What We Can Learn From Our Veterans

As more and more service members take the long and winding trip home, America is bracing for their return. But beyond the stories of struggling with adjusting to civilian life is a group of men and women who are returning to make amazing contributions including volunteering, feeding the homeless and building playgrounds.
But rather than recognizing these accounts along with those of vets who suffer from mental illness or post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), most of these stories go unheard.
That’s because fewer than 1 percent of Americans have participated in the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan (only about 5 percent if family members are included) — a stark contrast to previous generations who had direct connections to military life.
But a new book from Howard Schultz, chairman and chief executive of Starbucks Coffee, and Washington Post correspondent Rajiv Chandrasekaran is seeking to change that disconnect and help weave our veterans back into the American narrative. “For Love of Country: What Our Veterans Can Teach Us About Citizenship, Heroism, and Sacrifice” details numerous accounts of life on the warfront and how the valor and bravery of our service members transcends back home.
“In 1946, if your neighbor was watering the street at night because he was kind of crazy from shell shock, you knew that everyone coming back wasn’t crazy because your brother or son or husband had served and was successfully transitioning,” Chandrasekaran tells the New York Times. “We don’t have that common understanding anymore. So if someone goes and shoots up Fort Hood, there are all those people who think all vets are a bunch of killers-to-be. And that’s not the case. So the aperture needs to widen.”
While politicians and media continue to focus on vets who struggle with life back home, Schulz and Chandrasekaran aim to illuminate accounts — even those who suffer from trauma or injury — of service members who have made huge contributions to or continue to thrive in business, education, community service and government.
“We want the legacy of this generation of veterans to be serving with courage when the country called on them to serve overseas and then, when they came back, making the country stronger through continued service here at home,” says Eric Greitens, a former Navy SEAL and Rhodes scholar.
In 2007, Greitens formed Mission Continues, a nonprofit that connects about two dozen teams of veterans with community service across the United States. The group works with nonprofits and offers veterans fellowships to volunteer for six months while providing a food and rent stipend. More than 1,000 fellows had volunteered at 600 various groups by mid-2014, according to the Washington Post
Of course, there are plenty who still struggle with the transition, and it is our responsibility to ensure they’re welcomed back with respect. The Office of Veterans Affairs estimates that around 11 to 20 percent of more than 2.4 million post-9/11 veterans suffer from PTSD, and while more companies are pledging to increase the number of veteran hires, it’s important to diminish the bias that all vets are damaged, and that those who are, are not worthy. More than anything, it is these men and women that can teach us about leadership and valor.

“It is I who should be learning from you,” Schultz told a group of West Point cadets while speaking about leadership in 2011 . “You are the true leaders.”

It’s a lesson we should all remember.

MORE: The Military-Civilian Divide Doesn’t Have to Be as Wide as It Currently Is

 

The Innovative Combat Medic That Has Developed a Life-Saving Device for the Battlefield

For more than two decades, John Steinbaugh served as a Special Forces medic in the Army, and now he’s reinvented himself as an inventor.
Steinbaugh is the man behind the company RevMedx, which is developing new technologies to keep soldiers wounded at war alive. Back in February, NationSwell reported that the company’s first invention, XStat, was awaiting FDA approval, a hurdle it cleared in April. Now, RevMedx is gearing up to supply XStat to the military, plus developing additional technologies.
Steinbaugh’s innovation grew out of his observation that people have been using gauze to staunch bleeding for centuries, but the material doesn’t work well for wounds on certain parts of the body, such as the armpit and pelvis.
Steinbaugh tells Cat Wise of the PBS NewsHour, “Back in 2006-2007, at the height of the war, medics were getting fed up with the standard gauze. And we started seeing wounds that were much worse than what we were seeing at the beginning of the war. Medics were having more difficulties stopping the bleeding. And the way the medics described the device they wanted was fix-a-flat. So if you think of your tire, you inject the fix-a-flat into your tire, it finds the escaping air, it plugs it, and done.”
Steinbaugh couldn’t provide Army medics with fix-a-flat for people, but the product inspired his idea for a syringe loaded with tiny, compressed sponges that instantly expand when inserted into a wound, thereby stopping the bleeding. When Steinbaugh retired from the military he started RevMedx in Portland, Ore., and a $5 million grant from the Army sustained the company during the three years needed to develop XStat.
The sponges in an XStat are coated with blood-clotting medicine and expand 15 times their original size — applying pressure to the wound and stopping arterial bleeding within 20 seconds, according to testing the company has done. Additionally, each sponge includes markers detectable by X-ray so that surgeons can easily locate and remove them.
The company has starting shipping XStat to the military and is already modifying the idea for civilian applications, as well as developing a gauze with XStat sponges inside: XGauze.
Steinbaugh says, “Ever since the first day we started working on this, there’s been an immediate interest for other types of products, smaller shrapnel wounds, or small-caliber pistol wounds, and even in the civilian community, like law enforcement, or prison knife wounds and stabbings.”
MORE: Two Keys to the Future: 3-D Printing and Employed Veterans
[ph]

