October 26 is the National Day of the Deployed and is a day to honor all of the men and woman who have been deployed, are sacrificing, or have sacrificed their lives in defense of the United States. Additionally, this is a day to acknowledge and celebrate the families who are separated from their loved ones due to deployments. All 50 states officially observe the day as of 2012.
According to the National Day Calendar at www.nationaldaycalendar.com, “Shelle Michaels Aberle founded National Day of the Deployed in 2006. Ms. Aberle approached then North Dakota Governor John Hoeven for support of a North Dakota Proclamation for the day. Governor Hoeven was the first governor in the United States to recognize deployed troops in a formal proclamation. October 26 was chosen by Aberle’s cousin, Bottineau, ND native LTC David Hosna who was deployed to Iraq from Kaiserslautern, Germany. October 26 is the date of Hosna’s birthday.”
There are many ways to increase knowledge and understanding of those deployed and their families, such as donating to a veteran’s organization, sending care packages to those deployed, contacting veteran’s groups to see how you can help, or even using the #DayOfTheDeployed social media hashtag.
The author, US Air Force retired Brigadier General Carl Buhler, is currently the CEO of Buhler Consulting, LLC which specializes in providing consulting services to the aerospace, production, manufacturing, and defense industries. An advocate for veterans, Carl maintains an affiliation with several military and veteran support organizations.
Carl Buhler Blog 
One thought on “National Day of the Deployed”
Comments are closed.