Here's a great blog post on a spouse's feelings and routine while her husband is deployed.  Notice she shopped on and off the post. Click here.
 
If you are in the business of technology, and especially military tech, you should know this portal.
 
Read this story on the partnership between Support America's Armed Forces, and Toyota of Puyallup.  FYI, our good friends at CDS truck driving school are hauling the baskets at no charge.
 
Tacoma Chamber's Gary Brackett has a good piece on the Cross Base in the Prosperity Blog.
Excerpt:
How to Build a Cross-Base HighwayPierce County’s long awaited and continually delayed Cross-Base Highway (SR 704) keeps looking for a solution to a need long overdue. For a project that started with a donation of right-of-way worth millions of dollars by Ft. Lewis, that head start in funding hasn’t made much progress against other state-wide projects that keep bumping the Cross-Base Highway.

As Fort Lewis is a work site that has gained 13,000 workers in the last demi-decade and seen a daily increase in thousands of vehicle trips, soldiers taking housing outside the post are continuing to seek housing in Thurston County as closer Pierce County housing is inaccessible via the congestion along the Pacific Ave.-SR 512-I-5 route, located in Parkland-Spanaway. Who hasn’t noticed the increase in congestion on I-5 south of the post as soldiers commute back and forth to Thurston County?

 
The letters went out yesterday to start building our team of sponsors and volunteers for the BIG Valentine's Day of Pampering event to support the spouses of deployed soldiers and airman on V-Day Day.
It's going to be a tough day for these spouses in the South Sound — their sweethearts will be deployed and fighting our nation's wars on a day when couples would rather be together.  BUT, with the help of community volunteers and sponsors, we can put a huge smile on the faces of our local military spouses by pampering the heck out of them from 2-6 p.m. on Valentine's Day at St. Martin's U in Lacey.
Our sponsorship letter and a run-down on who has joined the effort is available at our Group Site: www.northwestmilitary.com/community/groups/A-Valentines-Day-of-Pampering/
 
Businesses with a flag pole should know when to raise and lower their flags to half-mast, etc.  It's easy by subscribing to the state's listserve here.