Soldier reaches out to deaf parents

By Sgt. Natalie Rostek, 3rd HBCT Public Affairs

Blackanthem Military News

Pfc. Patti Angel, Grand Junction, Colo., a food service specialist from Company F, 203rd Brigade Support Battalion, checks her e-mail at the Morale, Welfare and Recreation tent at Combat Outpost Cleary.

COMBAT OUTPOST CLEARY, Iraq – Pfc. Patti Angel faces communication barriers no amount of waiting in line or talking into a phone from Iraq can help. Her parents are deaf.

Keeping in touch back home is already tough for deployed Soldiers with friends and family members who can hear. Not being able to use conventional means of communication at her disposal makes reaching out to her parents that much harder on Angel.

The 19-year-old food service specialist from Grand Junction, Colo., Company F, 203rd Brigade Support Battalion, Angel has found a way to communicate with her hearing-impaired parents and explained how others can do the same. She uses the Sorenson Video Relay Service to “speak” visually to her mother and father.

“They have a screen with a web-cam on their phone,” Angel said. “I talk to the interpreter, then the interpreter signs what I say to my parents. My parents then sign back to the interpreter and the interpreter talks to me.”

Angel first started signing to her parents when she was 10-months-old, before she even learned to speak. She didn’t learn to communicate vocally until her older sisters taught her English.

“We all learned to sign before we could talk,” Angel said. “My older twin sisters had to go to speech school when they were 2. Then, after my brother and I were born, our sisters taught us how to talk.”

Angel explained her parents are capable of speaking; however, those who do not talk to them on a daily basis find them difficult to understand.

Growing up in a deaf household was not as difficult as it would seem, Angel said. She compared the communication in her family to that of a Spanish-speaking family. Everyone talks to each other in their native language, but knows how to communicate with those outside of the home.

“It’s all we knew,” she said. “We knew tricks like stomping on the floor or flicking the lights to get their attention. It really wasn’t difficult at all.”

Her parents’ house in Grand Junction is set up to facilitate their active senses. Lights are used to help identify noises, such as the phone or the doorbell, Angel said. Even the family dogs, Hunny and Toby, notify those inside when visitors knock on the door.

She explained how her mother and father used a baby monitors’ flashing lights to keep tabs on her sisters as babies. As they made noise, the lights would flash. By the time she and her younger brother were born, the twins were old enough to assist the parents.

Mirrors placed around the house also help in communication.

“When you lose one (of your senses), all the others are heightened,” Angel said. “Having the mirrors all around the house is like having a lot of eyes all around the house. I love the mirrors, but at the same time, my parents can always catch me if I back-talk them.”

Her family has always been close and Angel attributes her successes and those of her siblings to her parents. Her mother and father both attended the Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind from elementary through high school.

Her parents met as seniors in high school. Her father was a sports fanatic and her mother was a cheerleader.

“I was fortunate to go to one of their class reunions and got to watch some sporting events,” Angel said. “It was interesting to see the differences. In volleyball, the referee blows the whistle, but also has to run out on the floor and stop the play. In football, they blow the whistle so the blind players hear it, but they also beat a drum so the deaf players feel the vibrations through the ground. They are actually very good players.”

Angel’s mother went on to Gallaudet University, a Washington, D.C., college for the hearing impaired. From there, she graduated with a degree in home economics and later excelled in taking care of her four children, Angel said.

Her father, now retired, worked as a bus driver for skiers in Aspen, and as a house construction specialist.

Angel’s sister, Jamie, made the decision to use her sign language skills as a career and currently works as an interpreter with deaf children in public schools. Her brother, Rusty, is a manager at an oil company in Colorado.

Angel is following her other sister, Jamie’s twin, Amy, a staff sergeant and recruiter in Grand Junction. Amy is directly responsible for recruiting Angel into the Army.

“At age 13, I went to my sister’s graduation from basic training,” Angel said. “After seeing what the Army was like, I told myself, ‘That’s what I want to do.’ After my senior year in high school, my sister recruited me.”

Angel said she has always liked to cook and work with her hands. She chose food service as her military occupational specialty when she found the Army had no need for her signing abilities.

“The Army doesn’t consider me bilingual, because they don’t allow deaf people to join,” she said. “My dad said he would have joined the Army if they allowed him to.”

