FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

Why should I donate to these recordings? I am already involved in many great charities.

The reason is simple; all the other charities, everything they do and everything you do and care about are all protected and defended by our Military. None of that would be possible without their fundamental service and sacrifice. They are the foundation of everything, yes everything, you do and have.

These fellow Citizens are poised to protect us all at any time. In the case of Veterans, they have served to do exactly that to insure our security in the past, to get us where we are today.

Regardless of how you feel about the Military or the present and past conflicts, these Soldiers are always at the ready to protect our ways of life. It is a brutally difficult and extraordinarily honorable calling for the Soldiers and their Families, alike.

It has always been that way, even though we take it for granted, and let them labor under-recognized and under-supported. We are not beating a drum here. It is just a fact. They are truly fundamental to everything in our world, and they are human beings and Citizens just like us. What they do for us is so extraordinary and honorable that we miss it in our every day lives. Yet, they experience it every minute of every day, and they do it, make no mistake, for us all.

It is time for all of us to step up, in fact because of all the other things we do and have, and stop taking for granted their service and extreme sacrifices for our welfare.

With these recordings we honor what they do for us all, every man, woman, child, business, and organization. Here we are not just glad-handing them and saying "Thank you", but rather, we are giving them something so important to their lives, as indeed in all our lives, and that is the preserved voices of their Loved Ones.

Yes, precisely because of everything else you do, do this great thing and help lead us out of taking for granted our Military's risks and dedicated defense of all that is our lives.

Isn't supporting Military and their families just supporting the political war machine?

MFV recently saw the following answer to this in a readers' news service (RSN), and feels that it states it best:

"No matter how we have been led or miss led in the past, for great good and collateral harm, respectively, it is still true that today threatening elements in this world would irreparably change our way of life, if our Military was not here to intimidate those pretenders to our lives.

Being clever or denying it does not erase the fact that fellow citizens risk everything to protect us. Rhetoric to the opposite does not diminish history and the clear thread that shows that our Armed Forces’ valor and sacrifices have changed our lives for the better.

Yet, to honor, help and stand by those who serve in our Armed Forces, protects those fellow citizens who serve, and that is a proper and meaningful thing to do for the health of the society in which we have the privilege to live.

We must evolve far enough to differentiate between horrible mistakes and blunders and the honorable, appreciated service of our Armed Forces and yes their families.

It helps and heals us to help and heal them, and anything we can do to reduce their stresses, is a welcomed, healthier step for our society than statements of continual criticism of a system that sends those fellow citizens and families into harms’ way. We must learn to separate the two thoughts and actions and apply them appropriately at the proper times. The former recognizes and appreciates the complexities and risks of standing up for our country. The latter is just stress!"

[Quoted from: Reader Supported News 12-19-12: "Your Crazy Life's Stresses - Ironically - Military Family Voices Helps Mitigate" - Reader comment.]

I am already helping other charities that assist the Military. Why would I also help Military Family Voices?

The fact that you are already honoring and helping other Military charitable efforts is so important, because it shows that you not only appreciate what they do for us all but you are the kind of person who gives something of their self for that appreciation. However, the reason to also help with these recordings is because this, their voices, their Loved One's voices, are what bind all the other things they do and need together.

In fact, Military Family Voices is so unique that the Military's, active and Veterans, response from the Command, Soldiers and Families is overwhelming, because these preserving voice experiences are appreciated, needed and not available in any other form or from any other service or charity.

All those other meritorious charitable groups helping the Military are so needed and helpful. Unfortunately, the very foundations of our Military's worlds are their voices, and without these high quality audio preservations of those voices, much will be lost. For instance, many of our supporters help with Wounded Warriors. They do not stop helping Wounded Warriors to help record these Soldiers and Families, nor do they see the two as mutually exclusive. In fact they see these recording experiences as deeply needed, important to all they do; so, they step up and help, as part of the big picture of what they stand for.

We have many relatives in Military Branches near us. Why shouldn't we wait until Military Family Voices comes to our Base or Post to support it?

Every Military Family Voices activity, no matter where in the country or world, is not only supporting and honoring our Military and Families everywhere but is also developing the depth, communications, support and capacities necessary to expand appropriately to any location and Branch, including yours. It is a simple concept; your support for MFV everywhere and at all times makes it possible for these incredible recording services to strategically grow to be able to grow anywhere and at any time.

Our Volunteers and Donors recognize that honoring our Military and Families is not location-specific and that what we do at one location honors all Those Who Serve to protect us and the growth and activities everywhere will positively impact all future locations, including eventually their own.

Almost everyone has relatives or Military they know in some specific location or Branch. Our Volunteers and Donors support them all by supporting the development and growth of MFV in total. Delivering these meaningful and lasting recording experiences is universal and indeed for all our Military and Families everywhere. That is why Supporters everywhere support MFV recordings and growth everywhere, knowing their support will also make it possible for Military Family Voices to come appropriately and affectively to their locations.

Another important point to note is that MFV is committed to sustainable expansion and to only go into a new location (Base/Post) when the service can be sustained there and built as a permanent service to that location. Therefore, your support along the way as well as others' support, who are not in your area, all insure that when we come to your area, it will be permanently.

How does MFV differ from Story Corps? Why is MFV so different?

Story Corps is a wonderful audio recording program/initiative affiliated with National Public Radio that is purposed to preserve, archive and publicly share stories, experiences, memories and observations of all types -present, ancestral and historical. In short, Story Corps works to record, preserve, share and archive for the American Public "the stories of our lives".

Story Corps has also recently (2012) formed a Military-specific initiative to preserve their special stories. "The Military Voices Initiative amplifies their important stories and lets them know that we–as a nation–are listening."

Military Family Voices is an audio recording program/initiative purposed to be Military Individual and Family-centric, active and retired, in preserving voices and delivering recording experiences that are particularly valuable to the Military and Families for reducing the dysfunctions and stresses brought on by their extreme service-related separation and risk. Even when MFV records a Veteran, the service is not only honoring their service and sacrifices but also purposed to ease some of their stresses from feeling under-served, unappreciated and forgotten.

MFV does not specifically seek to record stories, or messages. MFV preserves the special qualities of voices to trigger memories. MFV also never shares the recordings with anyone but the Military and Family subjects. Subjects speak of anything as their voices are archived: from just joking around to messages to their deployed Soldier, from sharing a specific experience to Family histories, from reading stories to describing their pregnancy progress, from preserving the sounds of their growing children's voices to their interactions with their pets, their friends, buddies and units.

MFV will record the voice of an Individual or even the voices of their entire extended Family of 20 or more. MFV will record the heartbeat of a Loved One or of an unborn Child and Mother or unborn Baby sounds, or what the unborn Child hears in its Parents' voices as they read and talk to it. A Soldier may record their voice to be played back home; so, they feel they are "reaching back" to have a real vivid presence for their Loved ones -for instance to be played for their newborn and growing Child.

It is true that while capturing their voices to preserve them; stories, anecdotes, histories, observations and great Family interactions many times emerge -the "stories of our lives". However, these memories, stories and histories, when they do emerge, are life-centric and affirming and not downrange or combat-specific. For instance, when MFV records a Veteran, war experiences may surface but the focus is on preserving their voice and their present lives and memories not necessarily Military-related.

Again, with Military Family Voices, the recordings are always private to that Individual and Family and never to be shared with the Public.

Is this recording service unique?

Aren't there people out there recording Military stories and histories already?

This audio recording service is unique. There are recording services who, for instance, capture and preserve war stories on both audio and video. However, none of them do what we do, how we do it, where we do it, why we do it and focus exclusively on preserving, in quality audio only, the highly detailed voices of our Military and Families the way MFV does these recordings.

Military Family Voices is not preserving war, Military life or combat stories and experiences and does not record to share the recordings with the Public. MFV goes directly to the Soldiers and Families on Base or Post and records them to archive their individual voices as private, personal experiences, not to be shared with anyone else but their own Families. No other recording service focuses solely on the Soldiers and Families, much less to make the experiences and recordings excellent life-affirming activities and tools to help mitigate the stresses brought on by their service downrange and their separation at home. MFV does all these things and only for the benefit of our Military and Families. MFV does this as a true gift from Citizens, Businesses and Organizations who want to honor Those Who Serve. These recordings are an honoring, meaningful, truly lasting gift not to be shared with the Public or leveraged for commercial purposes.

Other services record and share stories for the public or seek to capture Military Service-specific stories, observations and experiences. MFV does not. Military Family Voices records Individual and Loved Ones' voices to capture and preserve the subtle qualities of how each of them sound at that moment in nuances of detail more closely matching what their minds retain in memory for the voices of those closest to them. Listened to any time later, voices recorded in this way trigger rushes of memories, reaching beyond simply what was said or captured on the recordings. Any stories, anecdotes, observations or histories are individual, ancestral or Family-specific and not Military-specific. The gift and experience is therefore Individual and Family and not Military-centric.

MFV is a highly personalized recording service that archives their voices for their continued private delight, bonding, connection and for the immediate and lasting comfort of their Loved Ones.

Why do you only record audio and not video?

We recorded video years ago and stopped that practice because people are different on camera. They always are, and yet they usually think the opposite to be true. We are capturing and preserving high quality voice, and everyone tends to be far more natural and relaxed, if we do not film them.

Even if we used the highest quality cameras in the world and integrated the best possible audio, the subjects would still be different acting and sounding on video than with audio alone. Especially those who really do not want to be seen but would talk if the recordings were just audio.

We do not give them a choice between audio and video because in our mind there is no choice. We are archiving their voices, and that is not done well, or as naturally, or as accessibly on video. It is as simple as that.

Later, listening to these quality audio recordings, the vivid details of their Loved Ones’ voices trigger wonderful thoughts and free memories and sight-of-mind, that are actually restricted to mainly what is seen when video is used.

In addition, in video the audio quality is generally not as good, and it cannot be played and shared as spontaneously, as often, or in as many places as pure audio.

Our saying is, "A picture is worth a thousand words, but only that."

How does Military Family Voices compare to the USO’s partnership with United for Reading as the USO’s Sweet Dreams video recordings?

United for Reading partnered with the USO is a superb program for videotaping a deployed Mom or Dad reading their Children a book or bedtime story. When played for the Children, the resultant DVD gives the separated parent a nice way to show a virtual presence in their Children’s lives back home. It is an excellent program partnership.

The Child can play the DVD over and again, and the images give comfort to both Parent and Child, alike, to stay familiar with the separated Parent, as the video reminds how they look and sound.

Military Family Voices really appreciates these programs. However, MFV is doing something quite different for the Soldiers and Families. MFV is of course audio archiving the voices of the parents and children in the highest quality possible under the circumstances and giving them an opportunity to record for much longer times (up to an hour or more). Also, MFV works to give the Soldiers and Families their recordings as they leave, and that rapid delivery is highly important to many who want to immediately send an e-mail version or a care package out to as quickly as possible share the experience. United for Reading is not a fast delivery service, and by its nature can, and does, take months to deliver the video to the Family.

In this world where digital photos, video images and Skype calls are everywhere, MFV believes that preserving the voices of the Soldiers and Families in extraordinary detail, better equaling what the brain retains in memory, is too rare. Once those Children have grown, or members of the Family pass, that detail cannot be retrieved, if these recordings were not made.

MFV believes that the video programs are important and highly valuable in helping soothe separation problems for parents and children. However, Military Family Voices is just taking it many steps further into the detail that the brain saves and recalls; so, whether for the Adult or Child, there will always be the security and comfort that the nuances of one’s Loved Ones’ voices will always be there when they are needed.

Additionally, since life is reflected in the voice, when Children grow up, away from a Parent, those changing voice sounds, in all their glorious detail, can never be experienced by that separated Parent, unless we record the changing voice's nuances along the way. Deployment and separation not only deprive those separated from the everyday changes that life reflects in the voice, but also the extreme stresses and anxieties of deployment change a person and that too is reflected in the voice. Those changes show up when reading but really emerge when the Soldier or Family is just talking about the everyday. Military Family Voices is there specifically to archive the Soldiers' and their Loved Ones' voices as they change along life's path.

Even when a Soldier returns from downrange, the vivid voice recordings they did before deployment will remind of their pre-deployment self. If they record while downrange, they are addressing their Loved Ones in a way that does not just read a story but reaches back with their clear voice to be there. Being able to play that recording over and again, at any time needed, lets the separated Soldiers and Families hear and be comforted by the changes in their voice as reflected in the trivia of everyday thoughts and connections that bond them. Whereas the videos are wonderful and should be done, such video stories, or specific video messages cannot always deliver the same everyday comfort as the MFV audio recordings bring to those who are separated.

Purposeful recording sessions are a wonderful activity for one’s Loved Ones, who do appreciate that the recordings were done just for them. All these programs, video and audio-only, deliver that feeling. However, MFV will record any number from a single Soldier to entire Families and extended Families numbering up to 20 individuals or more, which tremendously shows broad purpose and extends the bonding and life-affirming quality of the sessions. Entire extended Families can record at once or call in to be part of the activity.

There are certainly many differences between MFV and these wonderful videos. Another example of those differences would be that the videos can indeed show what a pregnant Mother looks like, but MFV can give a photo of the session and in addition, and extraordinarily so, give the Parents the audio heartbeat of the Parents or unborn Baby, or what the unborn Baby hears when their Parents read to or talk to them, or the wonderful and unusual sounds the Unborn Baby makes turning, kicking or perhaps hiccupping. On video, these things can be described, but for both parents, and especially the deployed one, hearing the Baby sounds even better than if they had actually had their ear to the belly is a priceless and bonding experience. Being able to play it over and again whenever and wherever they can is a flexibility that separation appreciates.

Can we volunteer to help no matter where we live?

Yes, just go to the Volunteer link and sign up to help. Our Military and Families sacrifice and serve for us all, no matter where we live, and our incredible Volunteers reflect that same geographic.

We are a large corporate concern and are interested in becoming a major sponsor. Do you have a complete Financial Strategic Plan that we can review?

Yes, MFV follows and is organized around the Best Practices and Procedures from the Colorado Non-Profit Association and more, resulting in a corporate structure, governance and a formal Financial Plan that is clear, compliant, transparent and available for serious review at any time.

We cannot afford large donations, will small ones or volunteering help?

Small donations are a very important part of our broad public support and help directly with making these recordings possible to the Soldiers and Families. Volunteering is the same. It makes an immediate and personal impact that assists in everything that is accomplished from getting the word out to actual recording sessions on Base or Post. In fact, all Donors and Volunteers are responsible for these Soldiers and Families receiving these recording experiences, and the Military and Families acknowledge and appreciate this fact every time we record. Your participation at any level means not only that you care and are appreciative of what they do for us all but also that you care enough to give something from your pocket or of yourself to make it happen.

Why is there no mention of the exact Sponsors and Donors on the web site?

Can the Donors and Sponsors advertise that they make this wonderful thing available?

Sponsors and Partners in support of Military Family Voices certainly can, and do, advertise to their target audiences that they are great supporters of MFV. However, Military Family Voices' Supporters, and indeed all MFV Donors, know that this recording service is absolutely at no cost, or obligation, or influence for the Military Members and their Families. That means no leveraging or marketing to the Military and Families is implied or accepted. Our wonderful Supporters know that for them to be blatantly displayed, acknowledged or mentioned on the web site would be perceived as advertising directly to the Military Members and their Families who visit and use this web site. Nevertheless, we do proudly list them here:

►To learn more about MFV Supporters, please Click Here.

