Uniform changes make life a little easier for Marines and sailors.

Cammies designed for females will soon be available for Marines.  MarineLink reports on the details.  In short, the cammies are the same as the regular Marine Corps utility uniform, but they will now be available in different (and more tailored) smaller sizes to better accomodate women with small frames.

The Navy announces a slough of new uniform regs. Navy Newstand reports about a number of changes to the Navy’s uniform regulations.  Hihlights of the changes include:

• women’s skirts
• identification badges
• the wear of civilian bags
• women’s handbags
• the wear of cellphones, etc.

You can read the full NAVADMIN HERE.

The New Jersey Star Ledger has a great article about Army chaplain Rabbi Felzenberg.  For those that don’t know, Rabbi Felzenberg is currently serving as the chief rabbi for all of the US troops serving in Iraq.

The brief article gives some insight on the daily life of a Jewish chaplain in Iraq, as well as some specifics about the rabbi.  My favorite quote has to be the rabbi’s response when asked about the sometimes poor attendance at services:

“They have a largely better alibi” than most Jews in civilian life who skip services, Felzenberg joked. “When I say, ‘I missed you at services,’ they can say, ‘I was doing a small arms search.’”

... priceless!

There are two places to go for High Holiays in the Pensacola area, B’nai Israel Synagogue (Conservative) and Temple Beth El (Reform).  Both synagogues are offering free services to and welcome all Jewish service members.  For contact information on these two synagogues, visit The Green Pages.

You can download B’nai Israel’s schedule by clicking here.

To see Temple Beth El’s schedule, click “full story”.

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I thought I would provide a little humor and light content for a change:

In case you missed our feature on kosher MREs, you may want to take a look even if you don’t keep kosher.  Why?  Because the Army is currently developing a ration that can be rehydrated with urine!  This is no joke.  Although urine is not the primary method of rehydration, “the aim is to reduce the amount of water soldiers need to carry.”

Help Me Bubby is the Jewish version of Dear Abby on the web.  While many entries address serious issues, some offer some laughs too.  I only mention this because I came across a post about someone dating a service member.  Kuddos for Bubby sticking up for the “many women married to army, navy, marine and aviators who are very happy.”

Marine Sgt. Alan D. Sherman, a reservist serving with B Company of the 6th Engineer Support Battalion, based in Dover, PA., was killed on June 29, 2004, along with two other soldiers, when a bomb exploded near the front of his convoy. This was his unit’s reported second tour of duty in Iraq. Sherman, an Ocean Township, New Jersey resident, was described at his Jewish funeral “as a Marine with a soft heart.” He was the father of two young sons. Despite his divorce, he and his ex-wife remained on good terms and he frequently saw his sons, Joshua and Logan.

Michael Tarlavsky, 30, was killed August 12, 2004 during a raid amid the fierce fighting in the Iraqi city of Najaf.
He was an army captain with the 1st Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group [Green Berets], based in Fort Campbell, Ky. He died in a hail of small-arms fire as he led Iraqi police trainees in a fight with insurgents who had blown up a school. This was Tarlavsky’s second tour-of-duty in Iraq, having spent five months there in the beginning of 2003. He also fought in Afghanistan.  Michael Tarlavsky was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

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I recently received a request from Nate Bloom to help find Jewish service members from the Bay Area (or anywhere in N. California).  Mr. Bloom is the author of two widely syndicated articles about soldiers in Iraq. 

Nate is also a San Francisco Bay Area resident and is in the process of helping the local Jewish paper (JWeekly) do a piece on local Jewish military members serving in Iraq and their families.  The newspaper is having trouble finding people for the story, so I’m helping him with the search.  If you are interested, or know someone who might be, please contact Nate at .

JWeekly, formerly the Northern California Jewish Bulletin is the only big Jewish paper in the Bay Area.  So here’s your chance to make your family proud (and friends jealous)!

The FY 2005 JWB Jewish Chaplains Council-sponsored Military Lay Leaders Workshop is projected for February 13-17 at Norfolk Naval Base, VA.  Chaplain Maurice S. Kaprow will be the host.  Chaplains and Lay Leaders should approach their Installation Chaplains for funding for lay leaders (at least for transportation).  JWB will cover billeting and kosher food for those not fully funded.  For further information e-mail

Stars & Stripes has reported about the recent efforts of the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps to develop portable ritual items.

As of now, they have only developed portable sacraments (communion wafers and wine or juice), but “Soldier Spiritual Readiness Packets” are also in the works for us Jews as well.

They come in a peel-and-serve package, “no larger than the single-serve cheese spread and crackers packages in vending machines.” The Jewish package has a Jewish prayer book and a yarmulke made of desert or woodland camouflage material.

You can see a photo of the packet on the Stars & Stripes wesbiste.

In an effort to help service members in Iraq and Afghanistan celebrate the High Holidays, Jews in Green is teaming up with The Jewish Soldier Foundation to send cards, Jewish music CD’s, and Holiday goodies to the troops.  As you can imagine, with Jews being so spread out, services will be few and far between.  But with your help, we believe we can make these most important holidays a little more special.  Click on “full story” to learn how you can help.

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I apologize for the lack of posting as of late.  The MRE story took a lot of time to produce and I’ve been pretty busy with flight school. 

Speaking of flight school… I just reached a personal milestone this past week, when I flew my first solo flight in a military aircraft!

My schedule should allow for me to catch up on a few things this week, so things will be back on track soon.  Since I’m on this topic, I’d like to remind our readers that we can always use help with the website.  If you are willing to write a small tidbit about Jewish life at your duty station, or just send us a link about a relevant story, we would be happy to edit it and post it on the site for you.