As of right now, Angel said she plans on staying in the Army in her current job as a food service specialist.

“I know being a private is probably one of the hardest working jobs as far as manual labor,” she said. “But I know once I get up there in rank, I’ll be leading and training Soldiers. I’ll have that pride when I see one of my Soldiers doing their job and knowing I trained them to do it.”

When she does make the decision to leave military service, Angel said she wants to go into either cosmetology or into a job working with the deaf.

“I know kids who rebelled against their deaf parents and didn’t accept their being deaf,” Angel said. “Not us, though. We’ve always been a close family. Our deaf parents raised four very successful kids.”

Company F, 203rd BSB is in direct support of the 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment and is assigned to the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Benning, Ga., and has been deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom since March 2007.

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS:

Pfc. Patti Angel, a food service specialist from Grand Junction, Colo., from Company F, 203rd Brigade Support Battalion, serves Soldiers their meals from a Mobile Kitchen Trailer at Combat Outpost Cleary Sept. 6.

Pfc. Patti Angel, a food service specialist from Company F, 203rd Brigade Support Battalion, calls her family from Grand Junction, Colo., from a phone center at Combat Outpost Cleary Sept. 6.

The History of Christmas

Christmas is an annual holiday that celebrates the birth of Jesus. It refers both to the day celebrating the birth; as well as to the season which that day inaugurates, and which concludes with the Feast of the Epiphany. The date of the celebration is traditional, and is not considered to be his actual date of birth. Christmas festivities often combine the commemoration of Jesus’ birth with various cultural customs, many of which have been influenced by earlier winter festivals. Although nominally a Christian holiday, it is also observed as a cultural holiday by many non-Christians.

In most places around the world, Christmas Day is celebrated on December 25. Christmas Eve is the preceding day, December 24. In the United Kingdom and many countries of the Commonwealth, Boxing Day is the following day, December 26. In Catholic countries, Saint Stephen’s Day or the Feast of St. Stephen is December 26. The Armenian Apostolic Church observes Christmas on January 6. Eastern Orthodox Churches that still use the Julian Calendar celebrate Christmas on the Julian version of 25 December, which is January 7 on the more widely used Gregorian calendar, because the two calendars are now 13 days apart.

The word Christmas originated as a contraction of “Christ’s mass”. It is derived from the Middle English Christemasse and Old English Cristes mæsse, a phrase first recorded in 1038, compounded from Old English derivatives of the Greek christos and the Latin missa.^[1] In early Greek versions of the New Testament, the letter Χ (chi), is the first letter of Christ. Since the mid-16th century Χ, or the similar Roman letter X, was used as an abbreviation for Christ.^[2] Hence, Xmas is often used as an abbreviation for Christmas.

After the conversion of Anglo-Saxon Britain in the very early 7th century, Christmas was referred to as geol,^[1] the name of the pre-Christian solstice festival from which the current English word ‘Yule’ is derived.^[3]

The prominence of Christmas Day increased gradually after Charlemagne was crowned on Christmas Day in 800. Around the 12th century, the remnants of the former Saturnalian traditions of the Romans were transferred to the Twelve Days of Christmas (25 December – 5 January). Christmas during the Middle Ages was a public festival, incorporating ivy, holly, and other evergreens, as well as gift-giving.

Modern traditions have come to include the display of Nativity scenes, Holly and Christmas trees, the exchange of gifts and cards, and the arrival of Father Christmas or Santa Claus on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning. Popular Christmas themes include the promotion of goodwill and peace.

Read more stories of Christmas History on Wikipedia site. It’s pretty long to read. Enjoy it.

Let it snow! Let it snow!

Now regardless of the weather conditions wherever you’re spending this holiday season, we can at least have snow on our blog! You will see small white flakes of snow coming down on our blog. Much like snow in Chicago, the flakes won’t stay long on the ground, we think because our blog tend to be a little hot. This feature will be available for a limited time only, on January 2nd it will disappear until next year, but just imagine it as our little present to you, an opportunity to spread a little cheer. Merry Christmas!

Learn Health & Live Healthy!!

