In the old days, the running joke was, "If the military wanted you to have a spouse, they would have issued you one!"
But the end of the draft and the dawn of the all-volunteer force meant the Defense Department had to provide a more family-friendly quality of military life. Pentagon officials are still listening to see what they can do to make the lifestyle better for the nation's military families.
The latest survey of active-duty and reserve-component service members' spouses shows the spouses are, by and large, happy with the military lifestyles they lead.
Defense Department officials briefed reporters at the Pentagon on the results of the surveys, which were conducted in 2017.
The survey of active-duty spouses and a similar survey of National Guard and Reserve spouses showed similar results, they said. Among active-duty spouses, 60 percent claimed they are "satisfied" with their military way of life. Among the reserve components, 61 percent were satisfied.
While both surveys showed a slight decrease from the last previous survey, conducted in 2015, the 2015 and 2017 results both were higher than results from the same question on the 2008 survey, officials noted.
Click here for more on what Pentagon officials had to say about the latest surveys and how past surveys have led to quality-of-life improvements.