The Life and Times of a Navy Husband

The other day I got an e-mail from a video producer for United Press International. She’s researching a potential piece on military husbands, and she wanted to chat about ideas. We talked this afternoon, and I know she also talked to John, and she contacted Mitja. It’s funny what a small world the military husband community is on the Internets.

This is the second time I’ve done an interview on the topic of military husbands. The first time was for a Newsweek piece that never appeared. It seems like journalists get this idea that there should be an interesting story about us because we’re unique: men make up only about 5% of the spouse community. But when it comes to actually doing a story…there doesn’t seem to be much of a story.

The one thing I was asked in both interviews was whether I thought existing spouse support systems were sufficient. Well, in a word, ‘No,’ but there should be a lot more discussion about it.

John had an insightful post a while back about this very topic, and I’ve been meaning to respond to it for weeks, now. The insight is that it’s not only men who aren’t getting the support they need, it’s also a lot of women.

So, how does the traditional FRG (Family Readiness Group) need to change? Military families no longer live just in base housing. Many spouses have jobs. Some have kids, some don’t. How do we address such a diverse group and make sure everyone gets the information and support they need?