Friday, May 9, 2008

Salute to All Military Spouses on Military Spouse Appreciation Day

In my last post I promised to describe more of my interview with Anita Rufus of the Anita Rufus Show on KNewsRadio in Palm Springs, California. And I’ll get to that promise in a moment.

First I want to share something I just learned – today is Military Spouse Appreciation Day. According to Spousebuzz, President Regan in 1984 declared the Friday before Mother’s Day as Military Spouse Appreciation Day.

In a guest blog on www.Spousebuzz.com, Lieutenant General William Caldwell, Commanding General, U.S. Army Combined Arms Center and Ft. Leavenworth, said:

“All military spouses know why their loved ones serve, and they share in their hardship and sacrifice and ask for little in return. It is humbling to those of us who wear the uniform to know that our best friends, our spouses, are serving along side us. Those of us in uniform serve because we love our Nation; our spouses do it for love of us. Our service men and women could not continue in this profession without your help, and for that we are eternally grateful … and so is our Nation.”

And this is exactly what Anita Rufus and I discussed on the air. The role of a military spouse in supporting the husband (or today, the wife) in uniform.

In 1970 there were numerous expectations of how we officers’ wives would act in supporting our husbands. Probably today the expectations are somewhat looser. (I’ve heard of one current Navy officers’ wives club that is an officers’ wives and girlfriends club. I can’t imagine that when I was a Mrs. Lieutenant.)

In my day we had very specific rules and regulations we followed, which we first learned from social functions organized by the wives of more senior officers. In fact, I wrote about my indoctrination into how to be a proper army officer’s wife in my post yesterday to the blog BACKSTORY: Where authors share secrets, truths, logical and illogical moments that sparked their fiction or memoirs. Brought to you by M.J. Rose and Jessica Keener.

You can click on this link http://mjroseblog.typepad.com/backstory/2008/05/may-4-1970-ohio.html to read about the beginning of my time as a military spouse. In the meantime, I salute all the military spouses today on the occasion of Military Spouse Appreciation Day.



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