By Jimactor

Transcript:

Hi! I want to tell you about the health. I enjoy myself watching and reading the vlogs and blogs. Most of them are about politics, jokes, and some events going on around here but they never talk about the health. I think that we all should know about the health in case you have some kind of disease and what to do with it? Really, the movies are free and will give away to any organizations, clubs, schools, etc for the educational purposes. FYI, I am an actor and am in it and I have been an actor for more than 50 years. So I asked my director/producer to see if it’s okay for me to advertise this and educate all deaf people out there about that health informations. She said, go for it so that’s your chance to view it. You can read and click the website that say Learn Health & Live Healthy! You can pick different topics to watch…. 1) AIDS/HIV; 2) Breast Cancer or 3) Diabetes. If you feel it’s too long to watch, you can ask for free dvd or cd of it with more information on the website. You will enjoy it. I think it’s really important because when I made that movie for Diabetes, I read the script and learned something. I knew I have some family members who had diabetes and I don’t think I will have it and I am really fine. Later, good enough I have borderline diabetes. I was shocked but now I know what to do because I made the movie about diabetes. If not for that movie, I would have know nothing about it, how to handle and how to improve myself. I learned a lot about diabetes when they make the movie. That movie is really awesome! The movies was produced, directed, script written by, etc was Dr. Toby Perlman. That woman herself is hearing and work as a psychologist. She believe that deaf people should involve in the movies, no hearing people involved. Really, that woman is really wonderful, she give us the opportunity get the job as an actor. Enjoy the movies please! Thank you.

The website is Learn Health & Live Healthy! (http://www.advocatehealth.com/immc/services/other/deafWeb/index.html)

Awareness Ribbon Colors and Meanings

Black Ribbon :
Meaning: This color is a symbol of mourning, melanoma, and gang prevention

Blue Ribbon :
Meaning: This color is a symbol of drunk driving, child abuse, Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI), the victims of hurricane Katrina, dystonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), alopecia, Education, Epstein-Barr Virus, Save the Music, colon cancer (alternative ribbon color: brown), colorectal cancer (alternative ribbon color: brown), and anti-tobacco – particularly anti-second hand smoke (in Canada; alternative ribbon color: brown), I Love Clean Air/ILCA Campaign (Japan)

Brown Ribbon :
Meaning: This color is an anti-tobacco symbol as well as a symbol of colon cancer (alternative ribbon color: blue), colorectal cancer (alternative ribbon color: blue)

Burgundy Ribbon :
Meaning: This color is a symbol of brain aneurysm, Cesarean section (worn upside down), headaches, hemangioma, vascular malformation, hospice care, multiple myeloma, William’s syndrome, Thrombophilia, Antiphospholid Antibody Syndrome, and adults with disabilities

Dark Blue Ribbon :
Meaning: This color is a symbol of arthritis, child abuse prevention, victim’s rights, free speech, water quality, and water safety

Flag Ribbon:
Meaning: This style of ribbon is a symbol for both the victims and heros of the 9/11 attacks. It is also a symbol of patriotism and support of our troops. In addition, it is a symbol of fireworks safety.

Gold Ribbon :
Meaning: This color is a symbol for childhood cancer

Green Ribbon :
Meaning: This color is a symbol of childhood depression, missing children, open records for adoptees, environmental concerns, kidney cancer, tissue/organ donation, homeopathy, and worker and driving safety

Grey Ribbon :
Meaning: This color is a symbol of diabetes, asthma, and brain cancer

Jigsaw Puzzle Ribbon:
Meaning: This style of ribbon is a symbol for autism

Lace Ribbon:
Meaning: This style of ribbon is a symbol for osteoporosis

Lavender Ribbon :
Meaning: This color is a symbol for general cancer awareness. It can also be a symbol for epilepsy, and rett syndrome

Light Blue Ribbon :
Meaning: This color is a symbol of childhood cancer (alternative color: pink), prostate cancer, Trisomy 18, and scleroderma

Orange Ribbon :
Meaning: This color is a symbol of leukemia, hunger, cultural diversity, humane treatment of animals, and self-injury awareness

Pale Yellow Ribbon :
Meaning: This color is a symbol of spina bifida

Pearl Ribbon :
Meaning: This color is a symbol for emphysema, lung cancer, mesothelioma, and multiple sclerosis

