Imagine your soldier is gone more often than they are around. Imagine you don’t live close to base or know your soldier’s unit. Imagine not having down time and having the mission always come first. The Special Operations community have different needs – needs that haven’t really been researched yet. That’s where the Military Special Operations Family Collaborative comes in.

In a world filled with uncertainty, the MSOF strives to bring certainty to special operations families. They help families to recognize unhealthy habits they have created and to understand that they don’t have to stop thriving. The MSOF believes that families need to prioritize the habits that safeguard the family unit. A lot of these challenges are similar to seasoned families – but remember to invest in yourself, be aware when you’re stressed out, and always work on your communication skills.

Special operations is a unique military community that rapidly experiences repeated deployments and family separation to countries around the world. While these military families don’t move as often, they don’t get a break from deployments for a majority of their career – many families have experienced 10-20 deployments. Because of this, special operators often have different – but not special – health needs; but above all, their families face some practical health challenges confronting all too common community pitfalls.

KaLea Lehman has a broad range of experience working in healthcare policy, advocacy, communications, and education. She completed her undergraduate education at The George Washington University in 2007 and earned her Master of Education in 2018 from Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College. KaLea and her husband have been part of the special operations community for over 15 years and have five children. In their free time, they enjoy running adventures and traveling to new places with their pack.

Listeners, if you would like to learn more about the Military Special Operations Family Collaborative, check out their website here or connect with them on social media via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn.

Resource Recon with Brooklyn and Annie

This week’s Resource Recon, brought to you from our ever-empowering, Band of Bloggers is showcasing today’s show’s host, Brooklyn Morgan, with the piece entitled “An Open Letter to the National Guard Spouse.” She writes:

Dearest National Guard spouse, I see you.

Your partner is gone and you may have wonderful friends, but none understand what you’re going through. Your kids have a slew of friends and they don’t have to PCS, but they also don’t have friends that understand why their parent is gone. Your family loves you, but they too do not comprehend the feeling of a spouse being away.

Don’t worry, I see you.

Maybe you have connections that live in different states, but it’s so hard to reach out to those people on lonely nights and to ask just to talk. Maybe all you have is a friendly social media group but you don’t want to sound as if you’re weak, so you don’t say anything. Through all of that, I see you.

I see you as you support your spouse’s civilian job and service within the Guard. The stress of a normal job is magnified by the unknown of the military world.

I see your spouse as so much more than a “weekend warrior.” I see the bags ready during for activations during bad weather. I see the months gone for training and schools, the same ones done by active duty.