LINK to GUIDES / BOOKS FOR ARMY SPOUCES

A group of 1991 United States Army War College students’ wives once got together at Carlisle Barracks to share their past experiences as battalion commanders’ wives. What emerged from their ruminations -“their thoughts, ideas, experiences, headaches, joys, what worked and what did not” was a wonderful guide called Choices and Challenges- a guide to make all the diverse choices we need to make everyday ,as an extension of the olive green ,simpler and our task of meeting the challenges more manageable.

Though the scenario may be a little different from ours this guide begins with an imporatnt premise - that one of the responsibilities thrust upon us namely donning the mantle of the first lady of an unit or the better half of the commanding officer is not really a “choice” we can dilly dally with. It is a role that absolutely must be accepted and fulfilled with utmost dignity or there will be a certain vacuum in the system.

The organisation prepares us for it gradually over a period of time ( by ways of Ladies meets, welfare programmes, unit gatherings and other social dos and don'ts) and its rewards are eventually, many . Among other things it brings one in touch with oneself like never before- the weaknesses, the strengths and the leadership qualities emerge to make an individual truly confident of oneself. At the end of the day once the hurdles crossed you will find yourself a more informed , a more dynamic , a more empathetic individual... a woman of substance.

"Although addressed to the commander’s wife, it offers the wisdom from successful command tours and should be read by both the perspective commander and his wife. It clarifies many of the expectations inherent in command responsibility, many of which are not addressed in regulations. It will be a tremendous aid in building a successful command team." says the foreward of this book/guide.

Please click on the link to download the Guide CHOICES AND CHALLENGES and read it .
http://www.carlisle.army.mil/usawc/dclm/pdf/
ChoicesandChallenges.pdf


So are you ready for your Choices and Challenges ?

Here's some more
http://www.carlisle.army.mil/usawc/dclm/take/index.htm

IT TAKES A TEAM is an excellent guide for the company/troop/battery-level command team. I went through this booklet carefully and realised even though the US setting is quite different from us there are common cribbing grounds for all army spouces.For instance their coffee mornings equivalent to our ladies meets are sometimes equally difficult to organise, with few volunteers. I particularly liked the importance it gives to acknowledging individual effort at making these mornings /evenings eventful.When is the last time you received a thankyou note for participating in one of these events? When is the last time you sent one out. well there is always beginning. As future senior ladies and wiser army spouces hope we can bring about the neceessary changes and make the difference we all seek ourselves.

If you find this stuff helpful do let me know as it will be an encouragement for me to look for such invaluable reading material for all of us to learn from.