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Military Spouse Appreciation Day is the perfect time to say thank you to the extraordinary military spouses in your life. Celebrate their accomplishments on Friday, May 7, 2021, and throughout May!

National Military Spouse Appreciation Day is held each year on the Friday before Mother's Day. It's a time to pause and reflect on the dynamic and outstanding contributions of mil spouses everywhere. Celebrations highlighting why military spouses are integral to our military community are planned at installations worldwide. May is also known as Military Spouse Appreciation Month and is the perfect time to highlight and celebrate the often-overlooked sacrifices that military spouses make each day.

Being part of the military community can be difficult for everyone involved – from the Service member to the kids to the spouses. Ask a mil spouse, and they'll tell you that it takes a lot of grit, determination, and patience to navigate a military career. Military spouses marry their partners for love and end up getting a whole lot that they might not have bargained for – like constant moves, deployments, and endless TDYs.

So What's It Like Being a Military Spouse, Anyway?

Here at LMH, we're very fortunate to have many military spouses on our teams. We asked what it's like to be a military spouse, and this is what they had to say.

"Being a military spouse means feeling a great sense of honor. Always having deep gratitude for all the sacrifices my spouse has made not only to keep our daily safe but our great nation as well." Michelle Raleigh, Navy spouse 

"Being a military spouse means finding moving tapes in random places on your furniture and footprints everywhere you go." Shaylene Warmbourg, USMC spouse

"Being a military spouse means... to be prepared at all times for change. As well as holding your family close and communicating openly to your children even when it is tough." Kimberly Trammell, Army spouse

Many Responsibilities

No one has ever said being a mil spouse is easy. So much is asked of military spouses as they hold down the home front, try to have careers, raise families, and find new communities. Being a military spouse is difficult because mil spouses often serve the role of dual parents while a service member is deployed. Service members miss out on plenty of life's most significant moments when duty calls, so it's up to mil spouses to be the glue that keeps families together.

Unlike civilian spouses, military spouses have to be okay with someone else calling the shots and dictating the following duty station location. Letting the DoD make these big decisions means that mil spouses are consistently asked to trust in the process, to believe that each move will help their Service member's spouse advance in their career. And just when things start to calm down, mil spouses are asked to do it all again. That means that in the span of a 20-year career, mil spouses can expect to move about ten times.

Many Rewards

Being a military spouse definitely comes with its own set of rewards, too! Military spouses have the distinct honor of standing by our nation's heroes. Service members have committed their lives to serve our country, and being a mil spouse means being able to be right there with them, sharing in this incredible journey.

Being a military spouse means instant access to a vibrant community that's committed to helping one another. Mil spouses know what it's like to be the new face at the school pick-up, at the unit event, at a fundraiser, and work hard to build lasting relationships with other military spouses. That's because no one will ever understand this wild military life quite like a mil spouse.

Last year saw the world shift in just about every arena, including how mil spouses interact with one another. A whole new network of connections is being formed from groups migrating online to new ways to think about old mil spouse employment challenges.

Showing Appreciation to Service Members and Military Spouses

Military Spouse Appreciation Day was created in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan to recognize military spouses and their sacrifices. America celebrated the first Military Spouse Appreciation Day on May 23, 1984. The day was formally made part of National Military Appreciation Month in 1999. Since 1999, May has been designated as Military Appreciation Month. It's a chance for our country to pause and reflect on all that the military community does for our nation. Each year, the President announces to remind Americans of the important role our military has played in our country's history and the safeguarding of its freedoms.