Air Force
Lauren Klempel
Osan Air Base
I have numerous goals that I hope to accomplish as military spouse of the year. The most crucial goal for me is to inform and empower spouses and military members alike. I want them to know that anything is possible and if you set your mind to something and give it your all, that you will come out on top every time. We will all have roadblocks along the way, but they need to know they are not alone in this journey. The important thing is to always learn from mistakes, and to move forward from them. It is important to always utilize your resources, and reach out if you need anything. I hope to lead by example and show men and women both that we should be so grateful for being a part of something so amazing.
Read more about Lauren here!
Mike Peters
Hill AFB
I have many goals I wish to accomplish. From creating a community of spouses, all spouses who build and support each other, to more specifically reaching our goal of building an All Access Playground for our EFMP community at Hill AFB. As a military child and now spouse I know the importance of play, friendship, and having a place for every military child. We have approval from base leadership and a partnership with off- base community groups to build a $100,000 facility that will show our 500+ Special needs families that they matter to this community as much as any other person, spouse, or child. Hill AFB, as an example, has 12 playgrounds, none of which serve our special needs community. I am sure this pattern plays out across the DoD. I envision this goal at Hill AFB growing into a DoD wide initiative to provide recreation areas for ALL our children, where relationships and friendships can grow. I know we are stronger when no one is excluded from these basic joys of life. In our military lives and our children’s lives, these joy of play and friends for military children is life altering. However, more so than a single project, I would like to have the message resound without debate that spouses are leaders: adaptable, strong, and courageous. We all have so much potential to make a REAL difference in so many ways. We have goals to help our children, our Airmen, and ourselves. My vision, “Empowering Every Spouse” is bold; there will be hundreds of reasons why it can’t be done and plenty of doubters. However, I say to them, If not us, then who? If not now, then when? We WILL come together. From the wife of the E-1 with two months of service to the husband of the General with thirty years of experience; We are Military Spouses. Our integrity and moral courage CAN meaningfully change lives. This is who we are and this is what we DO. Thank you for reading. Now we must make the difference.
Read more about Mike here!
Kristen Christy
Peterson AFB
I heard a saying a few years ago, which resonated with me. Life is a tough teacher; we take the test first and THEN learn the lesson. We cannot necessarily be there to help others through the pop quiz, but we can help tutor through the lesson. Suicide prevention is something I have been working on as an aspect of an overarching issue of helping people overcome obstacles in their teaching/lesson moment. Let us use our resiliency and lessons learned to help others transition from PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) to PTG (Post-Traumatic Grow). My family has experience the anguish of a suicide and the lasting effects. If I could go back in time, well I’ll just say hindsight is 20/20. After 10 years, we are ready to share our story. Let our 20/20 hindsight be others 20/15 foresight.
Read more about Kristen here!
