How important are our spouses and how do they affect mission accomplishment?

All I can say is I'm glad she was beside me all these years. And that I had someone to pick me up when I was down.

As a single soldier, the only thing I can say is that many spouses cause unneccesary drama in the ranks. At my last command, single soldiers were tasked with more duties, so married ones could go home to their spouses. While I agree they need to spend time with their families, it doesn't need to be at someone else's expense. Most barrack policies do not allow opposite guest visitors, unit/family functions don't allow a soldier's bf/gf at many events, and now our dating pool is limited. E1-E4 can only date each other, E5-E9 can only date each other, and officers can only date each other (or civilians). The Army seems very motivated to keep me working more because I don't have a spouse, and keeping me from ever getting a spouse. For those with spouses that are loyal and faithful I'm sure it makes a world of difference, but coming home after a deployment and watching 50% of my unit get a divorced it seems like spouses hinder more then help. This is just my personal observation.

MSgt McDow,
I agree the importance of spousal/family support is critical to the service member. My husband does nothing but support me and I'm extremely fortunate for this. We just had a change of command which I organized and my husband was there serving cake (just one example). If you don't have family support, it can weigh on a service member immensely.
Regards,
ENS Heidi Ann Hinrichs

SMSgt (Join to see) Military spouses are the glue which holds the military families together. As CW5 (Join to see) said, unsung heroes.

SMSgt McDow,
Oh my! Very important. I went through several deployments, many TDYs, was an instructor and we still managed to keep it together. My spouse didn't come from a military family but supports it 100%. I believe spouses, men or women are a vital part on the unit's readiness and accomplishment. It doesn't matter how hard we try to keep our business out of the workplace, it will eventually show. I've known service members that didn't even make it through one deployment without getting divorce afterwards. My spouse was not too flexible when it came to move around, but she was open minded. I know she went through hell dealing with my deployments so, I try to be as open minded now as she was years ago.

Spouses are extremely important when supporting his or her spouse. A Happy family makes a happy spouse. When a family is taken care of the service member will be a more productive person in your organization and a happier person in your organization. He or she is willing to go to hell and back for his or her organization and country. When a service member does not get the support needed from his or her spouse then there more likley chances for problems at the work place. Good spouses can also encourage their other have to do better at work and push them to take on more responsibility. Also a good spouse all business affairs in order so that the service member can go to daily duty and deploy if necessary to fight our Nations Wars without worry. Spouses can lift up a member when he or she is down. Spouses can do a wide variety of things that help us all. Spouses are one of the most important people we have in our lives. Respect them and honor them in every way we can. They give up a lot for us all. Cherish them.

Essential.

If troop has crummy home life, work will suffer.
If troop is constantly worrying about sloppy homelife, work will suffer
If troop stops caring about homelife, spouse will kick to curb and work will suffer

I would say Essential.

My spouse is an integral part of my career. Being mil to mil aside, the choices I make have a solid foundation in my home life. Battles need to be chosen more carefully for the sake of my family and what is best for them. Having that support can be very empowering as well. It motivates you to succeed and seek out that success with fervor.

Had it not been for my wife Jess I would have been in trouble a lot. She helped me to keep a cool head in a crappy command therefore keeping my NCO rank, lol. It's a red head thing, hot temper. To my credit though, I typically was mad about command decisions that negatively affected my Marines.

Having neighbors down the street, both ring knockers from West Point, this question could be how important is the non-deployed spouse. Having grown up as a brat with my father gone for extended periods of time, my mother kept good order and discipline intact. I certainly think that having a family could be a double edge sword with one side limiting the amount of risk an individual is willing to take on vs having an environment well suited for raising children. Personally I feel I would be a much better soldier without a wife or kids as there is no one left hanging if I get it wrong. As I also had a friend who was SF and KIA his wife is the one left with 2 kids to raise. The stress and crap that a military spouses has to deal with and yet still wakes up everyday to do it all again I think takes a very special individual. Not the life for just anyone. My mother was a rock star in my opinion.