FEATURE
The Selfless Sacrifice of a Military Spouse
by Lea Johnson
When I became a military spouse, I felt
like I had received a membership to a club
I didn’t want to be part of.
Seasoned military spouses will know, sometimes we
get a bad rap. All I had heard about spouses was they
complained too much, they backstabbed one another, they felt entitled because of their spouse’s service.
And then there were the statistics. According to The
Military Officers Association of America and the Institute for Veterans and Military Families, one in four
military spouses is looking for work, 90 percent of
spouses are underemployed. There are the permanent changes of station, the deployments.
When I received that yellow identification card, I
half seriously referred to it as my “independent
affiliate” ID. I loved my husband, I was proud of his Air
Force career, but I did not want to be associated as a
dependent.
To put it simply, I was foolish and
uninformed.
Fortunately, my bad attitude did not last long and
I quickly realized the strength and camaraderie of
military spouses that is often not seen by our civilian
counterparts.
In 1984, President Ronald Regan declared May 23
to be Military Spouse Appreciation Day. Today we
observe the Friday before Mother’s Day as a day to
recognize the sacrifices, strength and devotion of the
spouses of our service members.
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This year Military Spouse Appreciation Day is on May 9.
The world loves to see pictures of soldiers returning
home to their families. They gather around to watch
our heroes be recognized. However, the unglamorous
moments, the everyday monotony of being a military
spouse often goes unnoticed. Every family, civilian
or military, faces daily challenges. However military
spouses often face these tasks with the additional
burden of having a deployed service member or living in a new community and being friendless.
Military Spouse Appreciation Day is the day the world
acknowledges the trials and tribulations, the commitments and sacrifices a military spouse makes.
The odds are stacked military spouses and their families, but what I quickly learned about being a military
spouse is these challenges are not a hindrance, but
an opportunity.
Military spouses do not stay home and complain.
They are volunteering in the community. The PSC
Spouses Club at Peterson and Schriever Air Force
Bases and Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station recently hosted a clothing swap. It was an opportunity
for families to clean out their closets and for families
in need to pick up much needed supplies.
Military spouses do not stab each other in the back.
They are helping each other to succeed. The Mountain Post Spouses Club at Fort Carson gives out
yearly scholarships to spouses and dependents
so they are able to either start or continue their
education.