Key Spouse program critical to Barksdale mission

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Kristin High
  • 2nd Bomb Wing Public Affairs
BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. --  Col. Kristin Goodwin, 2nd Bomb Wing commander, hosted Barksdale's first Key Spouse summit March 18 and 19 here.
Goodwin opened the summit with a story about a key spouse who noticed a situation-in-need and ended up helping another spouse whose husband was deployed.
"The purpose of the Key Spouse Summit was to disseminate information," said Goodwin. "We want people to know how they can fill this critical role in the mission of our wing and how we can utilize our key spouses and spouse force to help our Airmen enable the mission."
Throughout the summit, Col. Leland Bohannon, 2nd BW vice commander, and Chief Master Sgt. Tommy Mazzone, 2nd BW command chief, spoke about what a key spouse is and the importance of the program.
The Key Spouse Program is an official unit/family program overseen by commanders designed to enhance readiness and establish a sense of unity within the Air Force community.
"The program is mandatory and commanders are responsible for selecting, appointing and replacing key spouses," said Bohannon.
The program, standardized and implemented across the Air Force in 2009, addresses the needs of all military family members with special emphasis on support to families across the deployment cycle.
"Our goal is to build and sustain a community and to do that, we need everybody's help," Mazzone said. "We need families to embrace the priorities Airmen have at work, and we need Airmen to embrace priorities they have at home."
The program recognizes how everyone on the unit's team: the commander, key spouse mentor, first sergeant, key spouse and the Airmen & Family Readiness Center -- impacts the unit's culture and contributes to its ability to accomplish the mission at home or abroad.
Some of the situations that can affect military families include family separations, frequent moves, job stress, financial challenges, family issues and child care. 
Each unit's key spouse role in assisting with these situations is to be the link between families and unit leadership by providing peer-to-peer support.
"Key spouses work directly with unit first sergeants to assist families," Mazzone said. "They should be visible, and although they are not in the chain of command, key spouses are in the chain of concern."
Key spouses undergo regular training to stay informed of program and service changes and each unit has their own variation of the program and what they do to assist the families within the unit.
For example, the 2nd Security Forces Squadron offers a parents' night out, families of deployed members events, baby bundles, meal trains, deployed care packages and other outings.
"We organize and host these programs so we can bring families together so when crisis come up, families know who their key spouses are," said Robin Watts, 2nd SFS Key Spouse mentor. "If we are not socially involved, people won't see us and won't know what we do."
To become a key spouse, spouses must attend seven hours of mandatory training offered once every quarter through the A&FRC. The training in Heartlink, Suicide Awareness Training and Key Spouse Orientation assists with various situations that a key spouse may come across.
For more information about the Key Spouse Program, contact the Airman & Family Readiness Center at 456-8400.