How This Company is Combatting Unemployment Among Millennial Vets

Young people have long been struggling with soaring unemployment rates. But veteran millennials between the ages of 18 and 24 are grappling with a 21.4 percent unemployment rate, according to the Bureau Labor of Statistics. That’s because the skills that vets acquire in the military are difficult to transition to some of the high-tech jobs available in the United States.
Sharp Decisions, a business and technology consulting firm, is focusing on changing that statistic in New York City, one of the top 10 American cities with regards to veteran unemployment rates.
Through its Vocation, Education and Training for Service members (V.E.T.S.) Program, Sharp Decisions hire former service members as full-time employees and then trains and deploys them to clients in teams including other vets. The company puts each vet through an intensive training boot camp before outsourcing them to companies such as EmblemHealth, Experian and Freddie Mac.  The program, entirely funded by Sharp Decisions, never uses the GI Bill or asks for government assistance.
Karen Ross, CEO of Sharp Decisions, founded the program not only because it was morally right, but also because it was a smart business decision. With expertise military training, vets are often efficient at completing a task. Under the pilot V.E.T.S. program, teams often completed projects in only two weeks, compared to the three months it would take an average civilian consultant, according to the company. In situations such as this, vets remain on Sharp Decision’s payroll when finishing a project early.
More recently, Sharp Decisions was one of three companies honored by the Rockefeller Foundation for innovations in hiring companies across the country.

“These three small businesses have developed business models that leverage the unique advantages that youth bring to a business. In doing so, they have achieved positive financial returns that make their strategies attractive for other businesses to replicate. As a result, they have benefitted their communities by creating sustainable social change,” according to the Foundation.

MORE: This Innovative Car Company Makes Employing Veterans Part of Its Mission

Decades Later, These Veterans Get Their Due

The widespread disdain over the Vietnam War meant that veterans returning home didn’t receive a heroes’ welcome. For some, this caused a sense of shame that worsened the difficulties that military members often face when transitioning to civilian life. And while the war ended almost 40 years ago, some service members at Joint Base Lewis McCord in Tacoma, Wash. wanted to show their appreciation to those vets that fought in Vietnam.
So they threw a big welcome-home party to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War. (According to a presidential proclamation, the 50th anniversary of this long-running conflict can be observed any time between 2012 and 2025.) More than 2,500 veterans and their families packed the JBLM parade field and retired General Barry McCaffrey spoke to the crowd, which included representatives of all branches of the military.
“It is never too late, never too late, to pay tribute to the men and women who served and continue to serve our country,” I Corps Commander Lt. Gen. Stephen Lanza tells Adam Ashton of The News Tribune.
Veteran Stephen Stribling returned from Vietnam in 1968 and was moved by the long-delayed tribute. “I’m like a baby to something like this. It’s so unreal,” he says.
Seventy-nine-year-old Magnum Tulto, an Army veteran, was similarly delighted by the honor. “When we came home as Vietnam veterans, they didn’t like us. I’m glad they like us now,” he tells Ashton.
One Army Lieutenant Colonel, Jeff Schmidt, brought his Vietnam Veteran father-in-law all the way across the country from Coral Springs, Fla. to attend the salute. “I feel it’s important to give them the welcome home that soldiers get today. They served our country just as honorably as us,” Schmidt says.
MORE: The Surprisingly Simple Actions Helping Veterans Visit the Memorials That Honor Their Service

What Happens When You Give a Soldier a Pen Instead of a Gun?

