{"id":13554,"date":"2023-06-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-02T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=13554"},"modified":"2023-06-04T19:50:26","modified_gmt":"2023-06-04T19:50:26","slug":"sea-whitehead-honors-families-of-the-fallen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=13554","title":{"rendered":"SEA Whitehead Honors Families of the Fallen"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Senior Enlisted Advisor Tony L. Whitehead, SEA to the chief, National Guard Bureau, cheers with surviving military children during the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors\u2019 29th Annual National Military Survivor Seminar and Good Grief Camp, Arlington, Virginia, May 29, 2023. The seminar welcomes hundreds of surviving military families to the nation\u2019s capital over Memorial Day weekend every year. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Sgt. 1st Class Elizabeth Pena)
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ARLINGTON, Va. \u2013 Senior Enlisted Advisor Tony Whitehead, SEA to the chief of the National Guard Bureau, honored surviving military families May 26-29 during a Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors event.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are those [military members] that served our country, those that loved you, those that you loved, and now they are gone. What is important is what they left in you,\u201d said Whitehead during the 29th Annual National Military Survivor Seminar.<\/p>\n

The seminar welcomes hundreds of surviving military families to the nation\u2019s capital over Memorial Day weekend every year. It offers a Good Grief Camp for children and workshops for grieving adults and provides opportunities for surviving family members to remember the life and legacy of their fallen loved ones, regardless of the circumstances of their death.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring Memorial Day weekend, we talk about our military members that died, whether it was in battle or as a result of injuries from battle,\u201d said Whitehead. \u201cIn this room, we have those that lost a loved one fighting for our country, and we have people who are dealing with loss from suicide or health issues from people that served honorably. We have young folks in the room who want to sit with their mentor or get a hug because they miss mom or dad. And that\u2019s OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the four-day event, Whitehead heard stories from parents, grandparents and siblings about the program\u2019s impact on their grief journey, and he helped congratulate graduating high school seniors as they walked across the stage.<\/p>\n

Memorial Day is considered the unofficial beginning of summer and the end of the school year. Students at the weekend seminar marked their achievements by walking the stage in the presence of their TAPS community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has been an investment made for the future of people that will be a part of this for years and years to come,\u201d said Whitehead. \u201cWhen you have young people who would rather spend time here, they understand the importance of TAPS and will take it to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau, and Bonnie Carroll, president and founder of TAPS, exchanged a memorandum of understanding for the Guard.<\/p>\n

Taking care of people, including National Guard families, is one of Hokanson\u2019s top priorities. TAPS is one of the partnering programs of the NGB J1-Warrior Resilience and Fitness Division, connecting National Guard members and families with support programs.<\/p>\n

Whitehead, who advises Hokanson on all enlisted matters affecting training, utilization and the force\u2019s health, said programs like TAPS enhance the Guard\u2019s efforts to take care of people and show families the military is still a part of their life, even after the loss of their military member.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn behalf of Gen. Hokanson and myself, we represent over 440,000 Soldiers and Airmen in our National Guard,\u201d said Whitehead. \u201cRight now, we\u2019ve got about 44,000 spread out across the Southwest Border, Central Command, European Command and in your cities, just doing what we do to protect our country. We support the things you do because we are [so grateful] for the support you give to our Guard families and communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carroll founded TAPS after her husband died in an Army C-12 plane crash Nov. 12, 1992. Since 1994, TAPS has provided comfort, care and resources to members of the TAPS family grieving the death of a military loved one through a national peer support network and connection to grief resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is our safe space,\u201d said Carroll. \u201cThis is our opportunity to come together as families of America\u2019s fallen heroes, as the living legacies of service and sacrifice to support each other and create community \u2014to know that we are not alone and that while our loved one served and died, their stories do not end.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more National Guard news<\/a><\/p>\n

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National Guard Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senior Enlisted Advisor Tony L. Whitehead, SEA to the chief, National Guard Bureau, cheers with surviving military children during the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors\u2019 29th Annual National Military Survivor Seminar and Good Grief Camp, Arlington, Virginia, May 29, 2023. The seminar welcomes hundreds of surviving military families to the nation\u2019s capital over Memorial Day […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13556,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13554"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13557,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13554\/revisions\/13557"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}