As an active member of the Air Force, Army and Mine Warfare Caucuses, I meet with enlisted personnel and officers on a regular basis to learn more about their needs, both on the job and with their families.
I was a military spouse, and I lived on military pay. It is very difficult to do that. But we do that with honor and with gratitude for the chance to serve this country.
I'm honored to donate my time as an ambassador for Blue Star Families, the largest nonprofit organization serving active duty service members and their families through chapters in the U.S.
I'm as interested in the families and communities that surround our soldiers.
Reach out to the military-connected youth in your classrooms, your neighborhoods and your families and offer your gratitude for the service they undoubtedly provide in supporting, uplifting and encouraging the men and women of the United States armed forces.
Except for naval and air exercises, our military should be stationed on American soil, where service men and women can lead normal lives in close proximity to family and friends.
Working with our military community has been the biggest honor of my life.
I'm in regular contact with people who are still in the military-friends, family, people I served with, men and women I taught at West Point-and I look at every military issue through that lens. What they say or think weighs heavily on my mind.
Military spouses serve, too, and it's critical we work together to ensure our country's military spouses have the jobs they need and deserve.
I've spent most of my life like most Americans - without any immediate connection to active duty military.
When our veterans walk into any VA facility, they converse with men and women who speak the unique language of military service.
I built Blackwater to stay connected to the SEAL teams and to serve that whole community.
I may not have served myself, but I grew up witnessing service, and it was perhaps my most foundational experience. For a little background, I'm what's called a brat in military circles.
Boys used to call me Soda in school days. Soda means 'serving officers daughters association.' I miss those days when I had a very protected life: one could get close and bond with other army people that they gradually would become your extended family.
I'm proud to be able to represent Bellevue and the Offutt and StratCom communities.
I did not know that if a member of a family serves, the whole family serves. I did not know that the spouses of our service members carry such a heavy load.
When I married into the military a few years ago, I was failing at navigating the realities of deployment alone. When I turned to the military family community, their tried and true coping skills changed my life.
Today was a good day for Hill Air Force Base and Utah.
One of the things that ties people together, whether they live in a rural or urban area, is the really big number of people who have served in the military. Veterans issues are very important in the district.
And I think right now I'm just enjoying finding something such as One Weekend a Month where I can really resonate with this woman's history and her situation.
I think it's a common misconception in the civilian community that the military community is filled with just drills and discipline and pain. They forget that these are humans who are in an abnormal situation.
My husband was an Air Force pilot man years ago and recently an Air Force wife thanked me for my service! I laughed and said, 'No, I wasn't in the Air Force, my husband was!' And she smiled and said, 'If he served, you served. And thank you.'
The military community in particular, I think, could always be more supported, especially people who are being processed out of the military and trying to readjust to being civilians.
I think I'm probably more typical of the average American who doesn't have a connection to a military community.
Mississippi is a welcoming duty station for servicemembers and their working spouses.