For seven years, members of a Philadelphia-based nonprofit have been traveling the country turning the stereotype of veterans not speaking about their military service on its head.
Warrior Writers hosts regular workshops for veterans in Chicago; Ithaca, N.Y.; New York City and Boston; as well as visiting workshops in other cities to help soldiers (regardless of age) express their feelings and experiences through poetry and prose.
This year Warrior Writers is teaming up with Combat Paper, a nonprofit teaching vets how to turn their old uniforms into artful paper (read our story about the organization here), to offer three writing and paper-making workshops in New Jersey. These efforts were made possible by a $135,000 grant from Impact 100 Garden State.
After the veterans and active-duty service personnel polish their writing at the workshop in Morristown, N.J., they will be presenting their work during the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival at the NJ Performing Arts Center in Newark on October 25.
One participant in the Morristown workshop is Sarah Mess of Branchburg, N.J. Mess served in the Army in Somalia and wrote a piece in the voice of male soldiers who didn’t think she belonged. “She thinks too highly of herself,” Mess reads in a video for Daily Record. “Let’s knock this girl back down to her stupid, dumb girl position. Come on, boys, sic her. Get her. Beat her. Kick her. Don’t let her up. But she’s bleeding. Good for her. That’s what she gets. She should have never joined the Army.”
“I’m able to express and tap into things here that maybe I didn’t even know were still stirring, like I did today,” Mess tells Lorraine Ash of Daily Record. “I’m able to bring those things to the surface and share them in safe spaces with people who’ve experienced similar things. The draw is that it’s veterans working with veterans. The draw is that we don’t call it therapy. When you start calling things therapy, it creates an aversion to wanting to participate because of the stigma. This works because it’s just community.”
Eli Wright, who works for Combat Paper NJ and served as a medic in the Army, tells Ash that while explorations of painful topics like Mess’s piece are welcome, “We’re not all here because we are broken by the military and trying to heal. We have a lot of veterans involved in these projects who are not combat veterans. A lot served during peacetime, but they’re still artists and they still have plenty of things to say. It’s not all about war trauma.”
Clearly, it’s about art.
MORE: This Paper Can Heal Veterans
 

How the Government Plans to Protect Military Families Against Unscrupulous Lenders

In 2007, Congress passed the Military Lending Act in response to stories of service members sinking under debt or losing their homes because payday lenders or unscrupulous life insurance providers targeted them.
While this law capped the acceptable interest rate for payday loans offered to service members at 36 percent, it only covered loans of up to $2,000 that lasted for 91 days or less and car loans of 181 or fewer days. Many financial predators didn’t bat an eye and found ways to get around the changes — increasing the loans they offered to $2,001, extending them for a period beyond 181 days, or keeping them open-ended, without a set date for repayment. Another trick was to offer an interest rate under 36 percent for the first 91 days, only to increase the rate (sometimes by quadrupling it or raising it even higher!) on day 92.
Richard Cordray, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, tells the New York Times, “We have seen firsthand how lenders use loopholes in the rule to prey on members of the military. They lurk right outside of military bases, offering loans that fall just beyond the parameters of the current rule.”
According to a Wall Street Journal survey, 39 percent of active-duty service members report being short on cash between paychecks, 16 percent are over their credit limit on credit cards, and 10 percent find themselves unable to pay their monthly bills.
Ed Olander, a personal financial maager at Naval Base San Diego’s Fleet and Family Support Center tells Alan Zibel and Ben Kesling of the Wall Street Journal that the lenders are “really like Whac-A-Mole, you hit them in one area and they pop up in another.”
Fortunately, the Defense Department recently announced a plan that would expand the types of loans covered by the existing legislation beyond payday lending to include credit cards, retail payment plans and other financial products. The new plan will also eliminate the time-period limitations, making it more difficult for lenders to play around with repayment schedules. Finally, it will not allow lenders to force borrowers to agree to settle disputes through arbitration — making it possible for military members to sue lenders for predatory practices.
Indebtedness of military members and their families is a vexing problem. Not only is it sad for those that have served their country to be saddled with so much financial hardship, but the stress it causes can contribute to homelessness among veterans. Additionally, soldiers in debt can be labeled a security risk, leading to their security clearances being stripped and leaving them unable to perform their jobs.
The payday loan industry, and legislators who accept campaign money from these businesses, of course, oppose the proposed changes, but those behind them hope to have the new rules in place by 2015.
 
