Military families like Tracy Crawford’s are becoming more and more common, though the challenges they face remain. That’s being acknowledged by many people in our nation’s capitol, including First Lady Michelle Obama. In fact, it was the subject of her speech to the U.S. Military Academy’s Class of 2011 just a few days ago: FIRST LADY MICHELLE OBAMA: I want to talk about what family can and will mean for you as leaders of our Army and of our nation … Because our force is a force of families. And that’s become more clear even in just a generation. During Vietnam, most of our troops were young, single men, and most of those were married had spouses who stayed at home. But today more than half of our service members are married. Forty percent have two or more kids, and most military spouses are employed outside of the home. That’s what today’s military families look like. Obama’s Westpoint graduation speech follows last month’s announcement of the "Joining Forces" initiative, which calls on all Americans "to mobilize, take action and make a real commitment to supporting our military families.” That initiative is being spearheaded by the First Lady as well as the Vice President’s wife, Jill Biden. But help is also coming from the Department of Defense. To learn more about what the military is doing to support its families, KALW’s Holly Kernan called the DOD’s Office of Family Policy/Children & Youth and spoke with Director Barbara Thompson.

Military families like Tracy Crawford’s are becoming more and more common, though the challenges they face remain. That’s being acknowledged by many people in our nation’s capitol, including First Lady Michelle Obama. In fact, it was the subject of her speech to the U.S. Military Academy’s Class of 2011 just a few days ago: FIRST LADY MICHELLE OBAMA: I want to talk about what family can and will mean for you as leaders of our Army and of our nation … Because our force is a force of families. And that’s become more clear even in just a generation. During Vietnam, most of our troops were young, single men, and most of those were married had spouses who stayed at home. But today more than half of our service members are married. Forty percent have two or more kids, and most military spouses are employed outside of the home. That’s what today’s military families look like. Obama’s Westpoint graduation speech follows last month’s announcement of the "Joining Forces" initiative, which calls on all Americans "to mobilize, take action and make a real commitment to supporting our military families.” That initiative is being spearheaded by the First Lady as well as the Vice President’s wife, Jill Biden. But help is also coming from the Department of Defense. To learn more about what the military is doing to support its families, KALW’s Holly Kernan called the DOD’s Office of Family Policy/Children & Youth and spoke with Director Barbara Thompson.