Periwinkle Ribbon :
Meaning: This color is a symbol of eating disorders and pulmonary hypertension

Pink Ribbon :
Meaning: Most commonly associated with breast cancer awareness, this ribbon is also a symbol for birth parents, and childhood cancer awareness (alternative color: light blue)

Pink and Blue Ribbon:
Meaning: This style of ribbon is a symbol for miscarriage, stillbirth, and infant death due to SIDS or other causes

Purple Ribbon :
Meaning: This color is a symbol of pancreatic cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid cancer, domestic violence, ADD, alzheimer’s, religious tolerance, animal abuse, the victims of 9/11 including the police and firefighters, Crohn’s disease and colitis, cystic fibrosis, lupus, leimyosarcoma, and fibromyalgia

Rainbow Ribbon:
Meaning: This style of ribbon is a symbol of gay pride and support for the GLBT community and their quest for equal rights.

Red Ribbon :
Meaning: Most commonly associated with the fight against AIDS and HIV, this ribbon also is a symbol for heart disease, stroke, substance abuse, MADD, DARE, Epidermolysis Bullosa, Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy

Silver Ribbon :
Meaning: This color is a symbol for children with disabilities, Parkinson’s disease, and mental illnesses such as severe depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and anxiety disorders.

Teal Ribbon :
Meaning: This color is a symbol for ovarian, cervical, and uterine cancers as well as sexual assault, polycystic ovarian syndrome, and tsunami victims

White Ribbon :
Meaning: This color is a symbol of innocence, victims of terrorism, violence against women, peace, right to life, bone cancer, adoptees, and retinal blastoma

Yellow Ribbon :
Meaning: We’ve all seen this symbol used to support our troops, but it is also a symbol for MIA/POW, suicide prevention, adoptive parents, amber alerts, bladder cancer, spina bifida, endometriosis, and a general symbol for hope. A yellow ribbon with a heart is used to represent the survivors left behind after a suicide.

Santa Claus speaks with Deaf Child through VRS!

By Bug

Watch this video and see a Deaf girl asking Santa Claus to call her. Did Mr Claus call her through VRS? Yes!

So is there a Santa Claus?

Well, we live in a world where the idea of someone rewarding good behavior in this life, rather than the next (or at the door to the Disneyland) sounds darn nice, and particularly for children, is a good reminder of the rewards of thrift, virtue, compassion and honesty. And those are sorely missing attributes in our modern world, if you ask me.

So yes, I think that there is a Santa Claus.

I’ll certainly make sure we leave a plate of cookies and glass of milk out on Christmas Eve. How about you?

Enjoy the video.

Something happened to me today!

click on picture to enlarge it

By JFLMad

Hello I want to tell you something happened to me today about 2 hours ago. Today is my day off, I work for U.S. Postal Service. There’s no weekends off for me as we follow their policy of going by seniority ranks. My days off are on Wednesday and Thursday, today is Wednesday and what am I doing? I am going to xmas shopping and yes that’s last minute…that’s me. I am going to that shopping plaza where they have Kohl’s store, my favorite store, Xsport fitness and right across is Portiollo’s restaurant. As I enter the parking lot…all of sudden, I did not see other car coming toward to my right side and rammed my car. Lucky, nothing serious happened to me and I am okay. It’s really unexpected event as it’s my first time to have car accident in my life! It’s good thing that it happened in the rear of the car, not in the front of the car…less impact, I think. We pulled off and found out that the other driver is only 20 years old woman, that explained! She has old Jeep Wrangler and has steel bumper, my car is Ford Escape and the steel bumper rammed and destroyed my right rear passenger side badly. But good thing that my right rear wheel look fine but don’t know if it will be in good shape if drive in the long distance because the accident site to my home is only less than a mile. I got out of my car and check out the damaged area and whoa! my passenger door is tilted to left side a little bit and some damaged on the door, can’t open the door too. The lady’s jeep look perfect with minor damaged to her wheel well hub, the plastic thing. Important thing is that I am ok and she is ok too. I am showing you the pictures now. I plan to videotape it but the outside is dark and hard to see so the pictures will do and you can get idea what it looks like. *thumb up*, thank you.