 

The Start-Up That’s Recruiting 50,000 Military and Veteran Drivers

Uber, the ride-sharing company founded in San Francisco in 2009, noticed something interesting about the ratings its drivers received: Those earning the most accolades were often military members or veterans. Additionally, current and former military member drivers tended to make more trips than civilian drivers through Uber.
These findings sparked a new initiative announced last week: UberMILITARY, an effort to recruit 50,000 veterans, military members and their spouses to become Uber drivers over the next 18 months. Representatives from the company will visit veteran job fairs, offer recruitment bonuses and waive city fees and deposits for veterans.
Uber runs a background check on its driver applicants, and then if they pass, puts them through an online training course. Additionally, it provides financing to its drivers to buy a new car or lets them drive their own car. Uber takes a 20 percent cut of the driver’s gross earnings (the drivers pay for gas, insurance, and maintenance themselves).
Some have pointed out that earning a lot of money through Uber requires working a very long week, but the benefit for military members might be the flexibility. Drivers can work when they want and as much or as little as they want — making it a reasonable gig for someone who is attending school, has a spotty job record (as some military spouses do due to multiple moves) or might be called up to active duty with little notice.
Robert Gates, former Secretary of Defense, is serving as the volunteer chairman of the Ubermilitary advisory board. He and Travis Kalanick, Uber’s CEO, write in Politico, “Too often, businesses do not have a clear understanding of how service members’ skills might translate to the civilian workplace. UberMILITARY is a reflection that high-quality service, an unparalleled commitment to safety and the leadership potential inherent to small business entrepreneurship are values shared by those who have selflessly served our country.”
MORE: The Innovative Car Company That Aims to Hire More Veterans
 

This Award-Winning Veteran Is a One-Woman Giving Machine

The Veterans’ Voices Award is an honor given by the Minnesota Humanities Center (MHC) that recognizes former service members giving back to their communities in a way “that is going above and beyond the call of duty,” MHC Communications Director Christi Shortridge tells William Loeffler of the Southwest Washington County Bulletin.
Recently, 28-year-old Amber Manke of Milaca, Minn. was honored with this distinction for her incredible record of service.
“I’m incredibly humbled and wondering why I was selected over all the other candidates that were nominated,” Manke says. But those familiar with all of the good work that Manke does in her community aren’t surprised.
In addition to her school and military duties, Manke volunteered over 100 hours last year at Second Harvest, Habitat for Humanity, Feed My Starving Children, Make A Wish Foundation and the Mission Continues (a nonprofit that supports veterans as they transition to civilian life). Additionally, she coaches a team for Girls on the Run, an organization that helps girls — especially low-income ones — learn about running and healthy behavior.
She also took time on Veterans Day last year to speak to elementary school students about what the holiday means. “I like being a soldier,” she told a group of third graders, according to Lesley Toth of the Mille Lacs County Times. “I love going out and making sure you guys are safe back here.”
Manke helps others in part because she knows what it’s like to be in need of assistance. She grew up in poverty with an out-of-work mother, living on a farm with 13 brothers and sisters, often visiting food banks when they were hungry. Manke began working when she was 15 years old and worked two jobs while attending college.
In 2012, Amber Manke was selected from among thousands of applicants to become a Tillman Military Scholar. The scholarships, sponsored by the Pat Tillman Foundation, help military members pay school expenses that aren’t covered by the G.I. Bill. Manke is using her funding to pursue a Ph.D. in organizational leadership and policy development at the University of Minnesota.
And that’s not all she’s been up to. Somehow, she found the time to complete the 2013 New York City Marathon, raising money for the Pat Tillman Foundation.
“Everyone says that they don’t have enough time,” she says. “I truly believe that you make time for the things that are important to you.”
It’s a safe bet that we can expect to hear about more accomplishments from this dynamic veteran in years to come.
MORE: When Vandals Trashed A Park, A Group of Veterans Came to the Rescue
 

