For the past decade, the unemployment rate for military spouses has hovered around 22%, making them one of the highest unemployed demographics in the nation, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
Not only does unemployment impact family income, but also it can greatly impact retirement savings because many military spouses may not be able to take advantage of workplace retirement programs.
In a latest survey of more than 4,000 military spouses, 88% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that military lifestyle impacts their ability to find jobs at their experience and/or education level while 90% agreed or strongly agreed that their spouses’ military service has negatively affected their own careers. More than half of the respondents (58%) said they were rarely or never able to fully vest in employer-sponsored retirement benefits.
Most military spouses are women (92%) and the majority have some college education including 30% with a four-year degree and 15% with an advanced degree.
They have challenges finding suitable jobs after a permanent change of station (PCS) and, even if they find a job, they may not be able to find childcare.
Many women who never intend to be stay-at-home moms find themselves in exactly that position.
In 2011, Lisa Bradley and Cameron Cruse were looking for jobs in North Georgia where their husbands were Ranger school instructors. Bradley had an MBA. Cruse had a degree in architecture from Savannah College of Art and Design and was caring for her infant. The relocation to Georgia marked Bradley’s fifth move due to her husband’s duty station.
“We quickly realized we weren’t going to get jobs. We were overeducated and over experienced,” Bradley said when we met recently. “It was a surprise to me that I wasn’t going to be able to have a career.”
The two women put their heads together and landed on a business idea that would combine Cruse’s design skills and Bradley’s business savvy to help other military spouses overcome employment challenges.
In Cruse’s attic in Dahlonega, they sketched out plans for R. Riveter, an American-made handbag company that employs a workforce of almost 50 military spouses working remotely.
“It was important to me to be a mom and have a career,” said Bradley, now a mom of two. “I have always had a passion for helping women.”
The early days were hectic. They each charged $2,100 on their credit cards to buy an industrial sewing machine that they struggled to hoist into the attic. With no money left for raw materials, they nabbed a pup tent from Bradley’s husband and cut it up to make their first prototype.
They soon attended their first market in Marietta, and in 2014 launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise money and hire more employees. A retail store followed in 2015. An appearance on “Shark Tank” a year later took their business to the next phase.
“After ‘Shark Tank,’ we sold more in one night than we had in an entire year,” Bradley said.
Initially, their business model had required riveters to haul 50-pound rolls of fabric into their homes to cut, but they soon realized that wasn’t sustainable. Today, operations are centralized in Wauchula, Florida, where materials are assembled into kits that are then shipped across the country to their workforce of military spouses who craft the components and send it back to R. Riveter for final assembly.
The bags, from the $98 Naomi leather zipper clutch to the bestselling Otto canvas and leather handbag priced at $248, take about four months to complete and are named after phenomenal women in history and have two tags — a yellow “ribbon” and a dog tag — symbols of support for military troops.
Pricing reflects the higher cost of a mostly American-made product (some materials that can’t be found in the U.S. are sourced internationally) and the cost of shipping to and from the homes of workers, said Bradley.
Bradley and Cruse were determined to show their business model was sustainable, knowing their mission would resonate with customers.
“It’s not only the bag they love,” Bradley said. “They love the mission of providing income to someone who is a special American.”
Bradley said they have a waiting list of 2,000 military spouses hoping to join the company as riveters, which indicates the strong desire to work among military spouses.
In 2021, first lady Jill Biden declared the underemployment and unemployment of military spouses a matter of national security and applauded the more than 500 companies that have partnered with the Military Spouse Employment Partnership to support military spouses.
R. Riveter stands out as a company not only dedicated to the mission of employing military spouses but one that also provides the public an opportunity to support that mission.
They don’t hire military spouses to make handbags, say Bradley and Cruse, they make handbags to hire military spouses.
Read more on the Real Life blog (www.ajc.com/opinion/real-life-blog/) and find Nedra on Facebook (www.facebook.com/AJCRealLifeColumn) and Twitter (@nrhoneajc) or email her at nedra.rhone@ajc.com.
"Texas Military Department says it needs $460 million more to keep border mission afloat this year" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
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The Texas Military Department’s chief told Senate budget writers Thursday it will cost $459.3 million to keep thousands of active-duty troops on Gov. Greg Abbott’s highly touted border security mission through the end of August, while also acknowledging that the agency is reducing the number of troops on the mission.
Maj. Gen. Thomas Suelzer, who leads the agency, revealed the latest funding gap in the current fiscal year while also asking the Senate Finance Committee, which writes the state budget, for $1.8 billion to keep the Texas National Guard on the border mission for the next two-year budget cycle, which starts in September.
The mission, dubbed Operation Lone Star, is the biggest deployment of Texas National Guard members to the border in size and duration. It began in March 2021, and Abbott once boasted of having 10,000 troops deployed.
The mission has proven costly. In September 2021, the Texas Legislature approved nearly $2 billion to ramp up the border operation intended to curb the number of migrants crossing from Mexico. But the Texas Military Department quickly burned through its share of the funding after Abbott increased the number of troops on the mission. As a result, the governor has repeatedly had to transfer money from other agencies to float the mission through the end of the current budget cycle. Abbott has said those agencies would be reimbursed in the next biennium.
Last year, top state officials, at the behest of Abbott, transferred more than $1.3 billion to the military department to keep its border operations going. On Thursday, Suelzer revealed Abbott’s office had given the agency another $287.3 million to keep its border operations going from January to March.
Suelzer, who leads the agency, told the Senate Finance Committee that the newly requested $459.3 million is expected to come through Abbott’s office again.
At the current troop level, the mission is costing the military department between $92 million and $101 million per month since January, Suelzer said. He added that the department wouldn’t need any more general revenue from budget writers until the new fiscal year starts.
Suelzer also told lawmakers that current the current number of troops on the mission is 4,576 — down from September, when military department officials said they had more than 5,000 service members still deployed.
With technology upgrades, such as the use of drones for surveillance, the number of deployed troops is expected to continue dropping, as is the price for the mission, Suelzer said.
Those troops currently include 600 service members and 100 trucks in El Paso, which saw a major increase in migrants attempting to cross the border in December.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2023/02/09/texas-military-department-operation-lone-star-money/.
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© Copyright 2023 The Texas Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Members of the United States Agency for International Development’s Disaster Assistance Response Team arrive at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, on Thursday Feb. 8, 2023. (David McLoney/U.S. Air Force)
The U.S. military has begun deploying forces to assist with earthquake relief in Turkey, officials said Friday, with a Navy headquarters overseeing the mission and a Marine Corps general on the ground to assess the scope of support that's needed.
Brig. Gen. Andrew Priddy, the commander of a naval task force in Europe, arrived Thursday at Incirlik Air Base, a U.S. installation about 120 miles west of the earthquake's epicenter. He was joined by a team from U.S. European Command headquarters in Germany. Any aid provided by American troops will be coordinated through USAID, the government's humanitarian-assistance organization, at the request of the Turkey, officials said.
Gen. Christopher Cavoli, who leads European Command, said in a statement that U.S. forces already are helping with search-and-rescue efforts, and providing medical assistance and other aid. He called the earthquake an "incalculable disaster."
The military's expanding disaster-response mission, first reported by The Washington Post, was announced as the death toll climbed past 23,000 from Monday's 7.8-magnitude earthquake and its series of aftershocks. Scores of buildings in southern Turkey and northern Syria were leveled, leaving thousands more injured and homeless. Frigid winter weather has compounded the suffering.
The United Nations has dispatched aid teams to the region as well, but those efforts have been hampered by infrastructure damage and the ongoing conflict in Syria that has fractured the country.
It was not clear how the U.S. military also might assist in Syria, where the United States maintains a limited counterterrorism mission in the northeast. In a statement Wednesday, the top U.S. officer overseeing American military activity there, Gen. Michael "Erik" Kurilla, said his headquarters had established a team to "surge support" to people affected in both countries.
While Turkey and Syria border each other, European Command oversees U.S. military missions in Turkey and Central Command leads missions in Syria. Turkey, a NATO ally, has a much closer relationship with Washington, though it has been strained at times.
A spokesman for Kurilla, Col. Joe Buccino, said Friday that Central Command "is leaning as far forward as possible" in preparation to support people in Turkey or norther Syria. The general and his staff are in touch with European Command, USAID, and the Syrian Democratic Forces, the group in northern Syria that the United States has partnered with in the campaign against the Islamic State.
The Defense Department has not specified which American military units might be called upon to assist on the ground. One U.S. military official, speaking Friday on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations, said there "has not been a huge ask for personnel" yet.
Rescue teams search through the rubble in Kahramanmaras, Turkey, on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023. (Alice Martins for The Washington Post)
One option often deployed for humanitarian crises, a Marine Corps expeditionary unit, or MEU, is unavailable because senior commanders at the Pentagon left a gap between their typical rotations through the region, two other U.S. officials said. Those units deploy with about 2,200 Marines on board three Navy ships, but none has been in Europe for months as the U.S. military faces a shortage of vessels deemed ready to go, officials said.
"If there was a MEU there, it would be responding," one official said. "They're not there, and that's a problem."
A U.S. military spokesman, Lt. Cmdr. Daniel Day, said Friday that the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush and its associated escort ships arrived in the eastern Mediterranean Sea within hours of being directed there on Tuesday, and is ready to provide logistics, medical and helicopter support.
Army helicopters also have begun flying missions out of Incirlik, including delivering first responders to locations most affected by the earthquake and shuttling injured civilians to medical care. Additional U.S. aircraft located in Europe are being sent to Incirlik to boost capacity, Day said.
U.S. Air Force personnel based at Incirlik are supporting Turkish military forces as they unload thousands of pounds of food and other aid flowing in from allies and partners, Day said. Air Force jets are flying in supplies and aid workers from the United States, including urban search-and-rescue teams.
© Provided by KVEO Brownsville Texas Military Department needs $460M more to keep border mission afloat
AUSTIN, Texas (Texas Tribune) — The Texas Military Department's chief told Senate budget writers Thursday it will cost $459.3 million to keep thousands of active-duty troops on Gov. Greg Abbott's highly touted border security mission through the end of August, while also acknowledging that the agency is reducing the number of troops on the mission.
Maj. Gen. Thomas Suelzer, who leads the agency, revealed the latest funding gap in the current fiscal year while also asking the Senate Finance Committee, which writes the state budget, for $1.8 billion to keep the Texas National Guard on the border mission for the next two-year budget cycle, which starts in September.
The mission, dubbed Operation Lone Star, is the biggest deployment of Texas National Guard members to the border in size and duration. It began in March 2021, and Abbott once boasted of having 10,000 troops deployed.
The mission has proven costly. In September 2021, the Texas Legislature approved nearly $2 billion to ramp up the border operation intended to curb the number of migrants crossing from Mexico. But the Texas Military Department quickly burned through its share of the funding after Abbott increased the number of troops on the mission. As a result, the governor has repeatedly had to transfer money from other agencies to float the mission through the end of the current budget cycle. Abbott has said those agencies would be reimbursed in the next biennium.
Last year, top state officials, at the behest of Abbott, transferred more than $1.3 billion to the military department to keep its border operations going. On Thursday, Suelzer revealed Abbott's office had given the agency another $287.3 million to keep its border operations going from January to March.
Suelzer, who leads the agency, told the Senate Finance Committee that the newly requested $459.3 million is expected to come through Abbott's office again.
At the current troop level, the mission is costing the military department between $92 million and $101 million per month since January, Suelzer said. He added that the department wouldn't need any more general revenue from budget writers until the new fiscal year starts.
Suelzer also told lawmakers that current the current number of troops on the mission is 4,576 - down from September, when military department officials said they had more than 5,000 service members still deployed.
With technology upgrades, such as the use of drones for surveillance, the number of deployed troops is expected to continue dropping, as is the price for the mission, Suelzer said.
Those troops currently include 600 service members and 100 trucks in El Paso, which saw a major increase in migrants attempting to cross the border in December.
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KVEO-TV.
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The Texas Military Department’s chief told Senate budget writers Thursday it will cost $459.3 million to keep thousands of active-duty troops on Gov. Greg Abbott’s highly touted border security mission through the end of August, while also acknowledging that the agency is reducing the number of troops on the mission.
Maj. Gen. Thomas Suelzer, who leads the agency, revealed the latest funding gap in the current fiscal year while also asking the Senate Finance Committee, which writes the state budget, for $1.8 billion to keep the Texas National Guard on the border mission for the next two-year budget cycle, which starts in September.
The mission, dubbed Operation Lone Star, is the biggest deployment of Texas National Guard members to the border in size and duration. It began in March 2021, and Abbott once boasted of having 10,000 troops deployed.
The mission has proven costly. In September 2021, the Texas Legislature approved nearly $2 billion to ramp up the border operation intended to curb the number of migrants crossing from Mexico. But the Texas Military Department quickly burned through its share of the funding after Abbott increased the number of troops on the mission. As a result, the governor has repeatedly had to transfer money from other agencies to float the mission through the end of the current budget cycle. Abbott has said those agencies would be reimbursed in the next biennium.
Last year, top state officials, at the behest of Abbott, transferred more than $1.3 billion to the military department to keep its border operations going. On Thursday, Suelzer revealed Abbott’s office had given the agency another $287.3 million to keep its border operations going from January to March.
Suelzer, who leads the agency, told the Senate Finance Committee that the newly requested $459.3 million is expected to come through Abbott’s office again.
At the current troop level, the mission is costing the military department between $92 million and $101 million per month since January, Suelzer said. He added that the department wouldn’t need any more general revenue from budget writers until the new fiscal year starts.
Suelzer also told lawmakers that current the current number of troops on the mission is 4,576 — down from September, when military department officials said they had more than 5,000 service members still deployed.
With technology upgrades, such as the use of drones for surveillance, the number of deployed troops is expected to continue dropping, as is the price for the mission, Suelzer said.
Those troops currently include 600 service members and 100 trucks in El Paso, which saw a major increase in migrants attempting to cross the border in December.
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