The Silent, Faithful and Often Unsung Warrior: The Military Spouse
As part of National Military Appreciation Month (May) and with today being Military Spouse Appreciation Day, it truly represents a special time for the greater military and veteran communities. However within these communities, one of the most important (and unsung) roles for both the military, and the military family, is that of the military spouse.
Today, we highlight our appreciation and gratitude for the individuals that hold the lives together of those who deploy. They treat physical wounds from training or deployments, help heal our mental wounds, and continuously pick up the pieces and put us back together again.
When you peel back the layers of what military life looks like within a family dynamic, it’s complicated. It’s single-handedly taking the complexities of building and running a typical family--which is arguably one of the hardest things to balance--and applying immense pressure to every aspect.
Just imagine a well-oiled civilian family plan. It consists of school drop offs and pickups, homework, athletic team and extracurricular commitments, family time, and all of the other aspects that go into successful parenting.
Then, imagine adding external military stressors: your spouse is told they may have to uproot on a moment's notice to a foreign location. A multiple week training evolution is then initiated, which requires your spouse to spend 100% of their time in a field training environment. Unfortunately, an unprecedented event happens in the world, and your spouse now has to work 20-hour days with no warning. Eventually, your spouse comes back from an extended deployment and has trouble readjusting to family life. He or she might have suffered an injury (either physically or invisibly) and you, as a partner, have to become the support system, while having little to no experience in this area.
Military spouses are silent and faithful warriors in their own right and should be celebrated more frequently. They deal with just as much chaos, responsibility, adaptation, and grace as any warrior of valor, and the vast majority do so without asking for anything in return. The skills and traits that military spouses inherit through their experiences make them exceptional, viable leaders in any 'organization' -- whether in their homes or in a corporate boardroom. For this reason, they are as vital and as talented of an asset to employers as the veterans themselves.
At Power, we bestow the same prestige and benefits to our military spouse employees, and have extended our hiring bonuses to be equally as inclusive as the benefits offered to our veteran employees. Because they hold so much value to us as an organization, I’ve asked my veteran colleagues to share how military spouses have been key to their success, and for those that are a military spouse, what it’s truly like to be in their shoes.
It is truly an honor to be a military spouse. My husband’s service to our country has allowed me to do my part in a unique way. By helping him prepare for deployments, holding down the fort while he is away and being by his side as he re-acclimates, I am able to ease his transitions and provide the peace of mind that things are being taken care of at home. The military has shaped my husband in a way that I will forever be grateful. During his service I have watched him grow from a scared kid to the strong leader that he is today. His service has given us both a great deal of perspective and appreciation for not only the freedoms and the safety that we enjoy as Americans, but also for the time we get to spend together. -- Laura Crawford, Executive Assistant to COO; Wife to Zachary Orr-Crawford, Master Sergeant, Air Force
My wife, Kamila, is the bedrock of our family. We have three children: Benjamin, Pam and Jacob. Although I was not deployed during our marriage, she has seen me battle post-deployment life -- the highs and the lows. Throughout it all, she has stuck by my side. She has learned about my experiences and has made me a stronger, better man, husband and father. My wife has plunged into my military life, and has been just a great, shining light for me. Her support lifts me up on days when I don’t feel like being up. She always knows the pain of my past but won’t let me focus on it -- instead, we use it to keep pressing forward. -- David Hixon, Regional Project Compliance Coordinator; Sergeant, Marines
I have been blessed to have such a strong woman stand by me in this journey of life. My wife, Hannah, has played an integral part in my success in all aspects. Her unflappable dedication to self-improvement is something that I aspire to have more of, and she does so with such grace through stressful times. To manage a full-time career and take care of an entire household with two children doesn’t do her justice for all that she is. I would not have any success without her by my side. -- Alexander Recker, Customer Development Team Leader; Lance Corporal, Marines
Two years ago, I wrapped up 22 years of service as a United States Marine. I would never trade my experience of being a Marine, but service does not come without sacrifice -- not my sacrifice, but that of my family. My wife, Chika, walked beside me for 16 years of my career. That many years as a military spouse can be quite a journey that others are unable to endure. For my wife, that was four children, six moves across the country, eight different school systems, and countless friends lost along the way. Like many military families, our cumulative time apart is measured in years instead of days. I cannot count the number of missed birthdays or the lonely anniversaries that service has required her to endure. While I traveled the world doing what I loved, she sacrificed everything to ensure our family was held together. In all that she has endured to ensure that I fulfilled my dream, my wife has never asked for me to stop doing what I loved. I will never fully understand her sacrifice, nor will I ever be able to repay her for holding together the most precious gift that I could ever have -- my family. I am forever grateful for her love and support in all that I do. My private counsel and my best friend, she is the best part of my day. -- Brantley Friend, Project Production Manager; Master Sergeant, Marines
My husband Anthony and I got together one year after he was medically discharged from his 1.5 year tour in Iraq and was freshly home state-side. Being a military spouse has definitely come with its challenges but great rewards. There are mental and emotional battles you need to work through daily together. When someone has gone through so much, seen so much, and felt so much, it’s a really hard reality to come back home with. It’s almost unfathomable to truly understand what some of these men and women have gone through when you’ve only known civilian life. Anthony gives me a lot of perspective on not taking life for granted and living in the now, and you can see how much love and joy he has to be alive, to be a dad, and to be a veteran. This journey is not easy. I am so much stronger mentally because of him and what we’ve gone through together. It can be tough because it feels like two different worlds trying to coexist at first, each with experiences neither one has gone through. But we make it through the tough nights, we continue to push through the hard days, and the confidence that comes along with being his partner is truly because of him and his character. We both love and have the highest respect for what our flag represents aided by the perspective gained from his time in the military. -- Caitlin Fendler, Regional Project Coordinator; Wife to Anthony Fendler, Airborne Infantryman with the 82nd Airborne Division, 1st of the 505th PIR, 3rd BCT
Whether you are a veteran to a partner, or a military spouse yourself, a key part of the success and strength behind our military is attributed to the support systems at home. Let’s honor our spouses today and acknowledge the sacrifices they’ve made.
Interested in learning more about a great place to work for veterans and veteran spouses? Check out Power Veterans Initiative (PVI) website for more details on if Power Home Remodeling is the right place for you: www.powerveterans.com