Therefore, the model of support here is that the Military Members and their Families simply know that the service is to honor their service to our Nation, and that it is being given by Civilians, Businesses and Organizations who care to make it a pure, unrestricted gift –with no ulterior motives.

IMPORTANTLY NOTE: Individual Civilians, Businesses and Organizations can and do advertise all they want to illustrate that they do this wonderful thing for these Military Members and their Families. They just respectfully do not advertise that fact directly to Military Members and their Families.

My Military Service experience has left me scarred and not interested in talking about the past.

Why would I record?

We are preserving your voices for you now and for posterity. The details of the sounds of your voices are important for triggering memories and revisiting and reinforcing personal bonds. It really does not matter what you say as we record. We are doing something for you and your Family NOW in respect for your past service to our Country but not to remember, revisit, preserve or re-live that service. You have a whole new life now, and these recordings and experiences celebrate that fact and are life-affirming now and for the future. Others record war stories. MFV does not. You have a life now. That is what we speak of when we archive your voices for now and for posterity.

I served but am retired now. This recording service is not for me, is it?

It is most certainly for you. MFV is a recording service for all who serve or have served in our Military. Basically, once you sign up to serve, the service is available to you and your Family for the rest of your lives. At any one time, that is approximately 2.6 million Military Personnel, Veterans and Reservists.

As we ramp up in capacity and spread throughout the United States and World, we will always place the most vulnerable and active at the top of the priority list; nevertheless, the service is purposed for all retired and active Military and their Families. For example, an 89 year old Veteran and a deployed or deploying Soldier would be seen as higher priority than others simply because they are the most vulnerable to problems. However, every Military and related Family who wish to be recorded should and will be eventually recorded.

Is this recording service going to be for all Military Branches?

Yes, the Pilot Program has begun with the Army at Fort Carson Mountain Post, but once the program is established as permanent there, a new presence of the recording service will be made at an ever increasing number and type of Military Posts and Bases, regardless of their Military Branch.

Will these services be available overseas?

Yes, bringing high-level recording capability to our Military overseas is part of the MFV expansion plan to enable the Deployed and Remotely Stationed to experience the purposeful quality of these recordings and the comfort and connections they foster in the face of separation.

You say MFV intends to make these recordings and experiences available to all Military and Families, including Veterans and Reservists. How is that possible? Is it realistic?

MFV does these recording experiences now and has decades of experience delivering and archiving such voice recordings. Out of that experience, past and present, a modular growth plan has emerged for delivering “Modules” of recording capability/capacity to fit any size Post or Base. The Pilot Program represents one Module of capacity for a Post or Base the population Size of Fort Carson, approximately twelve thousand Military Personnel. A Post like Fort Bragg would ultimately require at least two Modules of capacity. Approaching expansion from a modular point of view helps fund and manage the expansion through straightforward discrete steps that Donors can fund and planners can manage.

This strategic approach makes it straightforward to plan for, fund and accept into the recording MFV system various populations of subjects in disperse geographic locations. The servicing of so many varied Military Branch populations and locations is very realistic. In fact, the Branches of the Military are very different, but the honor we show them and the service we give them is the same and easily scalable.

Are these recordings primarily for the command and not available to the average soldier and their families?

No. Actually Command on all levels do not wish to record before their men and women. In fact, I believe they assume they will never record because the need is so great among the Troops. It is part of their culture. That is the MFV direct experience.

You would think that recording the Command would inspire the Troops but the Command takes the view that the Troops are always first. This recording service, and the experiences of bonding for the Soldiers and Families that come out of the recording activity, are seen as highly positive and stress-reducing by the command structure. They welcome and request the service for their Troops because they know how positive it is for their well being. Therefore, the Command is nothing but positive, supportive and facilitate the recordings as much as possible. Deploying and vulnerable Soldiers and Families are the priority. Command requests it that way (for example: asking us to focus on a deploying Brigade), and they facilitate it that way. There are no exceptions in their Troop-centric attitude and support.

