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MOAA ANNUAL MEETING There’s still time to register for MOAA’s annual meeting Oct. 29-31 in Orlando, Fla. Celebrate as chapters receive their Levels of Excellence awards, join MOAA in recognizing community caregivers, attend a military- and spouse-friendly career fair, and more. Register at www.moaa.org/2015 annualmeeting.

MOAA JOINS FEDERAL GIVING CAMPAIGN If you participate in the Combined Fed- eral Campaign (CFC), it makes sense to support the MOAA Scholar- ship Fund. This year the Scholarship Fund received the gold par- ticipation level through the GuideStar Exchange. In addition, the asso- ciation has received the Gold Seal of Excellence from the Independent Charities of America and Local Independent Char- ities of America. When you receive your CFC paperwork, make sure to include the MOAA Scholarship Fund (No. 11285). Find out more about how your dona- tion supports military children and military families at www.moaa .org/scholarshipfund.

Visit a Novel in Iowa A

Thousand Acres (Knopf, 1991), which won the 1992 Pu- litzer Prize for fiction, portrays

the lives of farmers tilling 10-foot-thick prairie topsoil. “The soil was the trea- sure,” says author Jane Smiley, but it had to be reclaimed from existing wet- lands with massive tile drainage sys- tems feeding deep-dug disposal wells. By the 1990s, most farms had

moved from raising a variety of animals and crops to cultivating only one or two. The novel’s farm families endure vicious storms, fluctuating corn prices, and groundwater contamination. Smiley echoes William Shakespeare’s King Lear, pivoting around a widower

and his three daughters and the fam- ily’s unmortgaged 1,000 acres. It reveals farming values and concerns — appearance to the community, his- toric disputes, matter-of-fact reactions to setbacks, the impact of inheritance taxes, and “the wisdom of the Plains.” The Heartland Acres Agribition Cen-

ter (www.heartlandacresusa.com) in Independence, Iowa, explains agriculture from 1800s sodbusting to modern tech- niques. Among the restored items is a 1944 Case SI Airborne tractor used after D-Day to clear hedgerows and open roadways for the Allied troops. — Col. Glenn Pribus, USAF (Ret), and Marilyn Pribus

Warrior Care Network

Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) announced in July the launch of a new medical care network, Warrior Care Network, to connect wounded veterans and their fami- lies with individualized mental health care. WWP and its Warrior Care Network partners will commit $100 million over three years to increase access to quality care for post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury. Warrior Care Network will expand existing regional outpatient programs and

develop innovative two- to three-week intensive outpatient programs. WWP lead- ers say the new network will serve thousands of wounded veterans and family members over the next three years.

22 MILITARY OFFICER SEPTEMBER 2015

PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK