but they have to be willing to ask for help and USE these resources. The people and personnel that have made these programs and places to go for help have worked so very hard to make sure that they are providing what the member and their family needs and that their programs are effective.. Without this network, many spouses would be in the dark as to how the military functions from doing a DITY move or government move by yourself to how pay works. Many spouses don't even know how thier own healthcare system works. That is a tragedy, but one that is being actively confronted by spouses like myself who try to reach out to those dependant wives and husbands who are in the dark. I believe from Mrs. Whyte's letter that she is in a state of active ignorance and does not want to put forth the effort to make her life and her children's lives better. She wants everyone else in the world to do it for her.

When all is said and done, I do not for one nanosecond believe that Mrs. Whtye actively searched out help for any multitude of her financial problems. Cable TV is not a necessity, neither is having a two vehicle family. My husband is an E9 Master Chief Petty Officer, which took him 20 years to earn and we still have to watch every single penny we spend. We have had our roughly financial times, overcame those problems, sought help, and worked to make sure that those mistakes are never made again. It's called living within your means and making sure that you can provide for your family. Having a plan, budgeting, working to ensure a healthy home, and keeping your spending habits in check is the only way to succeed finanically in this world NO MATTER if you are a CEO of a Fortune 500 company or an E3 in the military with a wife and child/ren.

I hope Mrs. Whyte gets the help she so desperately needs, but it will only happen if she wants it badly enough.

Sincerely,

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Personal opinion, but this is a spouse who appears to be a little to nosey. It wasnt her concern, and she is sticking her nose in someone elses business, like many spouses seem to do.

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Originally posted by militia1:
Personal opinion, but this is a spouse who appears to be a little to nosey. It wasnt her concern, and she is sticking her nose in someone elses business, like many spouses seem to do.

Lets keep any replies to this rebuttal only!! Do not discuss the original letter or case.

T

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Originally posted by shua_b:

quote:

Originally posted by militia1:
Personal opinion, but this is a spouse who appears to be a little to nosey. It wasnt her concern, and she is sticking her nose in someone elses business, like many spouses seem to do.

Lets keep any replies to this rebuttal only!! Do not discuss the original letter or case.

T

Are you f*cking serious? A spouse writes a letter and, basically, sticks up for the CG and you call her nosey? So, it must also be your opinion that the original letter and/or author is right in her opinions of the CG. Wouldn't you rather have a spouse respond with the resources she did to show that the original letter was bull5hit. Don't you think that would carry more weight than some CG member writing a letter since the original author doesn't seem to like too many CG members? I'll take my 10 days in the sin bin if need be, but that has to be one of the most ignorant and f#cking ridiculous posts I have ever read here.

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Originally posted by militia1:
Are you f*cking serious? A spouse writes a letter and, basically, sticks up for the CG and you call her nosey? So, it must also be your opinion that the original letter and/or author is right in her opinions of the CG. Wouldn't you rather have a spouse respond with the resources she did to show that the original letter was bull5hit. Don't you think that would carry more weight than some CG member writing a letter since the original author doesn't seem to like too many CG members? I'll take my 10 days in the sin bin if need be, but that has to be one of the most ignorant and f#cking ridiculous posts I have ever read here.

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I never said I supported the origional letter, but I think it reflects immaturity and is quite childish to go around sending emails to the Whitehouse over someones private business.

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Personal opinion, but this is a spouse who appears to be a little to nosey. It wasnt her concern, and she is sticking her nose in someone elses business, like many spouses seem to do.

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Originally posted by SociallyAutistic:
I think all them wives ought to STFU.

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Originally posted by SociallyAutistic:
I think all them wives ought to STFU.

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Militia1,
The second part of her first sentenace, " I am also a USCG veteran" Gives her the right to voice her opinion, or to be "nosey" as you put it.

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Sounds like a personal attack on a person and not the message to me. Seems like it was only a couple of months ago when I was threatened with suspension for the same thing....hmmmmmmmmm.