The Sisterhood of the Traveling BDUs

Story and photos by Master Sgt. Julie Avey

San Diego Regional Public Affairs

Battle Dress Uniforms (BDUs) travel with National Guard Members to temporary duty stations, deployments and drill weekends. Military members often pack up their BDUs, say goodbye to their families and travel to accomplish a mission. Now two young girls from the California National Guard family are packing up their things and traveling for their mission, called The Sisterhood of the Traveling BDUs.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling BDUs is a project to bring military daughters together from across California to share their experiences as military dependents. Moranda Hern, 17, daughter of Lt. Col. Rick Hern of the 144th Fighter Wing, and Kaylei Deakin, 16, daughter of Maj. Lorren Deakin of the 578th Engineer Battalion, plan to host a Military Girls Conference in Clovis, Calif., next spring, March 12-14. They hope 400 teen dependents and 100 female servicemembers will attend the two-day event. Hotel rooms will be shared by four teen participants and one servicemember.

“The conference will bring dependent girls from all [military] units in California together and link them with a common ground to share all of their experiences.” Kaylei said.

The project is in honor of parents who have had to pack up their BDUs and travel to overseas locations or natural disasters at home to serve their country.

Moranda and Kaylei hope to help other servicemembers’ daughters by sharing their own experiences. The girls grew up differently but connected as friends with common experiences; that is what they want to show others through the Sisterhood of the Traveling BDUs project.

“At the conference, we want to connect on a deep level with our sisters by removing the mask and being a teenage girl,” Moranda said.

Moranda grew up around the Air Guard, and Kaylei grew up with the Army Guard. Moranda is an only child, and Kaylei is the oldest of three daughters. Moranda has a harder shell, and Kaylei is a bit more sensitive. The girls met at a National Guard Bureau symposium in St. Louis last year, and together they realized they had similar experiences as Guard children. For instance, they did not live on a base like other military children, but they still dealt with their fathers leaving on deployments or for natural disasters.

The girls put their thoughts and feelings together and started realizing that they could make a difference in each other’s lives and that they were feeling real emotions. They helped each other grow, get better grades and build each other’s self-esteem.

Once they focused their energy toward building positive experiences as daughters of servicemembers, they found opportunities. Last fall, Moranda and Kaylei were able to brief their Military Girls Conference ideas to Brig. Gen. Mary J. Kight, assistant adjutant general of the California National Guard, and Leslie Wade, wife of Maj. Gen. William H. Wade II, adjutant general of the California Guard.

In April, at The Adjutant General’s Symposium on Family Readiness in Burlingame, Calif., Moranda and Kaylei tugged the audience’s heart strings as they briefed their plans for next year’s conference. As a part of the brief, they shared their childhood experiences as dependents. The girls know all too well how family separation can affect youths. They have struggled in the past with grades and self-image, and they say their experiences were sometimes troubling but also positive and full of opportunity.

Kaylei has already been awarded the National Teen Leadership Award by the National Teen Leadership Program for spearheading an afterschool club for military children at her high school, and Moranda was honored with the Air National Guard Youth of the Year award.

Now they want to continue making a difference by sharing how being a military child has opened up opportunities for them. Moranda and Kaylei have many ideas for next year’s Sisterhood of the Traveling BDUs conference. Topics for discussion will include college applications, self-defense, making decisions and setting goals.

After the conference, Moranda and Kaylei plan to use social networking tools such as Facebook, You- Tube and Twitter to maintain the bonds they expect to grow at the conference. They also plan to travel throughout California to interview military daughters for a video production, and they would like to create public service announcements about military children.

144th Fighter Wing - Year in Review

The California Air National Guard Base in Fresno is home to the 144th Fighter Wing. The 144th Fighter Wing's mission is to provide air defense protection for California from the Mexican border to Oregon utilizing the F-16 Fighting Falcon jet fighter aircraft. The 144th also supports the nation's Counter Drug Program and responds to state emergencies when requested by the Governor of California.  

Kitty and The Chief

Kitty is very upset about her man leaving yet again! Kitty is our cat and she frets when The Chief goes away for any length of time which means more than a day and she mopes around ignoring me and continually looking for him.

This all started when we first got her 6 years ago. The Chief went on a mission to Alaska for 4 weeks and it was pitiful. She wandered in to my office and looked at his chair to find he wasn't there and roamed endlessly looking for him and "meowing" as if to call his name. So, in her usual manner, she left with her nose in the air as if to say "he should be home it's past 3pm, so where is he?" She was so sad and very stressed at the entire situation and didn't want anything to do with me so, after 2 days I found the solution.  Well, not the complete solution!  I fished out dirty BDU's (Battle Dress Uniform) that were in the laundry basket, set them on top of chest of drawers and she was happy, she could still smell him!  She stayed there for almost the entire 4 weeks laying on the BDU's.

Kitty came to our home after much discussion with The Chief about my need for a cat. The discussion started with the fact that he really preferred dogs and didn't really like cats and my argument was that cats were much easier as they are self-sufficient whereas dogs want all your attention and they are smelly! In the end he relented and said that we could have a cat but he still didn't like them very much.  I found 

Kitty online at the local shelter and immediately emailed the shelter to put her on hold as she was the one! We went and visited her and there were a number of other cats at the shelter who were all vying for our attention saying "Pick Me"!  Kitty was in her cage and had her back to us and very disinterested in the whole affair but she was still the one.  She was already 3 years old and had been owned by a lady who had died and she was probably annoyed at how her life had changed to that point.  They said her name was "Moo" because she had the coloring of a friesian cow but once she came home she was always known as Kitty as The Chief always called her by that name.

I think Kitty heard The Chief say that he didn't like cats because she is making sure that he changes his mind.  She may not be too visible during the day, but the minute he comes home she appears from nowhere and stays with him until he leaves for work the next day. She sits on his desk at home, she sits with him as he reclines watching TV (I might add, mostly asleep with the TV on!), she sleeps beside him in the bed and in the winter keeps his head warm as he is a bit light on the top so to speak. The Chief will never admit that he really does like her but I know that is untrue as he pets her and she give him "kitty hugs" with her front paws when he scratches in the right places. 

I won't have to go through this for too many more days as the Chief will be returning from a four day TDY (Temporary Duty) in northern California and Kitty will be happy again when her man arrives home. So much for me wanting and getting a cat to keep me company when all she does is ignore me most of the time unless it is about food.