Five years ago this month the Navy Expeditionary Combat Command (NECC) stood up its Family Readiness Program to support not only our Sailors, but also the contributions of their families.

NECC's Family Readiness Director May Jacobs reflected on supporting families through their Sailors' journey while serving in the United States Navy.

"During my time here at NECC I have focused on building resiliency, enhancing communication and providing support to our warriors and their families," said Jacobs.

Over the past five years the Family Readiness Program established a variety of support initiatives such as the Reintegration Training Workshops which provided Sailors and their spouses or significant others with reintegration and resiliency training as well as tools and resources they can utilize.

"We also scheduled monthly meetings with our commands' Family Readiness Officers to discuss and train on areas of strength and resiliency within and outside of our force, review opportunities for improvement, and also share best practices," said Jacobs, who said at the end of the day we want to look for opportunities to improve family readiness.

Providing Sailors and their families with support mechanisms is something NECC's Force Master Chief Lance Kitchens believes highly in.

"Our Family Readiness Program is a great resource our families have turned to over the course of the past five years," said Kitchens. "Everything from the Quick Reference Guide, the reintegration workshops and other opportunities truly lends to making our Sailors' military lives manageable and provides valuable coping skills for their families to use."

In honor of Military Family Appreciation Month, a Presidential Proclamation was issued to mark November as a month to recognize our military families' contributions.

"During Military Family Month, we pay tribute to and thank our military families for their service to our country, and we recognize the extraordinary ways in which they give of themselves for us all," read the proclamation.

NECC is an enduring war fighting force providing sea-to-shore and inland operating environment capabilities across the full range of military operations, which is focused on delivering combat-effective expeditionary forces ready for worldwide operations now and into the future.


For more news from Navy Expeditionary Combat Command, visit www.navy.mil/.