New name, same devotion: Phoenix Spouses support Airmen

  • Published
  • By Tyler Hemstreet
  • Staff writer
MCCHORD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. --  It didn't take much to sell Jennifer Pearcy on becoming an advocate for McChord's spouses. After a close friend moved away, she realized that she wanted to be a part of a support network for McChord's Airmen.

When she heard about the base's key spouse program and its purpose, she said she jumped at the chance to be a part of the team.

As a key spouse, Mrs. Pearcy plays an integral role in making sure Airmen and their families assigned to the 22nd Special Tactics Squadron have a support network in place.

The work that spouses like Mrs. Pearcy accomplish is integral to helping commands around the Air Force accomplish their missions, said Gen. Duncan McNabb, commander of Air Mobility Command.

In an effort to give key spouses the tools they need to fulfill this purpose, AMC decided to restructure the training for its key spouse program.

Thus AMC's Phoenix Spouse program was born. The new program was created by taking the key spouse lesson plans from 13 bases and coming up with one program for all AMC bases, said community readiness consultant Russ Moreira, 62nd Mission Support Squadron.

Airman and Family Readiness Centers across the command present the eight-hour standardized core training.

The training focuses on educating spouses on the resources they have available to them, building peer-to-peer relationships, providing support during deployments and strategies for dealing with stress. There is also training devoted to suicide awareness.

"It's more organized, and it's put a lot more structure and training into the program," said community readiness consultant Laila Christensen, 62nd MSS.

Mrs. Pearcy said the new training did a more thorough job of laying out the tools and resources spouses here have available.

There are currently 85 spouses on base trained as Phoenix Spouses, Mr. Moreira said.
Base officials would like to see that number rise even more.

"The goal of AMC is to have one Phoenix Spouse per 100 Airmen," Ms. Christensen said. 

The next Phoenix Spouse core- training session is from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 11 at the A&FRC.