A Small Island That Makes a Big Difference for America’s Veterans

Having just returned from leave, Luis Puertas was in the lead of a four-vehicle patrol unit in Iraq on Sept. 20, 2006, when an IED, hidden at the base of a street lamp, suddenly exploded. As a result of the blast, Puertas lost both of his legs and several members of the 4th Infantry Division were injured. Dozens of surgeries and years of rehabilitation put Puertas’ life on hold, and relaxation was the farthest thing from his mind.
But this summer, Puertas received a much-deserved vacation, thanks to Holidays for Heroes.
Founded in 2013 by summer resident Tom McCann, Holidays for Heroes brings Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families to Nantucket, Mass., for all-inclusive retreats. Banners at the nonprofit’s events say “Honoring Their Sacrifice,” which is exactly what the group does. With two to three retreats, dubbed “holidays,” per summer, they organize everything from beach barbecues and dinners to outings and entertainment for wounded warriors. Often, it is just unstructured rest and relaxation, though, which the veterans want most — so the organization’s primary task is simply to enable that by hosting them at no cost on the island. During Fourth of July weekend, the nonprofit hosted two heroes — Puertas, who is from Tampa, Fla., and Joel Dulashanti of Portland, Ore.
Scores of volunteers work tirelessly to make the holiday a perfect experience for visiting veterans like Dulashanti and Puertas. As year-round Nantucketer Donna Hamel says, “It might be a little overwhelming for some of the veterans, especially if they have disabilities.” And it can also be hard for the organizers — feeding, housing, entertaining and transporting the vets takes tremendous effort.
But that’s never been a problem.
“[Holidays for Heroes] gives people an opportunity to do something for a different cause than they might usually,” says Hamel.  And it’s exactly that involvement that has driven a lot of the group’s success. As McCann says, “We’ve been very fortunate that every single club, organization, business and individual on this special island has gotten behind the Holidays for Heroes mission.” From clothing boutiques to inns to restaurants, support has poured in. For instance, the Independence Day Firecracker 5K has existed for years, but it adopted Holidays for Heroes as a benefitting charity.
[ph]
Even with such great community support, however, the veterans’ holidays would not be possible without McCann and the Holidays for Heroes leadership. For both McCann and the organization’s executive director, Magdalena Padzik, helping our servicemen and women is more than just a way to give back, it’s personal — their individual experiences have informed a deeper love for and commitment to our veterans.
On Memorial Day 2011, McCann was on Nantucket with his family. They fished, went to the beach and rounded out the day with a barbecue. That evening, while watching the celebrations from Washington, D.C., on television with his wife, Mary-Jo, McCann saw Joe Mantegna and Gary Sinise perform a veterans’ tribute. It was at that moment McCann realized that the great day and the beautiful place — Nantucket — that he was blessed to experience should be shared with those who sacrificed for America.
Drawn by the idea of helping our veterans, McCann knew that doing so would require starting a nonprofit. To help him get Holidays for Heroes off the ground, he enlisted the help of his longtime friend Cheryl Bartlett, a fellow islander. Currently serving as the commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Bartlett leads a life of service. When McCann pitched the idea to Bartlett, she loved it, and has been his co-chair ever since.
[ph]
Padzik, another key leader, joined the group after meeting McCann at Holiday for Heroes’ first event. She and her family lived in Soviet-era Poland, and her father was part of the Solidarity Movement, a non-communist trade union that the U.S.S.R. tried to destroy through martial law. In order to stay safe, the Padziks moved to America when Magdalena was 4 years old. For more than a decade, she’s lived on Nantucket.
“Freedom is not something we had [growing up], which is really why this is so important to me,” says Padzik, whose appreciation for those who defend her liberty runs deep.
While Padzik’s days are already full — she’s a mother and works as the manager of a local bank —  she, like McCann, can’t ignore the plight of veterans.
McCann says that “once you walk into Walter Reed [Medical Center],” where Holidays for Heroes finds most of its veterans (including Jason Redman, an Iraq vet and founder of the nonprofit Wounded Wear) to invite for a weekend on Nantucket, “and meet all these amazing young men and women… it just opens your eyes forever. The cause is big and the need is huge.”
Especially in light of the recent Veterans Affairs hospital scandal, the void in assistance for America’s armed forces is something that is not lost on Holidays for Heroes. While the centerpiece of the organization’s work is its world-class Nantucket getaways, it’s also beginning to reach out to veterans across the country to help them start businesses and fund their children’s education.
While similar programs do exist (such as Landing Zone Grace Veterans Retreat), Holidays for Heroes is unique because of the people of Nantucket that embrace both the organization and the veterans that it hosts. On the island with his fiancé, Amber, and daughter, Emilia, Puertas explains that the weekend arranged for him by the organization was “a lot more than just a vacation…it [was] much deeper than that.”
[ph]
That kind of experience, though, is sadly not the norm for America’s veterans. But whether it’s the countless hours put in by McCann, Bartlett, Padzik and other volunteers, or simply someone on vacation running with and cheering on heroes and civilians alike in the 5K, Holidays for Heroes and the whole island community shows everyone a unique model of service for those who’ve served.
As Puertas says of McCann, “There’s a lot of things in life we want but can’t have, but he takes that pressure away and treats you like you’re part of his family… we could hang out together and not feel so alone.”
 
