In honor of both Military Spouse Appreciation Day, May 6, and Mother’s Day, May 8, the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) partnered with the Marriott Marquis Washington, D.C., for the third-annual Military Mother’s Day Brunch.

On Saturday, May 7, the hotel welcomed more than 100 military spouses and their families for brunch, card making and cookie decorating.

Guest speakers included Natasha Harth, a Marine Corps spouse awarded the title 2016 Military Spouse of the Year by Military Spouse Magazine and Armed Forces Insurance for her work with the organization she founded, Be A Blessing, and Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Patricia McQuistion.

Harth was joined at the brunch by many of the branch and base winners, but the Army Spouse of the Year, Dave Etter, was already headed back to Kaiserslautern, Germany. Etter, a Navy veteran and a Family Readiness Group leader, hosts an internet radio show, the Male Military Spouse Radio Show, on www.Blogtalkradio.com every Friday at 11 a.m. EST.

Etter has also served as a spouse master resilience trainer, Army family teambuilding instructor, Army Family Action Plan delegate, family readiness volunteer, Ramstein Enlisted Spouses Association member and Boy Scouts of America district leader. He has volunteered more than 1,200 hours with the military and more than 7,000 hours in the past 20 years with the Boy Scouts of America.

Although Military Spouse Appreciation Day and Mother’s Day come only once a year, the challenges and rewards of being a military spouse and parent are constant.

Our sincerest congratulations go out to this year’s military spouse winners and our never-ending gratitude goes out to all those spouses who fell in love with a soldier, sailor, airman, Marine or Coast Guardsman and said "I do" to a life of service.