P.S. – After the incident, of course I went back to home and my plan of xmas shopping was dropped. Maybe I will do it tomorrow or so. Btw, there’s no oil spill on the driveway as it is from the melting of the snow.

Did you get injuried because of sidekick pager? Call Deaf Lawyer!!!

 By Bug

Over 155,000 lawsuits were settled for billions of dollars for deaf victims. If you are injuried, contact Deaf lawyer Tom Neville and he might win your case. It’s fun to watch him playing as a lawyer in his funny video. Please click and watch his video. Be sure to leave your comment and let him know that his great sense of humor is greatly appreicated. His performances were outstanding! I’ve personally seen his act several times, and I believe he never fail to extract chuckles from his viewers. 

UPDATE:

You can find Tom’s many videos at

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=DeaFridgeProduction

iCommunicator for Deaf or Hard of Hearing

iCommunicator promotes independent communication for persons who are deaf or hard-of-hearing and encourages increased literacy by “translating” English a number of ways:

The iCommunicator translates in real-time:
• Speech to Text
• Speech/Text to Video Sign-Language
• Speech/Text to Computer Generated Voice

Watch the video. (http://www.myicommunicator.com/downloads/downloads.shtml) Morgan said he knew that he would not have much of a chance to get higher job. So he was majoring in a lower job, like mechanics. But now, he has been majoring for a higher job like computer programmer and the computer field because now he knows he has more chances.

Where did he get the idea that deaf people did not reach in high level of job?

Do you want to know how much it costs? Check the price (http://www.myicommunicator.com/purchase/pricing.shtml)

My funny experience at the airport metal detector

By Jimactor

Transcript:

Hello, I want to give you a story about what happened in around 1975. My wife and I were invited to our friend’s wedding in Kansas. We went to O’Hare airport in Chicago. We walked through the metal detector. My wife walked through the metal detector first with no problem. I walked through and the alarm beeped. The woman who worked as airport security said, ‘Come over here as you need to get your belt off’. I said, ‘Oh right, I am idiot’ so I took my belt off but when I walked through the metal detector and the alarm beeped again. She said, ‘Take anything out from your pockets’. So, I took my wallet out from my pocket. I walked through again but this time, no alarm beeped. I asked her why and she said nothing. I put my things back in my pockets. We flew to Kansas. We had a good time at our friend’s wedding. I talked to my friends about what happened in the airport. I walked through the metal detector and the alarm beeped, just only my wallet. My friend said, probably you have something inside of your wallet that had metal in it. I said, ‘Far out’, I had my driver license and nothing metal on the credit card. When we went back to home, in Kansas airport. My wife walked through the metal detector. I learned my lesson so I took my things out from my pockets before walking through the metal detector. I walked through and the alarm beeped. I was puzzled. The woman who worked as airport security said, ‘Come over here and told me to get my wallet out’. Before I went back to the metal detector, the man who worked as airport security stopped me. He patted me to make sure if I don’t have anything on my body. So, I walked through again but this time, no alarm beeped. I asked her why and she said, let me see what you have in your wallet. So I took my driver license and credit card out. She said that one. Know what it is? I used to be member of Playboy club. Their credit card had metal in it. Let me show you my Playboy credit card. When I arrived home and I read newspaper and Playboy magazine. It said lot of people had the same problem as mine about credit card. They had an idea and decided to make plastic credit card.

Years and years for a long time til a few days ago, my mind popped and told my wife, it is far out to have a Playboy member card. She said, ‘Why don’t you send a letter or email to Playboy club to see what they have to say?’ I think sending email to them is the fast way to contact them. I have not heard anything from them so I send email to them for second time. I told them that I had old Playboy club member card. Look like when they get my letter, they think ‘Jim’, he is a cheap person. If I am a movie star or famous person, for sure they will contact me and say where is your card? Maybe they take a picture of me with Playboy card or put it on the wall with frame. The name of Jim is nothing person to them but in my mind, I am happy to have it with me. It is my souvenir.

Front: Mike Finneran and Virginia
Back: Charlene and me with Playboy bunny

 

My Playboy Club member card

 

Playboy money

Click -> The history of Playboy in Chicago. (http://www.chicagobarproject.com/Memoriam/PlayboyClub/PlayboyClub.htm)