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Top spouse discusses deployment family issues

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Thomas J. Doscher
  • 386th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFNS) --  The Air Force's top spouse discussed the challenges Air Force members and their spouses face during deployments while she visited the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing April 6 and 7.

Suzie Schwartz, wife of Air Force Chief of Staff Norton Schwartz, has long been considered a champion of military spouses and families. She said Air Force members and their spouses face unique challenges during deployments that other services don't face.

"It's very different, the way we deploy," she said. "The Air Force doesn't go as the Army goes. When the Army goes, there's a big send-off and a big welcome when they return for an entire unit. We deploy as units, but also as individuals. Our spouses are at places all over the globe, and sometimes no one on the base even knows that their family member is gone. So they do it in silence sometimes."

Often active in Air Force humanitarian programs, Mrs. Schwartz said Air Force officials are working on programs that help spouses while Airmen are away.

"We have lots of programs, but our spouses still do it by themselves many times, and they don't have as much camaraderie," she said. "So we're working hard to reinvigorate some programs that the Air Force had that it really wasn't focused on. We're trying to make spouses of the deployed feel more a part of a unit that's back home so that the deployment goes faster, and it's less difficult for them."

As a pilot's wife, Mrs. Schwartz said she understands the pain and challenges spouses regularly face but there are things those spouses and Airmen can do to alleviate some of it.

"They can take advantage of those programs," she said. "There are programs at the deployed bases. There are programs back home. They can keep in touch, and I know they do that very, very well."

Although it's the Airman at war, Mrs. Schwartz said they need to remember that spouses are working hard too while their husbands and wives are away. A little coordination, she said, can help a great deal and make brief moments of communication more meaningful.

"Sometimes the deployed member needs to realize that the person staying behind has a life too," she said. "Maybe they can set times to communicate, because those at home are busy too. They're doing things. They're doing their job, they're being a spouse, they're running the home. They want to hear from you so much, but maybe at that set time when they can really be calm and quiet and not driving the car with the kids in the back on their way to the commissary."

Mrs. Schwartz met with First Lady Michelle Obama in March to discuss military family issues. She said military families have a supporter in Mrs. Obama, and that the focus on family issues will be helpful in bringing attention to the challenges faced by military spouses.

"I think this means everything," she said of the visit. "Not only did she meet with us, she met with all the service chief spouses, but she also met with the spouses of all the senior enlisted leaders. Then the following week, she visited Fort Bragg, and I told her just stepping off the plane at a base says so much. She communicates to the whole country in a way that I can't, and my husband can't. It reminds them that we've been at it a long time and that there are families across this country sacrificing every single day while they go about their normal business and not really realizing what's going on. I applaud her for this."

Her unique status as the wife of the chief of staff gives her a certain measure of credibility. Mrs. Schwartz said she likes being able to act as a go-between for the Air Force and military spouses. Her visit to the 386th lets her go back and tell Air Force spouses what their husbands and wives are doing for their country.

"I can go back and look the ladies and the men in the eye and tell them the honest-to-goodness truth about what their family members are doing over here," she said. "I love coming back and telling them what it's like, what they do there and honestly to tell them that they do enjoy what they're doing. It is a hardship to be apart from your family, but the service member feels fabulous about what they're doing for the joint team and their Air Force. I can convey that in a way that active-duty members never can."

Although she can't follow him everywhere, Mrs. Schwartz said she looks forward to seeing more of the Air Force with her husband.

"My husband and I are having a wonderful time, and we're looking forward to visiting every base in the United States Air Force, if that's possible," she said.