Salute to Homecoming offers personal stories, articles from experts and tips for reintegrating a service member into the family routine; kicks off yearlong series of free live events with webinar on March 27

Denver, CO -- (SBWire) -- 03/26/2012 --SalutetoSpouses.com today announced the launch of “Salute to Homecoming,” a new web resource for military spouses featuring articles from experts, first-hand stories, tips and more to support spouses as they welcome home a deployed service member. Additionally, Salute to Homecoming will host a series of free podcasts and webinars throughout the year that will explore specific issues military spouses face as service member reintegrate into “normal” life after deployment. A webinar, titled “Is it Supposed to Be Like This?: Military Spouses Share Homecoming Highs and Lows,” will kickoff the free series on March 27 at 12:00 p.m. EDT.

Five contributors from SalutetoSpouses.com, who are also military spouses, will host the webinar. The panelists are:

- Samantha Carroll – An army Spouse and SalutetoSpouses.com contributor, Samantha has been married to CW2 Michael Carroll for five years. As an apache pilot he is TDY often and has deployed to Afghanistan once. Samantha and her 3-year-old daughter are preparing for Michael to deploy again to Afghanistan. The family is currently stationed in Hunter Army Air Field in Georgia.

- Jan Wesner Childs – An army Spouse and SalutetoSpouses.com contributor, Jan has been married to Mark Wesner for 21 years. Jan has spent much of her career as a journalist covering the military and deploying with U.S. troops so she understands the difficulties of deployment from both the homefront and the battlefield. The family has endured multiple short deployments as well as two that were a year long. The couple has two children and is currently stationed in Germany.

- Stephanie Loaiza – A navy spouse, Stephanie has been married to Petty Officer First Class Andrew Loaiza for eight years. He has spent 18 months on various ships and submarines deployed in oceans around the world. Stephanie rarely knows where he is actually located or when she will be able to call or even email him again.

- Allison Perkins – An army spouse and SalutetoSpouses.com editor, Allison has been married to Sgt. First Class John Marlow for 11 years. John has spent a total of 48 months deployed to the Mideast since 2003. Allison has spent time as a journalist embedded with troops deployed to both the Pacific and Iraq. The couple temporarily moved their family to Kuwait in 2005 so that Allison could travel into Iraq and work from the frontlines. Now, John, Allison and their five children, ages 9, 8, 4, 1 and 5 months, are stationed in Hawaii.

- Sarah Young – An army spouse, Sarah has been married to Maj. Bill Young for ten years. In that time, the couple has pcs'd six times, moving between Georgia, Arizona, North Carolina, Louisiana and Maryland. They recently relocated to Kansas. Sarah has served as an FRG leader and key spouse at nearly every command. Now the couple and their three children, ages 9, 7 and 5, are preparing for Bill's fifth tour to the Mideast.

“When your spouse comes home after a deployment it’s exciting to have your whole family together again, but finding a new rhythm as a unit can be challenging when you’ve gotten used to running the household and making decisions on your own. Salute to Homecoming will bring together insights from experts and the real experiences of military spouses to provide practical information,” said Ms. Perkins, Editor of SalutetoSpouses.com. “The webinar will be a terrific way to start the conversation; there is something really special about getting a group of military spouses together to talk about the topics important to us.”

The military spouse support webinar will feature both a moderated discussion from panelists discussing everything from challenges they faced, rituals or traditions they’ve developed over multiple deployments and other life lessons learned while being married to the military. Attendees will also have the chance to share their own stories and pose questions to the panelists.

The webinar is offered for free by SalutetoSpouses.com. Military spouses interested in attending are invited to register at http://www.salutetospouses.com/webinars.

Salute to Homecoming is part of SalutetoSpouses.com, an online resource edited by military spouses for military spouses that features personal stories, advice, tool and tips. The site was launched in 2011 as a complement to Bryant & Stratton College Online’s Salute to Spouses Scholarship, which provides eligible spouses up to $6,000 for online degree programs offered by Bryant & Stratton College Online. All Salute to Spouses Scholarship recipients must meet Bryant & Stratton College scholarship guidelines to receive the full award.

“The deployment and post-deployment return of a service member can be stressful on military families. Members of the military are away from their family and can feel disconnected, while spouses are left running the show by themselves, balancing raising children, maintaining a career and sometimes pursuing a degree,” said MAJ (Ret.) Ed Dennis, Military Relations Manager at Bryant & Stratton College Online and an Iraq war veteran. “At Bryant & Stratton College Online we are proud to support our military students and their families during all stages of service, by providing resources like Salute to Spouses and Salute to Homecoming.”

As a member of the Service Members Opportunities College (SOC) consortium*, Bryant & Stratton College Online adheres to the SOC principles for service members and their families. They are also an approved institution for the training of U.S. veterans and their family in accordance with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Bryant & Stratton College Online participates and accepts transfers from CLEP, DANTES, ECE and other SOC Colleges. In recognition of the schools support of veteran and military students, G.I. Jobs Magazine named Bryant & Stratton College Online a Military Friendly School for 2012.

Currently, Bryant & Stratton College Online offers five online bachelor’s degree programs and eleven online associate’s degree programs. For more information about Bryant & Stratton College and its online degree programs, visit http://www.bryantstratton.edu/Online-Learning.aspx.

*The Bryant & Stratton College-Virginia Beach campus is also a SOCNAV and SOCAD consortium member.

About SalutetoSpouses.com
SalutetoSpouses.com is a go-to resource for education and career news for military spouses. Sponsored by the Bryant & Stratton College Online's military relations department, SalutetoSpouses.com was launched as a complement to Bryant & Stratton College Online’s Salute to Scholarship, which provides eligible spouses up to $6,000 for online degree programs offered by Bryant & Stratton College Online. The articles, tips, advice columns and personal accounts on SalutetoSpouses.com uniquely support the needs of military spouses because they are created and edited by military spouses. For more information please visit http://www.salutetospouses.com.

About Bryant & Stratton College Online
Bryant & Stratton College is a private career college delivering outcomes based education and training through a flexible, contemporary curriculum in a personalized environment.  The College is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education which is an institutional accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education the Council for higher education. With locations in New York, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin, as well as an Online Education division, and a Professional Skill Center the College has been providing real world education leading to bachelor’s, associate’s degrees and professional certificates for over 155 years. Bryant & Stratton College Online offers five online bachelor’s degree programs, eleven online associate’s degree programs and eleven online certificate programs in a variety of fields including business, criminal justice, financial services, healthcare, human resources and information technology. Some online programs are not yet available in all states. For more information about our graduation rates, the median debt of graduates and other important information, please visit http://www.bryantstratton.edu/disclosures.  General information about Bryant & Stratton College and its online degrees can also be found at http://www.bryantstratton.edu/Online-Learning.aspx.

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