 

Military Spouses Didn’t Feel Represented by Congress. This Initiative Helps Them Find Their Voice

After managing sales at a clothing boutique and earning a master’s degree in social responsibility and sustainable communities, Katie Lopez thought her experience spoke for itself. So when she couldn’t find a job after relocating last summer to live with her husband, an Army service member stationed in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, the challenge was unexpected. “I was surprised that at interviews, one of the first questions I was asked is when I was leaving,” she says, even though she didn’t know when or where her husband would be stationed next. “There was never any follow-up after the interviews, so I was getting more and more discouraged. And I knew I wasn’t the only one experiencing it.”
She certainly wasn’t. Studies show that labor markets near big military bases are often “saturated with overqualified military spouses eager to work,” according to the Huffington Post. Military spouses face additional challenges, like the fact that they don’t qualify for unemployment insurance when they lose jobs in more than 14 states, since changes of station are seen as “voluntary” moves.
Even when she did attend events geared at hiring veterans and their family members, Lopez found that most job recruiters were targeting veterans themselves — and the positions available were often entry level, virtual jobs that didn’t fit her level of experience. “There was nothing for those of us who were college educated and on a professional track,” Lopez says. “It’s disheartening to think we spent this time and put in the work to advance ourselves and our careers only to get entry level jobs at a call center.”
MORE: Washington Needs to Be Fixed. These Innovators Aren’t Waiting for Congress to Do It.
In Gear Career is a nonprofit that helps military family members with all career-related challenges — from finding jobs and networking to education and professional training. Haley Uthlaut, a military spouse and veteran, conceived the idea in 2009 and then took it to Donna Huneycutt and Lauren Weiner, owners of a consulting firm focused on hiring veterans and their spouses. They helped her make the vision a reality. Although headquartered in Tampa, Florida, In Gear Career has more than 2,000 members in 22 chapters across the country, from Texas to Tennessee.
“The biggest issue we saw facing military spouses was the lack of a professional network — you don’t get that when you move every two or three years,” says Weiner. “We want to help military spouses stay employed, because big gaps on a resume are a red flag. And ultimately, if we get the spouses engaged, we’re going to keep our best and brightest in the military. It’s a military readiness issue at heart.”
Last October, during the government shutdown, Huneycutt and Weiner were in Washington, D.C. for a conference, watching C-Span during a break between sessions. Sitting with a member from Military Spouse JD Network, a group that helps military spouses maintain their legal careers amid relocations, Huneycutt and Weiner became increasingly frustrated listening to politicians on the screen blame their opposing party for the shutdown.
“Enough already!” one of them screamed.
“Fix it!” another one yelled.
“Forget about these politicians,” one finally said. “I’m sick of everyone telling me to call my congressman. I want to be my congressman.”
Looking back, it was a light bulb moment.
[ph]
Just one fifth of those who serve in Congress have any military experience, according to a September 2013 Pew Research Center survey.  And the voices of military spouses have even less representation. “The number of veterans in Congress is only dropping,” says Amanda Patterson Crowe, executive director of In Gear Career. “And for spouses, that’s hard because we’re living the life that Congress makes decisions on, from child care to military pay. We had to figure out how to make our voices heard too, how to get into politics.”
So after the conference, In Gear Career teamed up with Military Spouse JD Network to create Homefront Rising, a nonpartisan initiative aimed at getting military spouses more involved in the political process, from volunteering for campaigns to running for office. “Many people don’t realize that military spouses are uniquely qualified to represent us,” says Weiner. “They’ve lived in small town America and cities, rural areas and overseas. They understand a slice of America that most people who stay in one place don’t.”
Homefront Rising launched this February with an event in D.C. and recently held its second gathering this June in Tampa. The daylong events are packed with seminars and sessions from elected officials, former service members and other leaders on topics like “Building a Public Image” and “How Extraordinary People Lead.”
Homefront Rising’s two events have already inspired several members, including Katie Lopez, to volunteer with local campaigns such as state-level House and Senate races. “I’ve found that when I approach campaigns, their leadership tells me it’s exactly what they want to hear — military spouses having an opinion and getting involved,” Lopez says. Even though she couldn’t attend, learning about the D.C. event motivated military spouse Susan Reynolds to begin writing a column in her local newspaper, the Fayetteville Observer, on military families. And Angelina Bradley was so inspired by the inaugural Homefront Rising event that she successfully lobbied the D.C. Public Schools’ Chancellor’s Parent Cabinet to add an additional seat for the nearby Bolling Air Force Base, where she is currently stationed, giving military families a voice in education that they previously didn’t have.