On today’s show, Kathleen Palmer, our Director of Content, interviews our very own Amie Fisher as she shares with us tips and tricks about owning your identity as military spouse, maximizing the opportunities inherent in that role and raising healthy military kids.

Here is this week’s News 6 mashup of stories for the week of November 6, 2023, straight from M:M News 6 Correspondent, Emma Tighe:

A group of veterans, many of them having experienced mass evacuations in Afghanistan and Iraq, lead the charge in getting Americans out of war torn Israel.

They are a part of an organization called “Save Our Allies” and another called “Special Operations Association of America” have teamed up to complete this mission.

“We all spent a lot of time at war and now [we’re] trying to use the skills of operating in a war zone, and the intelligence community, to try to help people, to try to save folks where possible,”

said Alex Plitsas, an Army veteran and SOAA board member

The organizations, mostly made up of special forces veterans, quickly flew to Israel at the beginning of the conflict on October 7. At least 30 Americans died that day alone.

They have gotten hundreds of Americans out of Israel by connecting them with the US state department or by chartering private planes. 

“We’re a huge believer in public-private partnerships,”

Palmisciano, a former Army infantry captain and co-founder of Save Our Allies, said.

“No matter how cool any [non-governmental organization] thinks they are, nobody can do more than the United States government. But we tend to be much faster than the government.”

Gaza has proven to be trickier.

“They are basically trapped by surprise, and they had nothing to do with what had transpired,” he said. “They’re just victims of circumstance or happenstance.”

“We’re not allowed to go in there and help anybody, We’re taking our cues from the United States government on that and at this time, we cannot help those people.”

Palmisciano always had a warning for Americans choosing to wait it out in Israel.

“We are currently telling Americans that if you have plans to get out, you should get out now because we’ve seen this multiple times now, where there was always a lull at the beginning where it seems like everything’s going to be alright,” he said. “But things have a tendency to get worse and we anticipate that it’ll get harder for people to easily move.”

Thank you for brave efforts and your continued service to your countrymen, veterans! You embody the motto “If you want something done right, do it yourself.” 

Find out more at foxnews.com.

General Eric Smith, Marine Commandant, experienced a medical emergency on October 29th, and remains hospitalized. 

Lt. General Christopher Mahoney, who was just named assistant commandant November 2nd, had to quickly take on his new role and his bosses role for the time being.

This has become  a not so comforting routine for the marines, as since July, the assistant commandant was juggling both jobs while waiting for commandant approval to pass through the senate.

General Smith admitted in September that trying to juggle both jobs was “not sustainable” and that he was barely sleeping.

“I don’t mind breaking my own back,” Smith said. “It’s just, I have to make good decisions.”

Smith is stable at the hospital but will be there for an undisclosed amount of time.

General Mahoney, callsign “Moe,” is a career aviator who has flown more than 5,000 hours, in the A-6, F-5, F-18 and F-35, according to his official bio and pinned his fourth star on Friday.

Most recently, he served as the deputy commandant for programs and resources, the fiscal director of the Marine Corps.

Feel better soon, General Smith! Praying for a speedy and full recovery! Find out more at military times.com.

The Senate on Thursday confirmed three military branch officer nominees— Adm. Lisa Franchetti to lead the Navy, Gen. David Allvin to be chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force and Lt. Gen. Christopher Mahoney to serve as assistant commandant for the U.S. Marine Corps.

Franchetti is the first woman to serve as a Pentagon service chief and hold a seat on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday he was pleased that the Senate confirmed the three officers. But

“we still have more than 370 superbly qualified leaders who have seen their nominations unnecessarily stalled,” he said. “As we face a variety of urgent challenges, the most powerful fighting force in history must be at full-strength.” 

Austin said the delay is hurting readiness and “unnecessarily weighed down our military families, who already give up so much to support those who serve.”

The stall led by Tuberville and widely unsupported by his colleagues has been going on for nine months. This vote was brought on by Smith’s hospitalization due to majority leader Chuck Schumer overriding the stall by voting these officers in individually.

Turberville’s team pointed out that he could have overridden the stall months ago.

Politics are a mess. Our military deserves better. Someone has ended up in the hospital. No one on that floor is innocent and yet no one on that floor has skin in the game like we do. Do better y’all. Find out more at defensenews.com.

On November 6, 1854, John Philip Sousa was born. 

Why did I choose this fun tidbit over the election of Abraham Lincoln and Benjamin Harrison?  Because the music major in me could not pass up honoring the father of all those perky little tunes we hear at every military parade, redeployment ceremony, and change of command.  That’s right the “king of American marches” penned bangers like “The Stars and Stripes Forever” (National March of the United States of America), “Semper Fidelis” (official march of the United States Marine Corps), “The Liberty Bell“, “The Thunderer“, and “The Washington Post“.

A Marine and Navy veteran himself, one of his proudest achievements was being the commander of the United States Marine Band. He even had an instrument named after him, the good all sousaphone.

He started his career enlisted in the marines at 13 as a band apprentice and He ended his career as lieutenant commander in the naval reserve after WW1. 

His marine band was the first ever audio recorded and was also the first military band to go on tour. 

Hats off and happy birthday to the man behind all those catchy tunes that get stuck in our head and create the soundtrack of our military lives!

You can check out more of this week’s top stories here.

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