Articles from Family Readiness, ARMY Magazine, Headline News, and AUSA News on the Military Families
Military personnel and their families have a higher average rate of loss to scammers and other marketplace fraud due to their unique lifestyle, according to a recent report from the Better Business Bureau.
The Army has a moral and ethical obligation to take care of its soldiers and their family members, an installation and family programs experts said.
“If you think about the morale and readiness of soldiers and what maintains their will to fight our nation’s wars, the families are really critical to that for our active component as well as our reserve component,” said Col. Steve Lewis, chief of family programs for the Installations Services Directorate.
Retention rates in the Army have spiked above 90%, and the best way to maintain such numbers is to not only take care of soldiers but their families as well, senior Defense Department and Army personnel officials say.
May podcasts from the Association of the U.S. Army include a discussion about a new evaluation system for NCOs, a talk about how midlevel leaders can keep soldiers motivated and an interview with an Army spouse who wrote a song about being in a military family.
Army leaders announced some major new policies on housing, moving, spouse employment and child care aimed at improving the welfare of soldiers and their families, and they promised much more to come.
Speaking at a family readiness initiatives forum hosted Feb. 5 by the Association of the U.S. Army, Army Secretary Mark T. Esper, Vice Chief of Staff James C. McConville and Sgt. Maj. of the Army Daniel A. Dailey said they’ve done a lot of work to start addressing major complaints from soldiers and spouses and are ready to hear more ideas.
A new report from the National Military Spouse Network says technology has expanded portable career opportunities for spouses who follow a service member from assignment to assignment, but barriers remain to having meaningful work and a meaningful career.
Patty Barron, director of Family Readiness for the Association of the U.S. Army, was part of the discussion that led to release of the report about removing barriers limiting self-employment and entrepreneurship for spouses who are looking for a business or career that can move with them from post to post.
The Army’s top three leaders fielded a host of questions on problems facing Army family members and either offered solid explanations or directed senior officers in the audience to take action to solve the problems or to find better answers.
Karen Pence, wife of Vice President Mike Pence, says she is working to elevate the status of military spouses and to making a difference with spouse employment opportunities.
Karen Pence, wife of Vice President Mike Pence, told a Fort Carson, Colo., audience that providing better employment opportunities for military spouses is a priority of the Trump administration.
A Pentagon advisory committee suggests the military could be more accommodating to the more than 84,000 dual-military couples.
The Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services, known as DACOWITS, has three recommendations about co-location policies in its recently released 2017 report:
