European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 24, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Paged the stars and stripes april 1985 military embraces families a partnership exists Between the army and army towards the goal of building a Strong the army remains committed to assuring adequate support to families in order to promote Well Ness to develop a sense of Community and to strengthen the mutually reinforcing Bonds Between the army and its John Wickham army chief of 1983 with this John Wickham launched a revolution in the army thinking about no longer would it be True that if the army wanted you to have a it would have issued you from now families would be partners with the army vital to its Mission crucial to retention and the army was the last service to proclaim this new Phi the air Force and Navy already had shifted Long the unwanted Camp at last were officially recognized and were breaking new ground in the said Dennis chief of the air Force family matters of with two out of three air Force members the environment has the makeup of the service has we need to be responsive to its a moral said Milton tank of the army Community and family policy Divi soldiers have a right to enjoy the life of the society they Are pledged to officials have adopted these attitudes in part because military members and spouses and now often a better but family pressure alone didst turn the officials have carefully calculated that by helping families they Are helping we know very clearly if soldiers feel comfortable with their that has assistance they feel More comfortable about working Long said army Robert Deputy chief of staff for per we find every time weve provided some resources and Effort they pay off in increased readiness of the were of the View if we want a Guy to do his and he comes Home from a Long Day and is hassled by his family he wont do his Tewell were trying to create the right environment where families grow stronger As Hus bands and wives and parents and weve seen that come Back to us in better retention and performance readiness and retention were the they unlocked unprecedented interest in military families we rent completely ignored family serv ices and benefits have been introduced gradually during the last 20 such As the creation of army Community services in and chaplains Long have provided counsel parenting classes and other but since about simmering interest in families has reached a officials have held conferences to poll military families on what they want and they ordered family research they issued launched pro family Advertis ing campaigns and opened family matters offices in the in one of the most highly visible efforts to win Over the air Force named 1981 and the army named 1984 As year of the As part of its year of the the army published a family action it lists the 65 biggest problems fac ing families and set timetables for finding an updated with 36 new was published in Jan the air Force has a similar plan that grew out of its worldwide family conferences in 1980 and the services also have started family advocacy pro Grams to combat child and spouse they have stepped up construction of family upgraded childcare Cen hired More family practice Given spouses More added Many family oriented and All services now have classes for cos and officers to instruct them on the importance of caring for yet Many military families Haven Felt one Small Breeze from this whirlwind of for wives like Linda Good who lives near nothing has they treat us like second class said whose husband is an army staff they dont care the wife and the All they care about is the Man getting to his theres a lot of unnecessary there is no he is my Goodiell said of her i try to plan Good by the time he gets Home they Are dried i try to plan but once we wanted to take they called him in and made him work the first two Days of his Many air Force couples Are equally one of the comments from the base we came from if they wanted you to have a wife they would have issued you said air Force Randy Wilson shortly after he arrived at Pitburg a from Tydell a in although impressed with Pitburg so his Pat was angry about How she had been treated her Litany of complaints included her husbands temporary inability to get messages to him at and staff attitude at medical the forget she there is no such thing As work in an air Force women who Monitor Progress on family programs Arent surprised by such the they have promised More than they have these women commend the services for launching ambitious they also fault them for fixing Small problems and leaving costly changes on the drawing under things have gotten better financially for the but families Haven directly said Gayle who was president of the National military family association until last the Money is going into although the military Standard of living has improved in the last 10 there is still a lot that needs to be where we need improvement is in the High big ticket when these things come up against a new tank or they typically give fewer Points to family Bolinger they have done the easy now comes the hard said Carolyn director of the women and the military project for the women equity action High ranking officials of All services Are trying hard to improve conditions for she Becraft they Are having trouble convincing other from the Pentagon to the Field to accept the new philos if they Are going to be they must sell it to the senior she Wickham is behind Maxwell Thurman army vice chief of staff i behind Elton is behind your major commanders Are there Are some that Are really stuck in the Stone Shauna chief of the army family Liaison agreed that its not easy to change the age old attitudes about it really is hard to legislate 1 dont know anyone who can order Whitworth not All our commanders Are equally the dinosaurs Are still Therese have to Deal with official evaluations of military Progress on family mat ters reach similar particularly about financing family a draft of a 1984 inspector general report on the army family action plan map in Usa eur spotted Many including Lack of Money and manpower to implement new programs and services Dollar and manpower resources available to support