Deployed service members can still read their kids a bedtime story

Published Nov. 10, 2010
By Tech. Sgt. Scott P. Farley
512th Airlift Wing Public Affairs

DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. -- Describing the fruits the hungry caterpillar ate to become a butterfly or exploring the pitfalls of giving a mouse a cookie can be part of the deep bond formed by parents who read to their kids.

It is that same bond that is often fractured in military families by deployments.

Military members separated from their children don't get to see their kids smile when Amelia Bedelia changes the bathroom towels with scissors or draws the bedroom curtains with a pencil and paper, but United Through Reading offers parents the chance to read to their kids every day. It's an opportunity many service members haven't had in the past.

"United Through Reading's partnership with the USO has led to a program that encourages children to read but also encourages a family to read together," said Joe Danner, a USO Delaware volunteer and coordinator of the local United Through Reading program. "This program is available to any deployed or deploying troops."

How it works is a servicemember who is deployed or deploying can go to one of more than 60 USO locations or 200 other Department of Defense sites to record themselves reading a book to their children. The USO encourages servicemembers to be animated and personalize the book as much as possible. This book reading strategy can come in handy when reading about the antics of a naughty little boy in "I Ain't Gonna Paint No More!" or how the purple swamp creature "Stinky" evicts a child from his swamp.

The reading is recorded onto a DVD, which is then sent with a copy of the book to the servicemember's child.

"It's very simple," said Mr. Danner. "We have a small camera that records right to a DVD. We try to give the (servicemembers) some privacy and let them read. No one else sees the DVD but you and your family."

According to Mr. Danner, the United Through Reading program was founded in 1989 with a mission of uniting families facing physical separation through the bonding experience of reading aloud to their kids. The vision of this mission is all children feeling the security of caring family relationships and developing a love for reading through reading out loud.

Mr. Danner said the program at the USO Community Center inside the Dover Air Force Base, Del., passenger terminal, was designed to be mobile, a quality that has served the program well. He has traveled with the books to other Delware locations such as Smyrna and New Castle.

"We have a read room here with a small display of books," said Mr. Danner. "But, we have everything packed into rolling carts. We have about 600 books. We'll do it here or at any base where people ask, and I'm just a phone call away, day or night."

Deployed or deploying troops are not limited to just one book on one occasion. According to Mr. Danner, troops can read a book for each of their children, as well as participate at as many locations as they like.

Tech. Sgt. David Aceveda, a 744th Communications Squadron member at Joint Base Andrews Naval Air Facility, Md., and spouse of Master Sgt. Veronica Aceveda, 512th Airlift Wing, read books to his children Sept. 24 before he deployed in October.

"This is wonderful for anybody who has a child and is going to be gone for a while," said Sergeant Aceveda. "This means a lot to me, because this will really help them remember who daddy is."

Sergeant Aceveda, whose two youngest children are both under two years old, said he wasn't nervous with the video camera and had done something similar in the past but had recently heard of this USO reading program during his pre-deployment briefings.

He added his older children, who were toddlers when he deployed to Kuwait in 2000, were able to speak to him on the phone, but it still wasn't the same as being able to see him - like in the video.

"They didn't correlate my voice to my face," said Sergeant Aceveda. "So, when they saw me again, they kind of looked at me like, 'Who are you?'.

"That's why a DVD is especially important for kids, because they can watch mom or dad as many times as they want," he said. "It's a very personal way for a deployed parent to keep a connection to their kids."

United Through Reading and the USO have afforded deployers the opportunity to make or keep that connection with their kids and answer the lingering question of what will happen if you are so brave as to give a mouse a cookie.

Story time