Robert L. Gordon III, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Military Community and Family Policy)
Robert L. Gordon III, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Military Community and Family Policy)
In households across the country, families are preparing for the Thanksgiving holiday when they will celebrate in the company of friends and loved ones and give thanks for the many blessings in our lives.
At tables across our nation, Americans will share their gratefulness for the service of our men and women in uniform and their families for the many sacrifices made to keep our Nation safe. Our military families offer strength and encouragement to our service members while managing the household, caring for children, and putting the country and the military’s mission in front of their own desires. For all that our military families do, we are so very grateful.
Within MC&FP, we recognize that the most important way to say thank you to our military families, like yours, is to make sure we provide the best support programs and services possible. With budgets tightening all across the country during these tough economic times, we realize that we must do better differently.
As such, we are using innovative, creative ways to partner with businesses, government agencies, communities, and academia to improve our ability to provide our military families the quality support services they deserve. In fact, many of programs today rely heavily on our ability to partner with quality organizations.
For example, the Military Spouse Employment Partnership (MSEP) has expanded to ninety-six member employers, and we are currently vetting many other companies who want to hire military spouses into meaningful, flexible, long-term employment opportunities. The Hiring Our Heroes Program, a partnership with the United States Chamber of Commerce, is working to connect military veterans and spouses with career opportunities in the private sector.
With sixty-six job fairs completed and more scheduled over the next several months, there is strong momentum within all employer sectors to participate in veteran and spouse employment programs, and we are determined to improve upon the solid foundation of partners currently in place.
As you sit down to your Thanksgiving Day Dinner on Thursday, I ask that you join the millions of Americans who will be taking time to thank military families, like yours, for their incredible, selfless contributions made every day on behalf of our great country. If you want to share your holiday spirit, share a thank you of your own or just share your thoughts with us, I welcome you to join our discussion.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
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