LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Virginia –
Elena Jacobs is a young Air Force wife.
At 21, she has been an Air Force spouse for all of 10 months, and nothing she learned growing up in California prepared her for the transition to military life.
On Feb 10, the Family Support Center hosted the Heart Link Program, an Air Combat Command developed program that brings together new and experienced spouses to share stories and advice, which should prepare the new spouses for all the joys and hardships that come with being married to military. The class also brings together a panel of experts to provide an overview of Air Force programs.
“It was perfect for me,” said Mrs. Jacobs. “The panel of people they brought in told me everything I need to know about on-base activities.”
It is important for spouses to know there are agencies on base that support them, according to Pamela Delgado, Family Support Center.
“They should not feel abandoned or alone, there are programs out there for them,” she said.
The warm, comforting classroom in building 15 was the perfect place for new friendships to blossom. The Heart Link participants were full of laughter and camaraderie as the Family Support staff led them through games of military trivia and briefings of local and service-wide military programs.
“More wives should take the opportunity to go through this program,” said 24-year-old Desiree Currie, an Air National Guard spouse of two-and-a-half years. “All the ‘get to know you’ activities are perfect to meet new people.”
Making friends and creating a network of support is extremely important for military spouses.
“If your only friend is your husband, you get lonely when they get deployed,” said Mrs. Currie.
The 1st Fighter Wing commander’s wife agrees. “Heart Link is a great place to network and learn what your spouses are going through,” said Lisa Field.
Mrs. Field has been an Air Force spouse for 25 of her husband’s 28 years. And before being an Air Force wife, she was an Air Force daughter.
Through the past 25 years, Mrs. Field has raised her children and helped them adjust each time the family moved, she has been a remote spouse on two separate occasions, and she’s changed jobs too many times to count.
Since her family has been assigned to Langley, Mrs. Field has attended three Heart Link programs and has plans to attend more. The experience she brings and the stories she can share to help new spouses get along is invaluable.
“If it were up to me we would hold this class twice as often and make it twice as big so we could touch more people,” she said.
Along with holding a bigger class and hosting it more often, the only other changes suggested were making the class last a little bit longer by adding a social hour afterward or letting the spouses move from table to table throughout the day so they would have the opportunity to make more friends.
After one day of Heart Link, Mrs. Jacobs has already found new friends and she is transitioning nicely into military life.
“I’ll find you on My Space (a Web site for friends),” she calls out to another young spouse as the group separates go home.
In 10 months, her best step in her military transition was Heart Link.