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McGuire Phoenix Spouse recognized

  • Published
McGUIRE AIR FORCE BASE, N.J. --  Military families are unlike many other families. Frequent relocations - uplifting children from school and spouses from jobs - and the ever-present reality of overseas deployments, can cause stress for those families. Single servicemembers and their families, back home, also have to deal with the stress that accompanies the military lifestyle. 

The Phoenix Spouse program, offered through the McGuire Airman and Family Readiness Center, provides military families with someone who can assist them in dealing with that stress before, during and after a deployment. 

Each month, the Airman and Family Readiness Center will recognize a McGuire Phoenix Spouse for all of their hard work, dedication and commitment. We thank you all for what you do as Team McGuire members and Phoenix Spouses. 

Full name: Susan McCutcheon 

Unit assigned: 305th Maintenance Squadron 

How long have you been a Phoenix Spouse? 11 months at McGuire, was a Key Spouse at RAF Mildenhall, UK previously 

What activities have you taken part in as a Phoenix Spouse? I stay in contact with spouses of deployed members within the squadron, helped organized and put on a children's Christmas party and Easter picnic for the squadron, help distribute blankets for new babies in the squadron, help organize and put on dinners for single Airmen in the squadron and helped created the Phoenix Spouse Continuity Binder used by all the Phoenix Spouses on base. 

What do you find most rewarding about being a Phoenix Spouse? The most rewarding thing about being a Phoenix Spouse is helping out a spouse in need, and the feeling of making a difference for someone; that you might have made someone's life just a little bit easier or lifted just a little bit of weight they might have been feeling. 

What do you think about this program? I believe the Phoenix Spouse program is an excellent program. It is a program geared toward making a difference in the lives of the spouses and children left behind when our active-duty men and women deploy. Some have the misconception that Phoenix Spouses are part of the squadron spouses group, and we are not. Phoenix Spouses work under the directive of and are appointed by the squadron commander and are kept at the same standard where privacy is concerned that the first sergeants and commanders are expected to maintain. 

Phoenix Spouses are here to listen if a spouse needs someone to talk to and to help find assistance for spouses that otherwise might not know where to go if something should happen. For me, the best part of being a Phoenix Spouse is hearing a spouse say, "Thank you for calling, I really needed to talk to someone today." I believe it's the simple things that make the greatest impact. 

For more information about becoming a Phoenix Spouse, call the A&FRC at (609) 754-3154.