Monthly Archives: February 2012

OpLove with the Long Road Home Project

OpLove is proud to be a part of this fantastic project by providing photographers throughout the journey to capture stunning photographs. If you know of any interested veterans, please have them go to the website below!

This summer, three American veterans and a small film crew will bicycle across the nation–from Washington State to Washington, D.C. During this four month, four-thousand mile journey we aim to document the healing power the road provides as these national heros face the personal challenges that only a bike can heal . Along the way, we will visit military bases, VAMCs, and veterans organizations, asking other veterans the urgent question: what can we do as a nation to serve our troops as they come home?

If you or anyone you know is a vet that would like to be considered for this life-changing experience, please go to www.longroadhomeproject.com

[caption id="attachment_393" align="aligncenter" width="1200" caption="Projected Route"][/caption]

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Updates to OpLove Policies

There has lately been some confusion as to what areas of deployment qualify for OpLove sessions. To aid in clarification, the Board of Directors has established these guidelines based upon the current IRS combat zone definitions:

Combat zones are designated by an Executive Order from the President as areas in which the U.S. Armed Forces are engaging or have engaged in combat. There are currently three such combat zones (including the airspace above each):

1) Arabian Peninsula Areas – the Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Gulf of Oman, the part of the Arabian Sea north of 10° North latitude and west of 68° East longitude, the Gulf of Aden, and the countries of Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

2) Kosovo area – Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), Albania, the Adriatic Sea and the Ionian Sea north of the 39th Parallel.

3) Afghanistan

In addition, we will also allow three parts of the former Yugoslavia to be treated as if it were a combat zone and therefore covered: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Macedonia.

Please note: an official letter of deployment from the command or official deployment orders are REQUIRED, and must be presented to your photographer, in addition to the Client Agreement form they will provide.

These requirements are in place to protect our organization from abuse, and allow participating photographers to better serve our military. If you have questions, please contact your participating photographer, Regional Coordinator, or OpLove directly by using the contact form at www.oplove.org. Comments to blog posts are not monitored.

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Something to Hold On To

From Shannon at Clicking Through Life:

They were walking on the beach enjoying a North Carolina sunrise when he told her that he had a couple of things that he wanted to talk to her about. Hand in hand, still in their pjs, he told her he would be deploying sooner than they had thought. She sat there in his arms reeling from the news, she wasn’t ready to let him go yet. They had thought that they had a lot more time together, at least until the summer rather than January. That was only 10 months away! He finally convinced her to continue walking down the beach with him. Thoughts of his deployment consumed her mind so she barely noticed the sound of the box falling to the sand. But when she turned, there he was, down on one knee asking for her hand in marriage.

So early in life these two have faced more than most couples do in a lifetime together. They’ve handled being separated for long periods of time, they’ve battled and beat her Thyroid Cancer and now they will be spending their first year of marriage apart while he is serving our country in Afghanistan. And although it may not bring them together in person, I am moved beyond words that I can give them something to hold on to while they are separated.

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