MarineParents.com is sponsoring their 7th annual conference this weekend at the Crowne Plaza hotel in downtown Houston, TX. They have a superb lineup of speakers, not a few of whom should be able to speak about the topic of combat trauma, including Nate Fick, author of "One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer" (see sidebar), Bridget C. Cantrell, Ph.D., author of "Down Range: to Iraq and Back," (see sidebar) and Michael M. Phillips, embedded Wall Street Journal reporter and author of "The Gift of Valor" (see sidebar). Not having seen the actual schedule, it's impossible to predict whether anyone's speaking on the exact topic of healing combat trauma; but it's likely that many will be alluding to the experience of combat trauma in their speeches and side discussions. If we get a copy of the schedule from this outstanding-looking conference, we'll be sure to update the blog with more detailed information.
It's very impressive that Tracy Della Vecchia, a Marine mom, set up MarineParents.com, a highly comprehensive website, originally out of her own love and concern and as an effort to communicate with and support one of her deployed Marine sons. As she worked on the original site, she found out how important and necessary getting information out was to other mothers like her. Today, the enormous and impressive, volunteer-staffed site, which seems in its way as big as forums on CompuServe were in their day, is a true testament to the other power of one person wanting to get something done that would help others. Many, many parents and other family members today of deployed Marines are probably very and rightly thankful to Ms. Della Vecchia and her far-sighted, far-reaching work on that site.