Is this recording service presently active and helping Soldiers and their Families?

Yes, the Pilot Program at Fort Carson Mountain Post in Colorado Springs, Colorado, is actively and consistently recording Deploying and Deployed Soldiers and Families. In fact, all of the recording photos on the web site and all the testimonials there are from the on-going Fort Carson recording sessions.

Why did the Pilot Program start with the Army and at the Fort Carson Mountain Post?

Even though the Founder is committed to having MFV serve every United States Military Personnel and their Families, and he has friends, and supporters in every Military Branch, he chose Fort Carson Army Mountain Post in Colorado Springs, Colorado for the Pilot Program because that is his hometown. He grew up there. The Founder’s Father, Uncles and Cousins were all Colonels in the Army and later in the Air Force Reserve, and it just seemed appropriate to begin there.

Also, MFV is based in Littleton, Colorado and that is reasonably close to Colorado Springs; so, early on, the Pilot Program could get the regular, rapid and efficient attention that a beginning active program going through rapid growth justifies and requires.

Fort Carson has become exemplar of what a Post or Base can embrace for Military Family Voices.

Why are there no audio samples on the web site of the soldiers’ and their families’ recordings?

Where are the testimonials?

MFV is committed to the fact that these recordings are highly personal and not for general sharing. The voices mean everything to the Loved Ones but nothing to strangers. Most of the Soldiers and Families record and feel relaxed to do so precisely because their recordings are not going to be played for listeners outside of their Family. This policy is held to without exception.

There are audio testimonials on this web site. They are generously provided by Military Families who want everyone concerned to know how the experiences are highly appreciated and how they have been fundamentally impacted by the recordings. These testimonials cover the range from a few to many deployment experience perspectives and from Soldiers to the Family Readiness Support Associates who are Military Wives and who directly support the deploying and deployed Soldiers and Families.

►For Direct Recorded Testimonials, Click Here.

Are the recording photos on the web site of actual MFV recording sessions?

Why are there no photos of soldiers recording in uniforms?

Don’t they record in uniform?

Yes, all photos of recording are always of actual MFV recording sessions.

Many Soldiers certainly record in their uniforms; however, by agreement with the Military, we never show Soldiers in their Uniforms or identify them or their Families in any way.

If a uniform is seen, it is on a model, actor or stock photo for illustration purposes only.

Again, all photos of individuals and groups recording are always of actual MFV recordings.

Are there ever any fees or costs associated with these recordings or anything hidden or ancillary for these soldiers and families?

No, never, not on any level -not even for copies in any digital format. This important service is a true gift to them in honor of all they do for us. They could not pay for it if they wanted to.

How do the soldiers and families get these recordings, and what do they do with them?

The Soldiers and Families are usually given their personal recordings shortly after their recording session ends. Sometimes they pick them up much later or have them sent to them.

Because the recordings are digital, they can be distributed to the Soldiers and Families in any supportive digital storage/playback format form -for instance: from CD’s to flash drives, to electronic transfers and any other present or future formats.

Presently most requests are for CD’s and MP-3 formats, E-mail-able-sized files.

In fact, the Soldiers and Families are always supplied with the higher accuracy “.wav” format file as well as the smaller “.mp3” file. Many times they E-mail the downrange Soldier and then send the CD in a care package.

In the future, there will be a wide array of transferable, and compact, digital storage/copy formats to choose from. MFV will continue to supply what is appropriate.

MFV will always strive to get the Soldiers and Families their recordings as soon as possible because most are anxious to send the recordings downrange to their Loved Ones. In some cases, very specific audio messages are involved that the Soldiers and Families wish to urgently deliver. Some are just anxious to listen to their voices before they are deployed.

These digital formats allow the listener, no matter where they are in the world, to listen to the recordings basically when they can and over again for comfort and connection.