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Top spouse explains vital role of Key Spouse Program

  • Published
  • By Kimberly L. Wright
  • Air University Public Affairs
MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. --  Suzie Schwartz, the wife of Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz, brought her unique perspective to the Maxwell AFB Key Spouse Forum, sharing personal stories, words of encouragement and helpful resources.

The Key Spouse Program is an emphasis area for the Year of Air Force Family, which came into being as a result of the Caring for People Conference, she said. However, the emphasis on families will not stop when the year ends, Mrs. Schwartz vowed.

"We don't see this as just a year," she said. "We see this as a first push. We're all in this together."

According to Derrick Sanders, chief of the Family Support Branch of the Airman and Family Readiness Center, the Key Spouse Program serves an a vital liaison between families and the programs offered by the A&FRC.

"It's a formal commander and first sergeant program designed to provide informational support," he said.

In addition to providing spouses with the information and support they need to help their family survive and thrive, the key spouses can provide insight on issues that need to be addressed throughout the Air Force. The spouses serve on a volunteer basis and work hand-in-hand with the unit leadership team and the A&FRC.

A strong family is vital to mission readiness.

"Families are a source of strength," Mr. Sanders said. "When a member deploys, it is a source of comfort to those deployed knowing that their families are being well taken care of."

Mrs. Schwartz emphasized to the spouses that their role is an important one because the military spouse can more readily identify with the plight of fellow spouses.

"Spouses speak more clearly and honestly to each other," she said.

She said key spouses can be a vital means of sharing info about base-level programs that may make their lives easier. She encouraged spouses to reach out to fellow spouses even if the member hasn't been deployed.

"You don't want to wait until they've deployed," she said. "Develop relationships before that."

Even if the events the key spouses plan turn out to be sparsely attended, Mrs. Schwartz said, "never feel bad if people don't come. ... They love to know that you're doing it and they'll come if they can." She added that if three people show, those are three more connections that have been made.

"It's even better that you are volunteers because you want to be here," she said.

She emphasized the importance of a spouse network as an important way of bolstering the health of the Air Force family, which aids overall mission readiness.

"(General Schwartz) says you can't measure your worth by your proximity to the fight," she remarked. "Find your passion. Find something you're good at. Find that way that you can give back."

Mrs. Schwartz noted there are a number of helpful outside resources. Among those she highlighted were "Sesame Street," which has emphasized military families through the Elmo road show and themed episodes dealing with issues facing military families, including deployment and death; the USO, which is helping renovate a new family waiting facility in Dover, Del., to assist with mortuary services; and the Military Child Education Coalition, which provides children with a peer mentor on the first day of school to help make the adjustment to a new school easier, among other things.

The issues faced by military families are not limited to deployment-related difficulties, she noted. Among the top issues facing military spouses across all branches of the military are spouse employment, education and housing, all aspects of ordinary life that become much more complicated due to military families relocating. She gave the example of education, and how the quality and graduation requirements vary widely from locality to locality.

Lynn Peck, the wife of Air University Commander Lt. Gen. Allen Peck, echoed the sentiments of Mrs. Schwartz, understanding the stress of being an Air Force wife and trying to raise a family when one's spouse is deployed or working odd hours.

"Our spouse network was very inspiring to me," she said.

Mrs. Schwartz suggested the Air Force has some catching up to do with regard to family programs, but the service is much more family-friendly than it was in the early eighties, when spouses were discouraged from having their own careers, both by the Air Force and the workforce at large.

"Those days, they looked to see if there was a decal on your car because they were reluctant to hire you," she said.

Today the paradigm has shifted and there is an active network of support -- like the Key Spouse Program -- helping families, and that makes a huge difference.

"I support the key spouses ... I appreciate what they could have done for me as a spouse," she remarked.