Elmo and the Brigadier General

Elmo, the fire engine red Sesame Street Muppet, will make a special guest appearance with Army Brig. Gen. Loree Sutton, director of the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, at a press conference in Philadelphia next week. She will unveil how Elmo and his pals can help kids deal with the stress of military deployments.

Brig. Gen. Loree Sutton

This is part of a continuing outreach project with the Muppets that Sesame Street and the Defense Department kicked off in 2006, using familiar characters to help children in military families deal with tough challenges posed by both deployment and a parent's return home.

The July 16 press conference will be held at the annual conference of the Military Child Education Coalition. I hear that Patty Shinseki, a coalition board member and wife of the Veterans Affairs secretary, plans to hang with Elmo and Sutton at the press conference.

I'd love to make the press conference, but alas, I will be in the field at Fort Bliss, Texas, next week playing with all kinds of newfangled gadgets and gizmos the Army plans to "spin out" to combat units. And, yes, a business trip to torrid Fort Bliss in July is a worse prize than winning a trip to Philadelphia.