Leaders Stress Importance of Military Families

March 3, 2010

I am happy to report that military leaders are again stressing the importance of military families.

While visiting the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing, Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told troops he was grateful for the sacrifices of military families. “What our families have done and our extended families have done that make it possible for us to serve at this extraordinary time has truly been exceptional,” he said.

My American Forces Press Service colleague, Carmen Gleason, reported about the chairman’s weeklong trip to Southwest Asia in “Mullen Cites Importance of Families, Leadership.”

“Families were critical before, but I’ve watched what families have been doing since 9/11 in supporting multiple deployments. That service and sacrifice is special at a really critical time,” Mullen said.

“We couldn’t do it without you and your families,” Mullen added. “You couldn’t be here, deploy and rest easy if things weren’t going well at home and for the support that your families have given.”

Shortly after Mullen returned  on Capitol Hill, Army leaders were telling Congress that military families are the service’s number one priority, reported another AFPS colleague, Lisa Daniel, in “Soldier, Families Top Army Priorities, Leaders Say.”

Army Secretary John M. McHugh, a former congressman himself, focused on the importance of supporting the military family in his testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee. “We remain out of balance,” McHugh told the senators. “Our all-volunteer force is a national treasure. If we wish to sustain it, soldiers and their families must be our top priority. For those of us in the Army family, it is the top priority. We sign up the soldier, we re-sign up the family.”

Family programs are so important, McHugh said, that during these tough budgetary times, installations are being directed to look elsewhere to save money. “As our installations look for ways to operate more efficiently, our family programs will be sacrosanct – they will not be touched,” he said.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. George W. Casey Jr., who joined McHugh in testifying said that he agrees that keeping military families happy is critical to force success. “Keeping our families understanding that we really are committed to them over the long haul is essential to holding this force together,” he said.

To help put the Army back in balance, Casey said it is necessary to increase the amount of time soldiers spent at home, known as dwell time. Army studies show two to three years of dwell time is needed to recover from one year of deployment, he added.